Base’s creator coin experiment meets resistance after Nick Shirley launch

Base’s push into creator coins is facing mounting criticism from traders and builders after Nick Shirley’s token on Zora spiked to about a $9 million valuation and then promptly slumped.

Coinbase and its Ethereum layer-2 Base are drawing pushback from traders and builders who argue that its creator token experiment failed to turn a viral social media moment into sustained onchain activity.

The backlash came after YouTuber Nick Shirley launched a token on creator platform Zora. Shirley’s token briefly rode his online fame to about a $9 million fully diluted value before sliding to $3 million. Most of the volume came from existing traders rather than new users.

In a widely shared critique, trader and content creator notthreadguy argued that if Shirley couldn’t make the model work, nobody could. 

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