Zora to Launch $ZORA Memecoin on April 23 with Coinbase Support, Aimed 'For Fun Only'

Zora, the Ethereum-based platform dedicated to onchain content creation, has confirmed the launch of its native token, $ZORA, scheduled for April 23, 2025. Built on Base, Coinbase's layer-2 network, this token rollout marks a new phase for Zora's ecosystem, which boasts over 2.4 million collectors and 618,000 creators. With a total supply of 10 billion tokens and a planned retroactive airdrop, $ZORA aims to reward active users and stimulate onchain content creation.

Since its inception in 2021 as an NFT marketplace, Zora has transformed into a platform allowing creators to monetize content onchain. It also launched ZORA NETWORK, a Layer 2 network based on OP Stack, providing a faster and more efficient extension of Ethereum for artists, creators, and the community, while integrating all existing Zora tools. In 2025, Zora introduced a system where each post becomes an ERC-20 "content coin" with a supply of 1 billion—creators receive 10 million tokens upfront and earn 1% on Uniswap pool trades. This shift from ERC-1155 NFTs has generated over $376 million in secondary volume and $27.7 million in creator payouts, according to Zora's March update.

The development of $ZORA was announced in March 2025, positioning it as a "fun token" for community use rather than a governance tool. According to the announcement, the token generation event (TGE), set for Wednesday, April 23, will allocate 10% of the supply—1 billion tokens—through a retroactive airdrop. Eligibility is determined by two snapshots: one covering January 1, 2020, to March 3, 2025, and another from March 3 to April 20, 2025, at midnight UTC. Specific criteria remain unclear, fueling last-minute speculation as the launch approaches. The token distribution plan has also raised concerns about centralization. Critics point out that Zora's allocation scheme reserves 45% for the team and strategic contributors, indicating a preference for early supporters over users, despite gradual unlocking designed to limit sell-offs. User katexbt commented, "This is going to be a $40 per wallet airdrop for those that spent $200+ minting garbage for over a year."

Additionally, Zora maintains close ties with Coinbase. Co-founders Jacob Horne and Tyson Battistella are former Coinbase employees. In its 2020 seed round, Zora secured $2 million in funding from Coinbase Ventures and others; in 2022, Zora raised another $50 million from Coinbase Ventures and other firms.

Furthermore, Base's founder Jesse Pollak has actively promoted Zora's "content coin" system. On April 16, Base's official twitter account posted on Zora with the message "Base is for everyone," linking directly to the generated Zora "content coin" token address on Twitter, accompanied by the caption "Coined it." The token experienced dramatic price fluctuations, soaring from $0.0001 to $0.012 within an hour—a 120-fold increase—boosting its market cap from tens of thousands to $20 million.

Subsequently, its market cap plummeted from $14 million to $1.4 million within 5 minutes, a 90% drop. After the crash, the token's price recovered slowly, reaching new highs. Despite Base's official statement that the token was automatically created by Zora, with Base's only involvement being the post on Zora, the move has undeniably brought unprecedented attention and hype to the Zora project just as the token launch approaches.

$ZORA may enhance Zora’s ecosystem activity and Base’s transaction volume, but its “fun only” stance might limit investment appeal, focusing on community engagement.