Zora big pump 50%: Content revolution or exchange boost?

Author: BUBBLE

Original title: Zora reaches new highs, is it genuinely valuable or a result of Coinbase's efforts?

$ZORA surged nearly 10 times over 20 consecutive days, reaching a historical high on August 12, with a 24-hour increase approaching 50%, and a circulating market value nearing 480 million USD. This may be due to the listing of perpetual contracts on Binance, or perhaps a combination of user momentum and trading volume rising after the integration of the Base App. The strong upward trend and Coinbase's proactive efforts were even jokingly referred to by community members as having officially "incorporated" it as an official token.

However, regardless of how the driving factors are dissected, this round of price increase, coupled with the previous debate between the founders of Base and Solana on this issue, has once again brought the focus on "content/creator coins" to the forefront. What exactly has it done? What opportunities can we find within its ecosystem?

Is the rise of Zora driven by "content" or institutional push?

Zora's new paradigm is that each creator has 1 Creator Coin (total supply of 1 billion, with 50% vesting linearly to creators over five years); at the same time, each post is also a "Content Coin," whose pool is paired with both Creator Coins and $ZORA. To reduce the three-step exchange friction from "USDC to Content Coin," Zora has introduced solutions like 0x aggregation on the routing side to enhance the efficiency of liquidity access from fiat entry to content assets. Creators take a 1% fee from each transaction, establishing direct incentives for continued creation.

The benefit of this model is that, compared to launch platforms like Pumpfun that need to "meticulously plan" a scheme and then create some wealth effect tokens to attract "attention" again, Zora takes a different approach. Their strategy is to "first boost the quantity"; issuing tokens on Zora seems to carry less "burden". They issue tokens simultaneously with content, and since each time they "issue content/tokens" it pairs with the creator's tokens, the "value of the content" gradually increases under the overall account. This has allowed the number of tokens issued on Zora to reach over 2 million in a short time, while the trading pairs with Zora have caused Zora's adoption rate to increase explosively.

From the chart, it can be seen that the adoption of Zora shows a "positive correlation" with its price increase, source: Messari

Pumpfun has currently issued approximately 12 million tokens, with around 20,000 to 30,000 new tokens added daily. In contrast, Zora has issued 2 million tokens, with new token additions ranging from about 35,000 to 55,000. Pumpfun's daily active users (DAU) remain above 100,000, while Zora currently has only about 35,000 creators (with a DAU of 10,000 to 20,000). This results in a tenfold difference in the ratio of tokens produced per individual user between the two platforms. Although this is not comprehensive, it implies that, merely in terms of token quantity, Zora generates an internet effect that is ten times greater than that of Pumpfun for each additional user.

In the past month, with the release of the new Base App, it has gradually integrated Zora, Farcaster, and Noice. Zora is responsible for "turning content into tradable assets" (Creator Coin / Post Coin), while Noice handles "social distribution and tipping" (USDC/multi-currency tips, direct payments within the timeline). Together, they form a closed loop of "creation - distribution - monetization" within the same user interface of Base.

After integrating Zora into the Base App, creators can mint, trade, and receive payments without needing to navigate away; Noice announced on July 27 that it has integrated Zora, providing a lightweight monetization mechanism of "one like one reward." The combined effect compresses the originally scattered links of "posting / wallet / DEX / reward tools" into a single entry point, improving conversion rates and retention.

On one hand, there is the increase in dissemination channels, and on the other hand, the improvement of the creator system. Additionally, Zora and Base officials are actively recruiting external artists and content creators to join the platform. SamandColby's Chief Operating Officer Kong Pham revealed that some Web2 content creators with a large fan base are about to flock to Zora and Farcaster. A series of actions have greatly increased Zora's MindShare on social media (1456%), and in this era where "attention" equates to "opportunity," Zora seems to have found a way to grow beyond just "pump and dump," which is to make money at zero cost (as seen in the overwhelming tweets on X streaming where Base system creators earn by posting).

In addition, Zora's influence distribution channels are also very numerous. Currently, several platforms have integrated Zora's content token dashboards or indicators, including the indicators launched by indexy (the top 20 influence tokens/creators on Zora), Zoracle, Matcha, Zora Terminal, and tokens dashboards launched by TBD. Loudio's founder, Slayed, has also claimed to establish an index fund for Zora, thereby creating a DAO to increase dissemination channels for co-creators.

What tokens are there in the ecosystem?

zxbt

This is the "Autonomous AI Artist" project created by former Wall Street high-frequency traders and AI Builder dev0xx, which generates an original piece of art every day and automatically mints the corresponding content coin and NFT, without any human intervention. The key lies in the creative process and ideas that accompany the final work distributed daily. Recently, an interesting update came when Messari researcher Jake "@immutablejacob" tweeted suggestions for the artistic style direction of the next work, sharing a painting in the style of Van Gogh. The AI creator dex0xx stated, "ZXBT was initially quite stubborn, but as the community requested more diversity, it has been evolving. In this article, @zxbt_agent directly tagged a user in the description, sharing with us who influenced his art. In my opinion, the influence on the style of each piece should be allocated based on the influencer's impact."

This means that each token/work issued can be disseminated through the "recommendations or promotions" of more influential people, with the researcher from Messrai being one example. And zxbt itself can drive its artistic works through more influential aesthetics, and the entire process of transformation can be seen on the official website and platform.

zxbt reached a market cap of 18 million USD, with a current market cap of 13.8 million USD, a trading volume of 290,000 USD in the last 24 hours, and 1,400 holders.

FakeTaxi

The established adult content brand FakeTaxi, founded by Jonathan Todd and Lew Thomas in 2013, launched its first Creator Coin $FakeTaxi. The official announcement states that they plan to migrate exclusive content to the Zora platform, replacing traditional social media channels. By burning a certain amount of tokens while holding specific Zora NFTs, users can receive benefits such as actor voice greetings, customized selfies, exclusive backstage videos, and even signed physical items. $FakeTaxi aims to create a continuous consumption scenario through tokens, forming a natural deflationary drive and building a new interactive experiment that deeply integrates adult entertainment with the Web3 fan economy.

Theoretically, this is not the first time the two fields have "collaborated", but some community members believe that the successful business logic of Onlyfans can serve as a cautionary tale for content platforms like Zora. This logic of collaboration seems to also serve as a "template" for other related projects or creators entering Zora.

Faketaxi has a maximum market value of 12.5 million USD, a current market value of 7.36 million USD, a trading volume of 148,300 USD in the last 24 hours, and 1,184 holders.

Visualize Value

Visualize Value is a content and education platform operated by Jack Butcher, the founder of the well-known art NFT projects Opepen and Checks VV. Essentially, it serves as a platform for the expansion of his artistic thinking, teaching people how to communicate ideas using graphic language through minimalist yet insightful text and images. It is used to elucidate abstract concepts such as mental models, philosophical ideas, and efficiency tools.

Visualize Value reached a maximum market cap of 16 million USD, current market cap is 5.03 million USD, trading volume in the last 24 hours is 30,000 USD, and the number of holders is 2,073.

11AM

It is a live show driven by Seed Club, hosted by @thattallguy and @joshcrnls. The name "11AM" refers to the show starting promptly at 11 a.m. ET, Monday to Friday. The program emphasizes "Early to narratives. Earlier to founders. Front-run the future," meaning they enjoy getting in touch with new creators and concepts before trends form. The show often invites industry experts, founders, and developers to discuss the latest developments in Web3 and the creator economy, covering topics such as the Web3 creator economy, memecoins, creator coins, decentralized social networks, and on-chain communities.

At 11 AM, the highest market cap reached 2.2 million USD, with the current market cap at 1.83 million USD. However, the on-chain liquidity is low, with only 317 holders.

Zora's recent surge, whether driven by capital or products, reflects the same trend behind it: content is becoming the core entry point for on-chain liquidity. From Zora's initiation to creator tokens and the tokens created by creators, the interconnected "layered structure," combined with the integrated circulation credentials of creation, distribution, and monetization, has altered Zora's valuation and narrative in the market.

From the algorithmic aesthetics of zxbt, to the adult entertainment experiment of FakeTaxi, and then to the social content extension of Visualize Value and 11AM, these projects are not only a microcosm of the Zora ecosystem but also a possible future blueprint for the Web3 content economy. The next thing to be amplified may not be the market of a single token, but rather the comprehensive explosion of the entire creator economy on the chain.