Base's Favoritism Strategy Dilemma: Ecosystem Imbalance Under Creator Coin Hype

Base has become a focal point in the crypto space over the past year, but behind this attention lies an increasingly acute ecological issue. When platform market resources and official recognition are overly concentrated on a specific direction, projects involved in early development begin to feel sidelined. Recent community backlash indicates that Base is facing a classic “favoritism” dilemma: while supporting star projects, it unintentionally harms the ecosystem’s diversity and the enthusiasm of builders.

Zora Boom Boosts On-Chain Activity, but Costs Emerge

Base’s close partnership with NFT marketplace Zora was once a shining story. Through the innovative Creator Coins model, Base achieved impressive data in August 2025: daily token minting volume surpassed Solana for the first time. During this period, Base handled over 10 million transactions daily, with vibrant on-chain activity.

However, this growth concentration is becoming problematic. Projects related to Zora received大量官方转发、提及和市场支持，而其他拥有成熟社区基础和长期业绩的Base原生项目，却越来越难以获得平台的官方认可。这种资源倾斜虽然在短期内推高了数据指标，但逐渐演变成了一种“非此即彼”的生态现象。

Builders’ Disappointment: From Expectation to Frustration

Community dissatisfaction first arose among teams that had invested in Base early on. Jacek, responsible for the degen token ecosystem on Base, openly expressed this frustration on social platform X. He pointed out that even gaining attention from the official Base account has become a luxury, let alone expecting retweets or mentions from the platform.

Jacek’s core complaint points to a deeper issue: when an ecosystem overemphasizes a particular narrative, other projects effectively disappear from the official discourse. He wrote, “If you’re not part of the favored mainstream narrative, you essentially don’t exist. In this situation, why bother building on Base?”

This is not an isolated voice. Multiple projects within the Base ecosystem share similar sentiments. When official resources are concentrated on Zora and related protocols, other projects that initially brought liquidity and users to Base’s growth are sidelined.

Solana’s Contrasting Effect: Competition Chain Seizes Opportunity

Ironically, the same degen projects, once bridged to Solana, immediately received public support from Solana’s official accounts and Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz. This creates a stark contrast: Solana’s ecosystem’s inclusiveness and resource distribution strategy seem more builder-friendly.

This case highlights a critical opportunity window for competing chains: as Base favors certain projects and neglects others, competitors like Solana and Sui are watching quietly. Once builder sentiment in the Base community reaches a critical point, shifting projects to other chains will become increasingly attractive.

Ecological Risks Behind Data Prosperity

From a purely data perspective, Base still performs strongly. On-Chain data on Basescan shows it handles a massive transaction volume, and user activity remains high. But data growth cannot mask declining sentiment.

Builder morale often signals risks faster than data declines. When core participants start questioning whether to continue investing resources into a platform, the fundamental drivers of the ecosystem—innovation and enthusiasm for building—begin to wane. This is a warning sign that Base must heed.

The Real Choice Facing Base

The core dilemma of Base reflects a common issue in rapid growth: how to create successful cases while maintaining ecosystem inclusiveness and builder diversity. Excessive resource skewing may generate impressive short-term growth, but in the long run, it encourages more competitive project teams to shift elsewhere.

If Base continues down its current favoritism path, on-chain activity may stay high in the short term, but participant enthusiasm will gradually cool. Meanwhile, competing chains are waiting for such opportunities—when the Base ecosystem experiences centrifugal forces due to unfair resource distribution, Solana or other competitors will be ready to welcome those builders who turn away.

Base needs to reassess its ecosystem strategy, considering how to support innovative projects while leaving room for other promising projects to survive and thrive. This is not only about ecosystem diversity but also about whether Base can evolve from a star chain into a truly sustainable infrastructure with long-term vitality.