Following weeks of Solana memecoin mayhem, the conversation on crypto Twitter turned to Base over the past week.
In the wake of Ethereum’s March 13 Dencun upgrade, transaction fees on Layer-2 blockchains like Coinbase’s Base have never been lower. At a time when the Solana ecosystem has been growing its market share as the go-to chain for memecoin trading largely due to its low fees, the development is starting to put wind in the sails of Ethereum L2 ecosystems looking to compete.
Buoyed by the chatter about Base memecoins and a popular open edition mint by crypto artists XCOPY and NeonGlitch86 that drove $2.3 million in sales, Base hit a new all-time high in weekly new users this week. While the reports of a large-scale rotation into Base appear to be a bit overstated, there’s no denying that the L2 is currently gaining momentum, with many of its leading memecoins reaching all-time highs in price and volume this week.
Although some observers feel that the memes on Base need to level up their game, it’s an emerging network that may offer opportunities to those who embrace it early. Just as we did with Solana memecoins in December, we’ve put together a list of several trending tokens ranked by market cap to help you get acquainted with the ecosystem.
In order to get started trading memes on Base, you’ll need to bridge some ETH over to the L2 using the Base Bridge. Once your ETH has been bridged to Base, you can then use it via a wallet like MetaMask by changing the network to Base. You can use sites like Uniswap and Sushi to swap ETH for Base memecoins by copying and pasting the memecoin’s contract address. Popular sites for tracking Base memecoins include DexScreener, DexTools, and Photon. While bridging ETH to Base is relatively quick, be advised that withdrawing it back to the Ethereum network can take up to 7 days.
As always, our coverage of memecoins is not financial advice, as investing in memecoins is an incredibly risky proposition due to a lack of fundamentals, unvetted contracts, and the likelihood of rug pulls.
$BRETT
The largest Base memecoin by market cap, $BRETT boasts a $284.7 million fully diluted value at the time of publication. Based on the character Brett, who is best friends with Pepe in Matt Furie’s book “Boy’s Club,” the token first launched on Feb. 27 and has experienced a meteoric rise since. While some have raised concerns about the coin’s distribution, $BRETT still looks to be the frontrunner for the first unicorn coin on the chain.
$TOSHI
Naming memecoins after the pets of founders is a time-honored tradition (see $MYRO on Solana), so it’s no surprise that Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong‘s cat is getting the royal treatment. Named after Bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto, Toshi has been immortalized as a $134.5 million market cap memecoin on Base. However, $TOSHI aims to be more than just a memecoin with a forthcoming toolbox announced that includes a multisender, token launcher and locker, liquidity locker, and more.
$DEGEN
Unlike most memecoins, $DEGEN actually has some semblance of utility. The popular token has essentially become the community currency of the decentralized social media protocol Farcaster. Users who have added the top hat emoji to their Warpcast user name are given a daily allotment of $DEGEN that they can tip to other users. Yes, that may sound silly, but it’s actually become an important part of the quickly growing ecosystem. Sitting at a $108.9 million market cap at the time of publication, this is one that could continue to rise as Farcaster’s influence grows.
$NORMIE
Featuring some of the freshest memes and highest-production-value content on the Base blockchain, $NORMIE has experienced a considerable rise since its launch on March 6. Billed as “the people’s coin,” the $86.7 million market cap coin embraces the mission of onboarding the masses to crypto and enjoys the support of a number of influential crypto Twitter traders, including 0xPajke and larpalt. A memecoin lives or dies based on the quality of its memes, and the $NORMIE team’s content game is undeniably strong.
$DOGINME
Every chain deserves a few successful dog coins, and Base is no exception to the rule. $DOGINME has become the leading canine contender on Base, buoyed by co-signs from influential crypto Twitter accounts like Ansem. Highly memeable with its blue and musclebound bulldog mascot, $DOGINME currently sits at a $50 million market cap. As the old memecoin adage goes, “Never bet against dogs and frogs.”
$TYBG
Another memecoin inspired by Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong, $TYBG stands for “Thank You Base God.” Having launched on Jan. 29, the meme is a bit of an OG by Base standards and currently boasts a $45.7 million market cap. Its followers have dubbed themselves the “Disciples of B” and adhere to a series of four Based Commandments, including “thou shalt be onchain” and “thou shalt not complain.”
$MOCHI
Since Brian Armstrong owns multiple cats, we, of course, get multiple memecoins. $MOCHI may sit in the shadow of fellow feline $TOSHI to some degree, but it’s no slouch at a $43.3 million market cap with an associated NFT called Mochimons and a gaming project. Did we mention it actually received a Coinbase grant as well? Not bad for one of the cutest memes around.
$BRIUN
Following in the tradition of poorly drawn and misspelled memes like Jeo Boden and Doland Tremp on Solana, $BRIUN offers a humorous take on Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong. Considering how Armstrong is the focal point of many Base memes, this $18.9 million market cap memecoin could continue to test new highs if Base’s user base extends its upward trajectory.
$BLOO
$BLOO is steeped in the nerdiest kind of Coinbase lore. The memecoin tells the tale of a homeless soul who was rescued by Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong and Base lead Jesse Pollak and now lives in a foster home with fellow memes $BRETT, $TOSHI, and $DOGINME. It’s endearing enough that even Pollak has shown support for the memecoin on socials, and with a current market cap of only $12.5 million, there’s room for it to run as the Base platform continues to grow.
Editor’s note: At the time of publication, members of the nft now staff held less than $2,500 in $DEGEN, $NORMIE, $DOGINME, $BRIUN, and $BLOO.
The post Base Memecoins Are Gaining Steam — Here Are 9 Trending Right Now appeared first on nft now.