Shirley, the inventor of the coin, faced resistance after he started it.
Coinbase and Ethereum's Layer-2 base creator are pushing back from traders and developers who argue that the token experiment failed to turn the viral social media moment into ongoing onchain activity.
The reaction came after YouTuber Nick Shirley launched a mockery on creator forum Zora. Before Shirley's token slipped to $3 million, his online fame had fallen to a completely buried value of $9 million. Most of the volume comes from existing traders rather than new users.
In a widely shared critique, businessman and content creator Notredguy argued that if Shirley couldn't make the model, no one could.
“If there was ever a time for these content coins to work, if there was a time for these creator coins to work, it was Nick Shirley right here, right now, in this moment. And it just didn't work,” he said, adding that he has no interest in trading content coins for anything other than “fun-driven money.”
His comments came against a backdrop of Zora-related tests at Base, which saw sharp rises and falls, with little evidence of continued interest.
Shirley has recently emerged as a political flashpoint after unproven daycare fraud allegations leveled figures including Elon Musk and senior Trump administration officials. The claims were part of broader discussions the administration announced when it announced it was ending child care funding in Minnesota.
Related: Is Zora Ethereum L2 Base Turning Into Solana Killer?
SocialFi statistics with onchain reality
Thanks to early experiments like Friend.tech, Base is being marketed as a decentralized social platform, followed by successors like Farcaster and Zora that attract creative activity.
The SocialFi market is projected to reach over $10 billion by 2033, with a CAGR of 17.5% from 2025 to 2033. Still, even high-profile sites like Friend.tech have seen daily active users reach 80,000 before slipping below the 10,000 mark.
Related: After the Zora airdrop fails, what's next for the Web3 creator economy?
Increasing pressure on the base strategy
The gap between title development and stickiness is causing frustration among core developers.
Developers and community members have complained that the run of high-level creator coins promoted through official channels, including internal “group” tokens and Zora launches, has created a perception of bias and left retail participants exposed as liquidity evaporates.
“If you're not part of the beloved narrative, you're not really living. At that point, what's the incentive to build on the base?” asked a base builder.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong started responding to community members, posting that he had a “great conversation” with notthreadguy and received “a lot of great ideas.”
