The Creator-Token experiment on Base fails: the $9 million dream collapses within hours

2026-01-09 11:32:26

A radical market fluctuation has once again exposed the fragility of the on-chain social finance (SocialFi) ecosystem. A well-known YouTube creator’s Creator Token dropped 67% just hours after issuance, falling from a nearly $9 million market cap to about $3 million. This failure has sounded an alarm for the entire industry. The incident not only shattered the illusion of Creator Tokens as sustainable monetization tools but also revealed a critical issue within the Base ecosystem: Can viral attention truly translate into long-term ecosystem development?

From a $9 Million Peak to Obscurity: The Lifecycle of Creator Tokens

Nick Shirley’s token—$THENICKSHIRLEY—launched on the Base network via the Zora creator platform at the end of 2025. It all started with an unexpectedly viral 42-minute investigative video on X platform, garnering hundreds of millions of views and being shared and discussed by top figures. Riding this wave of public attention, the token’s trading activity rapidly pushed its fully diluted valuation close to $9 million.

But the good times didn’t last. The celebration ended just as quickly as it began. Within days, the token’s price plummeted over 60%, and trading volume shrank significantly. Even more disappointing, the majority of trading activity came from seasoned on-chain traders rather than new users or those newly engaging with the Base network.

In this dramatic decline, the only winners were Shirley herself and early speculators. On-chain data shows Shirley earned approximately $41,600 to $65,000 in trading fees. However, this highlights the core issue—the success of the Token was entirely converted into speculative gains for a few, rather than genuine ecosystem growth.

Why SocialFi Continues to Fail: Structural Challenges Surface

Market observers and independent traders have sharply criticized this “perfect failure.” Most agree that Shirley’s token should have been the strongest test case—boasting the highest public attention, maximum exposure, and the most favorable issuance environment. If even these conditions couldn’t retain users and meet real demand, then the Creator Token model itself warrants reevaluation.

Key issues include:

Lack of follow-up strategies from platforms: Zora and Base did not implement effective user retention plans after the hype faded.
Stagnant new user acquisition: Throughout the event, there was little to no meaningful new user registration or on-chain activity increase.
Speculation over utility: The token became a mere gambling tool rather than a functional social asset.
Fragile liquidity: Once the hype subsided, trading depth evaporated quickly, causing prices to plunge sharply.

Base’s SocialFi Ambitions Meet Reality: The $9 Million Failure as Industry Wake-up Call

Base aims to position itself as a hub for decentralized social applications. Previously, the platform launched early social experiments, and recently invested in emerging social solutions like Farcaster and Zora. Industry analysts predict the SocialFi sector could reach hundreds of billions of dollars by 2033, but the current reality is much harsher.

Early social token attempts were hailed as success stories, but daily active user numbers ultimately fell from nearly 80,000 at peak to below 10,000, creating a stark contrast.

The Shirley incident demonstrates that, even with record-breaking public attention and a $9 million valuation peak, Creator Tokens still cannot drive genuine ecosystem growth. This is not an isolated case but a systemic issue within the entire SocialFi model.

Lessons Learned: Attention Does Not Equal Value

The fundamental lesson from this incident is simple: Viral spread and sustainable growth are two different things. The $9 million market cap peak of the Creator Token seemed impressive, but the 67% decline tells a more telling story—such growth is built on speculation rather than real demand.

What Base and related platforms need to reflect on is: How can they convert public attention into user engagement? How to design tokenomics that incentivize long-term participation rather than short-term cash-outs? How to establish genuine social value instead of purely financial tools?

Currently, the answers to these questions remain elusive.

View Original

This page may contain third-party content, which is provided for information purposes only (not representations/warranties) and should not be considered as an endorsement of its views by Gate, nor as financial or professional advice. See Disclaimer for details.