Farcaster Frenzy Sparks Base Memecoin Mania

Surging activity on Farcaster, a ‘sufficiently decentralized’ social media protocol, has spawned a new wave of memecoins on Base, the Ethereum Layer 2 network built by Coinbase.

DEGEN, a token launched in early January with an airdrop for active Farcaster users, is down 20% today after rallying more than 1000% in the past week.

A second airdrop is underway with a campaign to incentivize engagement on the platform. Users get a daily ‘tip allowance’ to reward their posts of choice, with the recipients being able to claim tokens.

The flurry of activity comes after Farcaster launched Frames last week, enabling users to embed mini-apps in their posts (called casts on the platform). Community members have been quick to embrace the new feature, launching NFT mints, token airdrops, games and more.

Other notable tokens include FRAME, which peaked at $10M on Jan. 4, and GUAC, which can be claimed daily by Farcaster users.

Meanwhile, most major memecoins have had a rough week, with Solana-based BONK and WIF down 14% and 33%, respectively, in the past seven days. PEPE on Ethereum dropped 12%.

One exception is Pepe Fork (PORK), which has surged to a $250M market capitalization since launching on Jan. 30.