Original article by @BlazingKevin_, the Researcher at Movemaker

The Base App is no longer just a traditional on-chain wallet; it has been reimagined as a comprehensive digital ecosystem platform integrating asset management, content creation, social interaction, and trading capabilities. Since its rebranding from Coinbase Wallet in mid-July 2025, the Base App has accelerated its strategic transformation into a Web 3 "super app" or "all-in-one application," seamlessly integrating social, payment, trading, and decentralized applications into a unified platform.

This transformation is a key step for Coinbase in driving mass user adoption into the Web 3 ecosystem. Base reached a record high of 3.5 million daily active users in July 2025, driven primarily by incentive programs like Onchain Summer and the rapid adoption of dApps within the ecosystem. As the core entry point to the Base ecosystem, user activity within the Base App is closely correlated with the surge in on-chain data.

The Base App's extensive updates to its user experience and ecosystem development are also remarkable. At the "BaseCamp 2025" conference, the team publicly announced for the first time that they are exploring the issuance of a native token for the Base network, potentially a key component in incentivizing creators and developers within the ecosystem.

At the same time, the Base team announced an open-source cross-chain bridge project connecting Base and Solana to facilitate cross-chain transfers of assets and liquidity, further expanding the asset interoperability of Base App users, and transforming Base App from "a wallet" into a multi-functional platform.

The renamed Base App has made substantial progress in integrating rich on-chain functions: mini apps are directly embedded in users' dynamic streams, allowing them to experience the Remix gaming platform, Noice content rewards, and Decentralized Pictures, a new model for co-creating movies, without switching tools; users can buy and sell millions of crypto assets, use NFC contactless payment to achieve free USDC transfers in seconds, and even unlock an annualized reward program of up to 4.1% just by holding USDC, maximizing capital utilization.

At the same time, the Base App deeply integrates social experiences with financial activities. Based on Farcaster, users can view friends' on-chain transaction updates directly in the information flow and complete token swaps on the same interface, realizing a new interactive mode of "social is finance". Users can freely set up their own social profiles, create and manage communities, and achieve efficient collaboration through built-in group chat and content sharing functions. All operations are completed within the app without jumping, significantly improving the efficiency of community interaction. The platform's embedded AI Agent directly integrates financial operations such as transactions, remittances, and portfolio optimization into the chat experience, allowing users to make financial decisions instantly during conversations. The USDC transfer function in the chat interface further lowers the payment threshold, with free transfers within seconds, making digital currency payments as natural as sending messages.

Base App's actions in the payment field cannot be ignored. Its "Base Pay" system has been integrated with e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, simplifying the crypto payment process. At the same time, the introduction of "Base Account" as a universal identity credential reduces the complexity of users switching between different dApps, paving the way for a smoother ecological experience. The developer tool "Base Build" provides strong support for building and promoting mini apps, enriching the application ecosystem within the App and further consolidating Base App's position as an ecological hub. Since the beta version was released in July, more than $500,000 in creator earnings have been paid through the Base App, and more than 50% of posting users have received income, indicating that its built-in social and content monetization functions have begun to play a substantial role and the creator economy has initially shown vitality.

This strategic upgrade from wallet to comprehensive platform is clearly a significant attempt by Coinbase to emulate the successful model of super apps like WeChat. By simplifying complex blockchain interactions (such as transactions, payments, and identity management) and integrating them with familiar social features, the Base App aims to significantly lower the barrier to entry for average users into the Web 3 world. Judging by the current activity on the Base chain and the performance of the Creator Economy, this strategic direction has already demonstrated potential. Looking ahead, whether the Base App, through its continuously improving ecosystem, cadence of new feature releases, and potential issuance of a native token, can truly become a super app leading the next wave of Web 3 users will be a focus of intense industry attention.

After understanding the Base App's strategic transformation and functional layout, truly grasping its future potential requires more than simply focusing on the product itself. More crucial is to understand the capital distribution and growth momentum of the entire Base ecosystem. After all, the vitality of a public chain depends not only on the usability of its entry point applications but also on which projects within its ecosystem are attracting capital, users, and developers.

While the Base blockchain's surge in user activity over the past few months is certainly eye-catching, the core factors that determine the Base network's competitiveness are the sectors and protocols to which this traffic ultimately flows. Whether it's DeFi protocols, social dApps, gaming applications, or infrastructure tools, their market capitalization, liquidity, and innovation direction directly impact Base App's ability to retain users as a "super app" and support the underlying value of its native token.

Therefore, we will now take a look at 20 noteworthy projects within the Base ecosystem. By analyzing their market positioning and capital performance, we can assess the true depth of the Base ecosystem and further reveal the sources of its future growth. This not only provides a supplementary perspective on the Base App's transformation achievements but also serves as an important reference for evaluating the future strategic direction of the entire Base network.

Aerodrome Finance

• Market capitalization : $1.07 billion
• Track : DEX, DeFi and lending
• Is it native : Native
• CEX listings : Bitget, Bybit, Coinbase, Gate, and Upbit
• Brief evaluation:

Aerodrome plays the role of a liquidity hub in the Base ecosystem. Core trading pairs include WETH/USDC, WETH/cbBTC, and USDC/cbBTC, providing deep and efficient market matching for major assets on Base.

Aerodrome can be seen as the epitome of decentralized exchanges. It cleverly draws on the token economics models of Curve and Convex for token management and community governance, while also employing centralized liquidity market makers similar to Uniswap V3 to improve capital efficiency. Simply put, it incentivizes users to provide liquidity while minimizing slippage for traders, cleverly aligning the interests of all parties.

Aerodrome is currently the undisputed leader in the Base ecosystem. Its relationship with both Base and Coinbase is incredibly strong. Coinbase Ventures not only invested in Aerodrome but also actively participates in its community governance, personally voting to guide liquidity, clearly aiming to establish it as the "official" exchange and liquidity hub for the Base chain. With the continued growth of the Base ecosystem, and the potential for direct integration of the Coinbase main app into the Base DEX, Aerodrome, as the preferred choice, has virtually guaranteed a steady stream of institutional liquidity and users. Data shows that its value locked (TVL) and protocol revenue have consistently topped the charts on the Base chain, creating a powerful positive flywheel effect. It's foreseeable that as Base grows, Aerodrome will be one of the biggest beneficiaries.

• Financing :

In February 2024, it received strategic investment from the Base Ecosystem Fund led by Coinbase Ventures. The specific investment amount was not disclosed publicly.

• Team Introduction :

Launched by the Velodrome team, whose core members include co-founders Alexander Cutler and Tao Watts. The core team members have extensive experience in the field of decentralized finance.

Virtuals Protocol

• Market capitalization : $840 million
• Track : AI, Launchpad
• Is it native : Native
• CEX listings : Binance, Bybit, MEXC, Upbit
• Brief evaluation:

Virtuals Protocol is a phenomenal IPO platform on the Base Chain, and its gameplay directly addresses user pain points. First, the fundraising market cap for all new projects is set extremely low, allowing early participants to acquire chips at bargain prices, leaving enormous room for growth. Second, unlike many other IPO platforms that release all tokens immediately upon launch, it instead unlocks tokens linearly, similar to institutional rounds, and pours all raised funds into a liquidity pool, preventing project owners from simply dumping the stock and running away. If a project fails to raise funds, all funds are fully refunded to users. Furthermore, the platform screens projects carefully, making participation risk relatively low.

From its launch, Virtuals became the absolute core of the Base ecosystem's new IPO market thanks to its innovative mechanisms. However, the same can be said for both its success and failure. The early get-rich-quick scheme attracted a flood of quick money, leading to a widespread sell-off of new projects, often characterized by a "launch crash." While the official "Green Lock" mechanism, introduced to stabilize the ecosystem, curbed sell-offs, it also prolonged the profit cycle, leading to widespread community outcry. Many speculators, believing that holding on to the project for a long time would lead to losses, expressed dissatisfaction with the project's operations.

However, if we put aside the speculative noise, Virtuals' fundamentals are actually quite solid. Its greatest achievement, and indeed its core value, is the successful incubation of several well-known AI agent projects, which have been integrated into the Base app. This is a very impressive and tangible achievement in the entire AI+Crypto space. While some of the team's actions linking coin prices to specific behaviors are questionable, overall, the team is on the right track. Virtuals' future value does not depend on the sentiment of short-term speculators, but rather on whether these "AI fruits" it has incubated can ultimately mature and generate real cash flow. Therefore, for long-term investors, the current price volatility and negative community sentiment may be a test of patience.

• Financing :

(Pre-Seed): $1,200,000 USD, backed by a 16 z Crypto Startup School (CSS).

(Seed): US$2,000,000, led by a 16 z CSS, Delphi Ventures, and PKO Investments, with participation from Animoca Brands, GCR, and others.

• Team Introduction : The team is composed of AI and gaming industry veterans from companies such as Google, Unity and Microsoft.

MORPHO

• Market capitalization: $700 million
• Track: DeFi, Lending
• Is it native: Multi-chain
• CEX listings: Bitget, Bybit, Coinbase, Gate, MEXC, OKX
• Brief evaluation:

Morpho's initial approach was ingenious. Rather than directly competing with lending giants like Aave and Compound, it instead acted as an "optimizer," grafting on top of them. Through its peer-to-peer matching mechanism, it offered users better deposit and loan rates than those offered by the giants, while also leveraging these established protocols as a backup funding pool, ensuring user confidence. Once established, Morpho underwent a remarkable transformation, evolving from an application product into a minimal, trustless lending infrastructure. Now, anyone can freely create risk-isolated, customized, independent lending markets on Morpho, like building Lego blocks.

Morpho's development path is textbook-level. It first "stood on the shoulders of giants" to rapidly accumulate users and reputation, then secured investment from a16z, quickly growing into a leading lending platform. Then, it decisively transitioned to underlying infrastructure, unlocking even greater potential. Its June 2024 launch on the Base chain represents a powerful alliance, quickly establishing it as a pivotal DeFi protocol within the Base ecosystem. Notably, it launched the first officially Coinbase-certified RWA vault on Base. This unique positioning has given it virtually no direct competition within the Base ecosystem and further strengthened its relationship with Coinbase, demonstrating its enormous potential for future growth.

• Financing:

Morpho has completed several rounds of financing since 2021:

October 2021: Raised $18 million in seed funding from investors including a16z, Variant Fund, Coinbase Ventures, and others.

Mid-2022: Raised $18 million in funding led by a16z and Variant Fund, with participation from Nascent, Semantic Ventures, Cherry Ventures, and others.

August 2024: Raised $50 million in funding led by Ribbit Capital, with other investors including a 16 z crypto, Coinbase Ventures, Variant, Brevan Howard, Pantera, Blocktower, etc.

• Team Introduction:

Headquartered in Paris, France, it was co-founded by Paul Frambot (CEO), Merlin Egalite and Mathis Gontier Delaunay in 2021. According to public information (Seedtable, Dealroom), the team size is between 11 and 50 people.

Keeta

• Market capitalization: $450 million
• Track: L 1, RWA
• Is it native: Multi-chain
• CEX listing: Kraken
• Brief evaluation:

Keeta is a high-performance public chain built specifically for the RWA sector. Its core selling points are twofold: first, extreme compliance , with built-in KYC/AML and digital identity authentication features, deeply catering to the needs of traditional financial institutions; second, ultra-high performance . It claims to achieve tens of millions of transactions per second and sub-second transaction confirmations, aiming to address the efficiency bottlenecks of large-scale RWA tokenization. Its team is also impressive: its CEO is a former venture capital firm employee, and its CTO is a highly experienced former core developer of the established public chain Nano.

Keeta was born with a silver spoon in its mouth. Its most dazzling aura came from former Google CEO Eric Schmidt . Schmidt not only led its seed round but also personally supported it as an advisor. Even a simple Twitter following of the company caused a surge in the token's price, demonstrating its market influence. This endorsement from a top figure ensured Keeta's immediate attention.

However, the challenges are equally formidable. First, its claimed TPS of tens of millions remains purely theoretical, and the market is waiting to see whether it can deliver on its promise on the live mainnet. Second, even the hype can only attract speculators. Keeta ultimately needs to earn the trust and adoption of financial institutions, willing to invest real money in RWAs on-chain. This will require a long time to verify its security and reliability. The project also faces concerns regarding information transparency and community building, which urgently require improvement. While Keeta's initial launch is impressive, its biggest challenge lies in translating this anticipation into real commercial success.

• Financing:

Seed round (June 2023): $17,000,000, led by Steel Perlot, the venture capital firm of former Google CEO Eric Schmidt.

• Team Introduction:

Founder and CEO is Ty Schenk. Team members include Roy Keene, Tanveer Wahid, and Ezra Ripps. Team sizes range from 11 to 50 employees.

Avantis

• Market capitalization: $340 million
• Track: DEX, DeFi, RWA
• Is it native: Native
• CEX listings: Bitget, Bybit, Coinbase, Gate, MEXC, Upbit, Binance
• Brief evaluation:

Avantis is a decentralized derivatives (perpetual contracts) exchange on the Base chain, allowing users to trade a variety of assets, including cryptocurrencies, forex, gold, crude oil, and more, with up to 500x leverage. Its core gameplay is a "universal leverage layer," which reduces transaction costs through mechanisms such as "zero-fee contracts" and "loss rebates." For liquidity providers (LPs), it has designed a unique risk stratification model: users can choose to place their funds in the Junior Tranche, which offers higher risk and returns, or the Senior Tranche, which offers more stable risk and returns, offering flexible options for users with different risk preferences.

Since its mainnet launch, Avantis has experienced rapid growth, with impressive cumulative transaction volume, user base, and protocol fees. In a short period of time, it has become the largest derivatives protocol in the Base ecosystem. Its success is inseparable from its all-star team and backers. The CEO is a former investor at Pantera Capital, and many team members have backgrounds at top institutions such as McKinsey and Barclays. Its financing has been even more impressive, with backers including Pantera and Founders Fund, led by legendary Silicon Valley investor Peter Thiel . This is a rare and prestigious endorsement among DeFi projects.

Of course, the project has its share of bottlenecks. For example, due to the speed of the Base chain itself, there are occasional order delays or failures, and the mobile experience needs to be optimized. However, the team has a clear plan for this. They are currently developing Avantis v 2 and a dedicated EVM-compatible chain, aiming to achieve a more efficient, gas-free trading experience in the future. They also plan to expand trading categories to include stocks, sports, and other areas, which is quite ambitious.

• Financing:

Avantis has raised $12 million in two funding rounds:

2024: Seed round of $4 million

June 2025: $8 million Series A funding round led by Pantera Capital and Founders Fund

• Team Introduction:

Avantis' core team includes:

Harsehaj Singh: Co-founder and CEO

Brank: Co-founder

Kaito

• Market capitalization: US$289,417,444.76
• Track: AI, InfoFi
• Is it native: Native
• CEX listings: Binance, Bitget, MEXC, OKX
• Brief evaluation:

Kaito is conducting a grand experiment, attempting to reshape the value distribution of content and attention using Web 3 approaches. Its core philosophy is to address the pain points of current Web 2 platforms: inefficiency (information silos) and unfairness (creators and users unable to share in the platform's value). To this end, it has created an AI-powered "Proof-of-Attention" mechanism that quantifies intangible "attention" into earnable points (Yaps). The entire ecosystem revolves around this mechanism: content creators (Yappers) earn Yaps by publishing high-quality, highly interactive content, while projects gain real market attention through the platform. Ultimately, through products like leaderboards and Launchpad, creators, users, and projects are deeply bound together into a community of shared interests.

Kaito is undoubtedly the current leader in the InfoFi space, and its product matrix has already formed a preliminary moat. However, its model presents a paradox: while attempting to quantify and reward attention, it may be accelerating the consumption and stifling of real attention.

Kaito's incentive mechanism, designed like a high-reward casino game, is highly addictive, leading many creators to fall into a cycle of frequent, repetitive, and homogenous posting for rankings and rewards. This no longer represents true value sharing, but rather a "game of attention." This phenomenon has caused fatigue among creators and boredom among ordinary readers.

From a business perspective, Kaito's revenue model is still in its infancy, with extremely high customer acquisition costs (it has distributed over $100 million, far exceeding its funding), and heavy reliance on data from Web 2 platforms like X, which presents the risk of supply disruption. Kaito is a paradox: a company with a grand vision, an unproven business model, and core mechanisms with self-destructive tendencies. It's at the peak of its "monetizable attention" narrative, but it's also showing clear signs of fatigue. The real challenge lies in iterating on a healthier mechanism that rewards deep value rather than superficial performance before the market runs out of patience.

• Financing:

KAITO raised a total of US$10.8 million through two rounds of financing in 2023, with major investors including Sequoia Capital, Dragonfly, Spartan Group, etc.

• Team Introduction:

Founders/core team members include Yu Hu (Founder/CEO), Sandra Leow (Research Partner), Wen Moon (Head of Ecosystem and Special Projects), Tianqi Wang (BD), Jiwoo Jun (BD), etc. The team size ranges from 11 to 50 people.

ZORA

• Market capitalization: US$218,064,790.00
• Track: Launchpad, Social
• Is it native: Native
• CEX listings: Bitget, Bybit, Coinbase, Gate, MEXC
• Brief evaluation:

Zora has evolved into the flagship launchpad of the Base ecosystem, with its core gameplay being "post, tokenize." Through deep integration with the all-new Base app, any creator can easily issue tokens for themselves or any individual post. Its token mechanism is designed as a three-tiered pyramid: a vast array of "post tokens" at the bottom, "creator tokens" above, and the mother coin, ZORA, at the top. Post tokens trade against creator tokens, which in turn trade against ZORA. This allows the trading activity of lower-tier tokens to be transmitted through the layers, ultimately stimulating demand for the top-tier mother coin, ZORA.

Zora's success is largely due to its support from the fully upgraded Base app . As a super app built by Coinbase, the Base app serves as the most direct distribution channel for the Base ecosystem, and Zora, deeply embedded within it, is undoubtedly one of the biggest beneficiaries. This powerful channel advantage has led to a surge in the number of token creations on Zora, so much so that some influencers have even considered it the "quasi-official token of the Base network."

However, Zora's model also has significant shortcomings. First, transaction fees are extremely high , with a "tax" of up to 3% per transaction, or 6% for a single buy or sell. This has discouraged many meme coin traders, resulting in the concentration of actual meme trading volume on the Base chain on platforms like Virtuals and Clanker. Second, despite the impressive number of tokens created, the vast majority are "cheap post tokens" lacking long-term value and readily replaceable. Truly valuable content is scarce. Therefore, despite Zora's impressive user base, transaction volumes are generally low. For its flywheel effect to continue, it must establish a number of truly valuable and influential top creators and sub-tokens to support its market capitalization.

• Financing:

Seed round (2020): $2,000,000

Series A (2021): $8,000,000

Venture Round (2022): US$50,000,000, led by Haun Ventures, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Kindred Ventures, and others.

• Team Introduction:

ZORA was co-founded by three early Coinbase employees: Jacob Horne, Slava Kim, and Tyson Battistella. According to public LinkedIn data, ZORA's team size is approximately between 50 and 100 employees.

SoSoValue

• Market capitalization: US$181,601,545.00
• Track: DeFi, Data Analysis
• Is it native: Multi-chain
• CEX listings: Bybit, Gate, MEXC
• Brief evaluation:

SoSoValue is an AI-driven cryptocurrency investment and research platform whose core mission is to bridge the information gap between institutional and retail investors. The platform uses AI technology to process massive amounts of on-chain and off-chain data, filtering out market noise. Then, through multi-indicator charts, on-chain tracking, and even customized Telegram bots, it transforms complex information into investment insights that even ordinary people can understand. Its most popular feature is

The first Bitcoin spot ETF fund flow dashboard , this tool intuitively shows the flow of traditional funds in and out of the crypto market, solving the common confusion of crypto-native and traditional financial investors at the time.

SoSoValue's explosive growth has been astonishing. Leveraging its ETF dashboard, which precisely addresses market pain points, it attracted over 1.2 million registered users in just five months, demonstrating strong product-market fit (PMF). Its success has attracted the attention of top-tier investors, leading to a $4.15 million seed round led by Sequoia China (HongShan). Even more remarkable, the founding team invested nearly $10 million of their own capital, demonstrating immense confidence and commitment to the project's long-term development.

Beyond its product itself, SoSoValue is actively building its ecosystem, expanding its influence through partnerships with platforms like SafePal, which boast tens of millions of users, and fostering a decentralized investment research community through events like the Researcher Competition. It's fair to say that SoSoValue isn't just about being a data tool; its ambition is to become a central hub for crypto investment research, ensuring that valuable research and projects are seen and heard fairly.

• Financing:

Seed round: $4.15M (2024-06-23), investors include Sequoia China, GSR, Alumni Ventures, CoinSummer Labs, OnePiece Labs.

$15.00 M, investors include Sequoia China, Mirana Ventures, SafePal, and SmallSpark.

• Team Introduction: Founders Soso and Luffy. Team members have experience working at top financial institutions like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, as well as tech giants like ByteDance and Tencent.

AWE Network

• Market capitalization: US$131,036,360.64
• Track: AI, Launchpad
• Is it native: Native
• CEX listings: Binance, Bitget, MEXC
• Brief evaluation:

AWE Network, formerly STP Network, was established in 2019 and initially focused on decentralized governance and the RWA track. However, with the development of AI technology, the team upgraded the project's mission to building an "autonomous world"—a persistently evolving digital ecosystem driven by both AI agents and humans. Its technical core is the Autonomous World Engine (AWE), a modular, AI-native framework. It offers two primary user-facing products: World.Fun , a community portal where users can create, experience, and incubate various AI mini-worlds; and AWNS , a digital identity system that provides users with a universal identity across diverse AI worlds through .aw domain names.

• Financing status: Private equity round (2019-05-29) raised $7.00 M, with investors including NGC Ventures, Alphabit Fund, and BlockVC.

Venice.ai

• Market capitalization: $92.58 million
• Track: AI
• Is it native: Native
• CEX listings: Bybit, Coinbase, Gate, MEXC
• Brief evaluation:

Venice AI is a decentralized artificial intelligence platform deployed on the Base chain. Its core principles are privacy protection, censorship resistance, and community-driven . Technically, it does not rely on centralized servers, but instead processes user requests through a distributed GPU network. All user data is stored locally, ensuring full data sovereignty. The platform integrates a variety of open-source models, including Meta Llama 3 and Stable Diffusion, and offers comprehensive functionality covering text, image, and code generation, as well as PDF parsing and data visualization.

Venice AI was founded by Erik Voorhees , founder of the cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift. Its greatest differentiator lies in its unwavering commitment to privacy and censorship resistance, which precisely addresses the needs of AI users and developers who prioritize data sovereignty. Since its launch, the platform has seen impressive user growth (it has attracted 400,000 registered users and 50,000 daily active users). Of course, "censorship-free" is a double-edged sword, meaning the platform must address the attendant content risks, while also facing technical challenges in developing advanced features.

• Team introduction: The founder is Erik Voorhees, founder and former CEO of the ShapeShift exchange.

OpenxAI Network

• Market capitalization: $88 million
• Track: AI
• Is it native: Native
• CEX Listing: No Main CEX Listing
• Brief evaluation:

The OpenxAI Network is a peer-to-peer artificial intelligence network designed to enable anyone to easily create, own, and commercialize their own AI applications on-chain, completely freeing themselves from reliance on centralized companies and intermediaries. Its core innovation lies in tokenizing the world's GPU computing resources (tGPU), transforming them into a freely tradable and usable liquid asset. This model significantly lowers the barrier to entry and the cost of AI development, reportedly saving up to 80% compared to using Amazon AWS or Google Cloud.

The OpenxAI Network has a grand vision, aiming to fundamentally address the current shortcomings of centralized AI, such as corporate monopolies, closed infrastructure, and high costs. It aims to be a "decentralized AWS + Hugging Face + Stripe" hybrid , offering decentralized computing power, an open-source AI model library, and payment capabilities.

However, the next challenge for OpenxAI is how to perfectly integrate narrative with actual user experience and derive an effective business model.

BIM

• Market capitalization: $85 million
• Track: DeFi
• Is it native: Native
• CEX Listing: No Main CEX Listing
• Brief evaluation:

BIM is a multi-chain DeFi protocol positioned as a one-stop yield optimizer. It integrates multiple functions, including exchanges, cross-chain bridges, and staking, into a single interface. Users deposit funds into its vaults, and the protocol automatically mines and compounds interest in various liquidity pools, enabling passive income.

The first impression of this project is "mediocre and vague." Yield aggregators, commonly known as "machine gun pools," are a very old and highly competitive field in the DeFi space. BIM has completely failed to demonstrate any differentiated competitive advantages or innovations , sounding like a carbon copy of countless long-dead predecessors. In the DeFi world where anonymous teams can easily collect funds and run away, this lack of information is a huge red flag.

Definitive

• Market capitalization: $73.04 million
• Track: DeFi
• Is it native: Native
• CEX listings: Coinbase, Gate, Kraken, MEXC
• Brief evaluation:

Definitive is a yield aggregation protocol built on the Base chain. Its primary function is to help users optimize returns by mining, reinvesting, and adjusting their portfolios across various DeFi applications through a complex set of automated strategies. It also offers a range of advanced features, such as limit orders, stop-loss orders, cross-chain trading, and gas-free transactions, aiming to bring professional trading tools to the yield aggregation space.

The biggest highlight of this project, perhaps its only highlight, is its founding team of former Coinbase engineers. This undoubtedly adds a layer of luster to the project, providing a certain degree of endorsement of its technical reliability. However, despite this halo, the reality facing Definitive is quite bleak. The yield aggregation market is already a fiercely competitive market, with a plethora of similar products, from the established Yearn Finance to the native protocols on major public chains. The competition is extremely fierce.

For most DeFi traders who "dig, withdraw, and sell," the only thing they truly care about is yield. Whether these complex features are essential is a huge question mark. Ultimately, the life and death of such protocols hinges on one single thing: whether their strategies can consistently outperform the market and all competitors. In the ever-changing world of DeFi, this is a nearly impossible task to achieve in the long term. Therefore, despite the team's impressive background, the project's prospects remain challenging. It needs to prove to the market that it is more than just a standard vault with more complex features.

• Financing: Seed (November 8, 2023): $4.10M, from investors including BlockTower Capital*, Coinbase Ventures, Nascent, Robot Ventures, CMT Digital, Geometry, Matrixport Ventures (* represents lead investor).
• Team introduction: Composed of former Coinbase Prime engineers.

Sapien

• Market capitalization: $72.54 million
• Track: AI
• Is it native: Native
• CEX listings: Bitget, Coinbase, Kraken, MEXC
• Brief evaluation:

Sapien positions itself as a decentralized "data foundry" dedicated to producing and annotating training data for AI models. Its model mobilizes a global community of "AI workers" comprised of users from over 110 countries. Through gamified task platforms, they crowdsource massive amounts of data processing tasks, such as text cleaning and image annotation. The platform incorporates a quality control system to ensure data accuracy and provides enterprise clients with an API, allowing them to easily purchase high-quality training data.

Sapien is undoubtedly entering the right market— AI's demand for high-quality data is a perpetual gold rush . However, peeling back the glamorous trappings of "decentralization" and "blockchain," the essence of its business model is, more politely, "human-in-the-loop."

The core challenge facing the project is this: using Web 3 to organize labor-intensive industries sounds appealing, but the reality is stark. Sapien needs to prove to the market that its decentralized model outperforms traditional giants in cost and efficiency, and even more so in quality and scale. Otherwise, it will likely be a flash in the pan.

• Financing: Sapien disclosed two rounds of seed financing of US$5 million and US$10.5 million in April and October 2024, respectively. Investors in the October seed round included well-known institutions such as Primitive Ventures, Animoca Brands, and Yield Guild Games.
• Team Introduction: CEO Rowan Stone was the co-founder of Base. Chief Strategy Officer Trevor Koverko is the founder of Polymath, an early securities digitization project.

Towns Protocol

• Market capitalization: $65.48 million
• Track: Social
• Is it native: Native
• CEX listings: Binance, Bitget, Coinbase, Gate, MEXC
• Brief evaluation:

Towns Protocol is an open-source, decentralized real-time messaging protocol. You can think of it as a Web 3 version of Discord. Built on Base as an application chain, it allows users to create their own, programmable group chat spaces (Spaces). These spaces support on-chain membership and end-to-end encryption. Because it's a chain built specifically for social interaction, it can theoretically support real-time communication for large-scale users. Its login method is also user-friendly, supporting Google and Twitter accounts, lowering the barrier to entry for non-crypto users.

Towns Protocol has a fantastic background. Its founder, the experienced co-founder of the popular social app Houseparty, is also a star-studded investor, with top venture capital firm a16z leading two rounds of funding, and Coinbase Ventures also participating . The fact that Towns Protocol has secured this level of funding during a bear market is a testament to its recognition in the capital market.

However, the Web 3 social space is a notorious "protocol graveyard," where countless projects born with silver spoons have failed miserably. Towns Protocol faces a challenge not unlike its predecessors: how to solve the ultimate problem of user migration? Its product form factor is similar to Discord, which means it must directly compete for users from industry giants. Despite technical decentralization and user ownership, for ordinary users, what is the motivation to abandon a mature product with a vast network and a seamless experience and migrate to a new platform? To date, no Web 3 social project has fully answered this question. Towns has a top-tier team and capital, but it faces a challenge against entrenched user habits, which is bound to be an extremely difficult battle.

• Funding: Towns Protocol's core team previously developed the social video app Houseparty, which was acquired by Epic Games. The project has received backing from prominent investors such as a16z crypto, Coinbase Ventures, and Benchmark.
• Team Introduction: The Towns project is being developed by Here Not There Labs, led by Brian Meek (CEO) and Ben Rubin (co-founder). Ben Rubin previously co-founded two well-known social apps, Houseparty and Meerkat. The team is based in the US and has extensive backgrounds in social applications and blockchain technology.

B 3 (Base)

• Market capitalization: $60.98 million
• Track: Game
• Is it native: Native
• CEX listings: Bybit, Coinbase, Gate, MEXC
• Brief evaluation:

B3 is a Layer 3 network built specifically for gaming. Its core concept is "Open Gaming," aiming to address the current "island" problem of Web 3 games operating independently and disconnected from each other. Its technical architecture uses GameChains to enable each game to run independently, while also achieving interoperability between underlying assets and users through "chain abstraction" technology. This allows players to seamlessly experience different games without manually switching networks or crossing chains.

B3's biggest draw lies in its strong background and resource integration capabilities . As a startup team affiliated with Coinbase, it leverages the traffic and compliance advantages of the Coinbase ecosystem, along with $21 million in funding, giving it a wealth of resources to start with. Early data (over 80 games integrated and millions of active wallets) suggests its operational and ecosystem-building capabilities are indeed impressive.

However, B3 has chosen a middle path, neither focusing solely on technical infrastructure nor deeply tied to a single hit gaming IP. This presents both opportunities and challenges. The opportunity lies in the theoretical potential for greater potential, but the risk lies in the awkward position of being caught between two baskets. The real challenge it faces isn't technical, but rather the distribution of benefits : how can it convince gaming projects, which already have their own tokens and economic models, to truly integrate into the B3 ecosystem, and even accept $B3 as a universal token? This requires exceptional business negotiation and ecosystem operations skills. While the infrastructure for B3 is in place, its ultimate success hinges on how many truly engaging and engaging games it can produce that retain users.

• Financing: Seed round (July 22, 2024): $21.00M, investors include Pantera Capital*, Hashed, Collab+Currency, Sfermion, Mirana Ventures, Bitscale Capital, Makers Fund, Mantle Network, Geoff Renaud (* represents the lead investor).

Impossible Cloud Network

• Market capitalization: $39.75 million
• Track: Depin
• Is it native: Native
• CEX listings: Bitget, Bybit
• Brief evaluation:

The Impossible Cloud Network is a decentralized cloud infrastructure (DePIN) platform, which you can think of as a Web 3 version of AWS or Alibaba Cloud. Its model involves global hardware providers (ScalerNodes) contributing their idle storage, computing, and network resources to form a resource pool. Monitoring nodes (HyperNodes) are also deployed to ensure service quality. Enterprises and individual users can rent these cloud services, while the network's operation, governance, and incentives are implemented through its native token, ICNT.

"Decentralizing AWS" is a grand and compelling story, but it's also the toughest nut to crack in the Decentralized PIN (Decentralized PIN) space, where countless projects have failed. The Impossible Cloud Network's vision is a standard template for nearly every similar project, lacking any originality .

The classic "death spiral" of the DePIN project— the chicken and egg problem—is particularly acute here: Without a critical mass of paying enterprise customers, how can you attract a critical mass of stable and professional hardware suppliers? Conversely, without a stable and reliable resource network, how can you convince enterprise customers to abandon the proven AWS and deploy their critical services on your uncertain network?

• Funding: Its most recent funding round was US$33.9 million, led by NGP Capital. Its post-money valuation is approximately US$470 million.
• Team Introduction: Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland; Founder/CEO is Dr. Kai Wawrzinek.

CLANKER

• Market capitalization: $37.33 million
• Track: AI, Launchpad
• Is it native: Native
• CEX listings: Bitget, Coinbase, Gate, MEXC
• Brief evaluation:

CLANKER is an autonomous proxy deployed on the Base chain. Its core function is to help ordinary users "issue tokens with one click." Users don't need to know any code; simply tag @clanker on the Farcaster social platform and provide basic information such as the token name. CLANKER automatically completes a series of complex operations, including token creation and establishing liquidity pools. The recently upgraded version V4 integrates new features from Uniswap V4 and adds advanced customization features such as dynamic transaction fees and anti-sniping auctions, giving token creators greater flexibility and increased revenue potential.

CLANKER, with its extreme ease of use, has precisely tapped into the highly in-demand meme token issuance market, a true example of a "small but beautiful" success story. Its impressive revenue and profit figures, far exceeding those of most similar platforms , demonstrate the high market recognition of its product, proving its position as an essential infrastructure for meme issuance on the Base chain.

However, CLANKER's success is also deeply tied to the frenzy and high-risk nature of the meme coin market. As a tool, it significantly lowers the barrier to entry for creating "virtual coins." While this facilitates creators, it also means the ecosystem is flooded with short-lived, highly speculative projects. Therefore, the protocol's long-term reputation and development will test the team's ability to maintain the openness of "anyone can issue coins" while guiding and incubating higher-quality, more viable meme projects, thereby building a deeper moat in the wild meme world.

• Team Introduction: Core members include Jack Dishman (co-founder) and proxystudio.eth. The team has strong engineering backgrounds in technology, social networking, and AI agents.

MAMO

• Market capitalization: $32.08 million
• Track: AI, DeFi
• Is it native: Native
• CEX listings: Coinbase, MEXC
• Brief Introduction:

MAMO is an AI-powered personal finance management platform built on the Base blockchain. Think of it as the "Yu'e Bao" or "Zheqian Tong" of the Base app . Its core feature is "automatic compounding." Users simply deposit assets (especially stablecoins), and the Mamo Bot automatically invests them in high-quality DeFi strategies to earn returns, enabling true on-chain "passive income" with a reported annualized yield of up to 7%.

MAMO's development history can be described as a "dark horse." Launched during the height of Virtual's IPO boom, it attracted little attention at the time. Many viewed it as just another obscure DeFi investment bot. However, while other popular projects were chasing short-term hype, MAMO was successfully integrated into the Base app .

This integration was a turning point in its fate, enabling it to leap from an ordinary DApp to one of the core infrastructures of the Base ecosystem, directly reaching a large number of Coinbase users.

• Team Introduction:

Core member: chrizy.eth

CreatorBid

• Market capitalization: $28.44 million
• Tracks: AI, Launchpad, Creator Economy
• Is it native: Native
• CEX listings: Gate, MEXC
• Brief Introduction:

Creator Bid, a platform focused on the AI creator economy and launchpad, recently launched a major version 2.0 upgrade. Through a partnership with leading InfoFi project Kaito , it introduced a series of new mechanisms, including staking, to boost user engagement and expand its reach within the creator economy.

Creator Bid's recent actions demonstrate strong recovery momentum. Through its strategic partnership with Kaito and drawing on the experience of successful projects like Virtual, the platform has introduced proven staking strategies, such as IPO staking. This represents a very clever iteration. If the team can continue to iterate on features and leverage the synergies created by its partnership with Kaito, Creator Bid has significant potential for continued growth in the creator economy.

• Financing:

On January 23, 2025, US$2.5 million was raised through a public token sale on Base.

The size of the investment on April 26, 2024, was not announced, and the investor lineup included Mechanism Capital, Moonrock, Zee Prime Capital, etc.

Upside

• Tracks: Social, Creator Economy, Prediction Market
• Is it native: Native
• Brief Introduction: Upside is a social prediction market platform built on the Base Chain. Users can upload links to social content they believe has the potential to go viral (e.g., Twitter/X, articles, videos, etc.) and create markets. Other users can purchase "Upside tickets" to predict whether the content will go viral. Participants can hold tickets and wait for their value to rise, or sell them mid-stream for a profit. The platform's mechanisms include a unique content market, revenue distribution (to content uploaders, voters, creators, etc.), and transparent on-chain records.
• Funding: Upside raised US$1.2 million in a pre-seed funding round in December 2024, valuing the company at approximately US$10 million. Investor backers included Jason Choi, Arthur Hayes, and approximately 25 other angel investors.

About Movemaker

Movemaker, authorized by the Aptos Foundation and co-founded by Ankaa and BlockBooster, is the first official community organization dedicated to promoting the development of the Aptos ecosystem in the Chinese-speaking region. As the official representative of Aptos in the Chinese-speaking region, Movemaker is committed to building a diverse, open, and prosperous Aptos ecosystem by connecting developers, users, capital, and numerous ecosystem partners.

Disclaimer:

This article/blog is for informational purposes only and reflects the author's personal views and does not necessarily represent the views of Movemaker. This article is not intended to provide: (i) investment advice or a recommendation; (ii) an offer or solicitation to buy, sell, or hold digital assets; or (iii) financial, accounting, legal, or tax advice. Holding digital assets, including stablecoins and NFTs, carries a high degree of risk and carries significant price volatility, potentially becoming worthless. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is appropriate for you based on your financial circumstances. If you have questions regarding your specific situation, please consult your legal, tax, or investment advisor. The information provided in this article (including market data and statistics, if any) is for general informational purposes only. While reasonable care has been taken in preparing these data and charts, no liability is assumed for any factual errors or omissions contained therein.