Nansen claims early base whales favor meme tokens.

Nansen claims early base whales favor meme tokens.

The Growing Trend of High-Risk Tokens Trading on Ethereum-Adjacent Blockchain Base

The blockchain industry is buzzing with excitement as Coinbase’s Ethereum-adjacent blockchain, Base, officially opens its doors to the public. While the general public eagerly awaits their turn to engage with Base’s new layer 2 network, a group of cryptocurrency whales has been busy trading high-risk tokens on this innovative blockchain.

In addition to their substantial positions in the market-leading cryptocurrency, Ethereum (ETH), these 22 high-rolling depositors have taken significant stakes in several other tokens. Nansen’s report highlights the presence of Arbitrum’s governance token ARB, casino token RLB, and a range of memecoins such as BALD, TOSHI, PEPE, and HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu, which interestingly bears the ticker BITCOIN—a mere coincidence with the famous cryptocurrency. Another notable token among these whales is UNIBOT, the Telegram trading bot token.

The report by Nansen suggests that these 22 whales exhibit crypto-native tendencies. Since July 31, when Base became accessible through a one-way bridge allowing direct interaction with its smart contract, these whales have bridged over 100 ETH (worth $185,100) to engage with the Base ecosystem. Meanwhile, more casual users had to wait until today when Base’s frontend went live, accompanied by an exit ramp facilitating bridging back to Ethereum.

It is worth noting that while one of the wallets belonged to 2017, half of the whales emerged in 2021. These early Base whales have also been actively involved in other Ethereum scaling solutions like Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync Era, and Polygon zkEVM.

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Nansen analyst Niklas Polk offers intriguing insights into the behavior of these 22 earlier adopters of Base. He points out that the selection of these whales reveals a preference for memecoins, characterized by their playful and often viral nature. According to Polk, the lack of alternative options on Base led to this memecoin bias. However, this bias is expected to evolve as more applications, including decentralized exchanges (DEXs) and lending platforms, emerge on the Base network.

Drawing further attention to the whales’ interaction patterns, Nansen research analyst Jake Kennis highlights their heavy reliance on well-established platforms such as 1inch, Uniswap, Base, 0x, USDC, and Unibot. This pattern underscores the whales’ strong engagement with Ethereum and layer 2 (L2) ecosystems. Kennis predicts that as more applications come online, the ecosystem will mature beyond memecoins, incorporating a broader range of assets and use cases.

The emergence of high-risk token trading on Base serves as a testament to the growing popularity and importance of layer 2 solutions in the blockchain industry. Layer 2 networks, like the one offered by Base, provide scalability and improved user experience by offloading transactions from the main Ethereum network. By serving as a scalable sidechain, Base enables faster and cheaper transactions, attracting both seasoned traders and new crypto enthusiasts.

In conclusion, the early adoption of Base by these crypto whales demonstrates their enthusiasm and willingness to explore new blockchain solutions. While their focus on memecoins may reveal some fun and speculative tendencies, it is indicative of the opportunities and potential the blockchain industry offers. As Base expands its ecosystem to encompass more applications, the blockchain industry is expected to witness further advancements, making it a more vibrant and mature space capable of supporting a diverse array of assets and use cases.

Edited by Danny Nelson.