On April 23, Zora, the on-chain social media platform backed by Coinbase, will launch its ZORA token, following a week of viral promotions fueled by the Base network team. The platform, which gained significant attention after a push from Base creator Jesse Pollack, outlined two key snapshots for its token drop. The first snapshot covers blockchain activity from January 1, 2020, to March 3, 2025, while the second spans from March 3 to April 20, 2025.
These snapshots, which record the state of the blockchain at a specific time, are designed to reward users based on their engagement during those periods. Zora rose to prominence after Pollack highlighted its ability to create “content coins,” tokens representing underlying pictures or phrases in a tradable form. This generated hype and brought new users to the platform, with over 230,000 new wallets interacting with Zora on Sunday alone.
One token, named “Base is for everyone,” gained massive attention after being promoted by Base’s official X account. Its market cap soared from a few thousand dollars to over $17 million in just hours. Blockchain investigators later discovered that three wallets had purchased the tokens before the official announcement, profiting by $666,000. Despite the hype, Coinbase clarified that “Base is for everyone” was not the official cryptocurrency of Base and that the layer-2 network had no direct involvement in selling the tokens.
The announcement of the ZORA token has sparked controversy, with some X users accusing Coinbase and its affiliates of insider trading and poor communication. Critics voiced frustrations, with one user sarcastically commenting that the promotion was just a “shill” to hype up the airdrop, while others predicted substantial profits for insiders.
Pollack has since denied that the promotional efforts were part of a marketing campaign.
