Following Solana, Base Chain has emerged as a hotspot for MEME coins. On May 5, Base Chain saw 2821 new DEX trading pairs within 24 hours, compared to 1508 on Solana. This trend has been consistent, with Base surpassing Solana in daily new trading pairs for nearly a month. Does this mean Base has overtaken Solana as the new king of meme coins on public blockchains?

This article by PANews will thoroughly compare Base and Solana in the meme coin sector, examining their similarities and differences in user behaviour, code security, transaction speed, fund preferences, cultural traits, and deployment costs, and exploring the secrets behind the flow of meme popularity.

Characteristics and Origins of Meme Culture on Both Chains

Meme coins stem from meme culture, a type of internet-born cultural information like pictures, videos, text, or concepts that often include humorous elements and can quickly spread online. Despite being different from other projects, meme coins rely on recognisable meme materials for dissemination. The more familiar and widely recognized the meme material, the better it spreads.

Meme coins on Solana did not gain much attention initially. The meme culture boom in this bull market can be traced back to September 6, 2023. On that day, Solana co-founder Anatoly attended the annual Solana event, Solana Breakpoint, dressed as a green dinosaur, calling himself a silly dragon. On November 8, he posted on social media, declaring the “year of the silly dragon,” encouraging the community to create silly dragon memes. Subsequently, the SILLY token was launched amidst community anticipation and distributed through social media airdrops.

This process highlights the origin of meme culture on Solana, initiated by the founder and involving multiple interactions between the official team and the community. The spread effect led to contract deployment, attracting more participants with the wealth effect.

During the recent meme coin craze, Solana experienced a peak in meme activity. This trend was driven mainly by Solana’s large user base, forming a self-organizing mode to identify quality meme targets. The meme culture on Solana is characterized by the vision of wealth effects, with users finding materials from meme culture.

Unlike Solana, Base, backed by Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the United States, has a more pronounced American style and strong connections with Coinbase in its meme coin culture. For example, several of the top ten meme coins by the number of holders are Degen, Jogeco Dog (Coinbase founder’s dog), Ollie Dog (Coinbase’s chief independent director’s dog), ROCKY (MetaWin founder’s dog), Bento (a space dog), BASED USA (Make America Great Again), and Young Peezy (another character from the Boy’s Club comic series).

User Habits: Solana Creates a New Ecosystem, Base Relies on Ethereum

In terms of user habits, several factors need to be considered: wallet, DEX (decentralized exchange), trading bots, market panels, and project information. The ease of using these products directly affects the threshold for users to participate in meme coin speculation.

Wallet:

Solana’s wallet system is a significant barrier for new users. Unlike the Ethereum ecosystem, Solana uses Rust or C language, resulting in a different wallet architecture. Mainstream wallets like Metamask are incompatible with Solana tokens. However, the rise in SOL token prices has made more users accustomed to Solana’s Phantom wallet.

Base, as an Ethereum L2 network, is fully compatible with Ethereum, allowing users to trade using familiar wallets like Metamask. Additionally, Coinbase’s AA wallet simplifies operations, enabling account creation directly through mobile or computer devices and integrating with Coinbase accounts, attracting a large user base and funds to Base.

DEX:

Solana’s DEX products operate similarly to those in the Ethereum system, with advantages in speed and convenience.

Most trading pairs on Base are established on DEXs like Uniswap, aligning with the habits of Ethereum users.

Trading Bots:

Solana’s trading bots were developed early by proactive developers during the meme craze, functioning similarly to Ethereum bots.

Currently, Base has fewer trading bots, but products like Sigma and Shuriken are filling the market gap.

Market Panels:

Products like Birdeye and Dexscreener are compatible with market boards and token information across multiple chains.

Overall, Solana has successfully developed an independent system quickly accepted by meme players, while Base leverages Ethereum’s user base and Coinbase’s infrastructure, reducing setup costs.

Code Vulnerabilities: Solana’s Innate Advantage vs. Base’s Acquired Supplement

For meme players, a quality contract environment is crucial. Ethereum and Binance Chain, the main meme coin platforms previously, faced significant contract issues. According to PANews, about 98% of daily issued meme coins on Ethereum have code issues.

Solana’s different programming languages and architecture better avoid contract vulnerabilities, with general token contract issues limited to code issuance volume and ownership.

Base, using the same programming language and architecture as Ethereum, inherits Ethereum’s vulnerabilities. However, Base’s verified contract label helps users avoid some contract code issues at the source. Despite this, a Cointelegraph research report found that most new meme coins on Base have security vulnerabilities, with nearly one-fifth being malicious.

Contract Deployment Cost: Lower Token Issuance Cost on Base May Attract More Developers

Deploying a contract on Solana costs about 1 SOL (around $150).

Deploying a contract on Base costs around a dozen dollars, contributing to the daily increase in new trading pairs on Base.

Transaction Speed and Gas Fee: The Difference Exists but Doesn’t Have Much Impact

The transaction speed on Base is about 35 TPS, and the gas fee is about $0.11.

The transaction speed on Solana is about 1300 TPS, and the transaction fee is about $0.0029.

In this comparison, although Solana still has a significant advantage, Base’s speed and fee levels are relatively friendly, hardly becoming the main consideration for users.

Funding Situation and Active Users: Base Needs Phenomenal Meme Boom to Narrow the Gap

On-chain TVL: Solana’s TVL is about $3.9 billion, and Base’s is about $1.5 billion.

24-hour trading volume: Solana’s is about $1 billion, and Base’s is about $400 million.

Base: As of May 4, Base has about 8.4 million users, with around 350,000 daily active users.

Solana has approximately 850,000 daily active users.

The net outflow from Solana to Base is $1.77 million. The gap between Base and Solana is closing, and the emergence of phenomenal products may narrow it further.

Official Attitude: Solana Hopes Meme Cools Down, Base Desires Meme to Shine

In addition to the relatively objective factors, the support from official channels also plays a crucial role in the development of meme coins. Solana’s meme boom was driven by its co-founders and official endorsements. Currently, Solana’s leadership seems reluctant to be known solely as a meme coin platform. In April, Solana co-founder Raj tweeted that meme coins are deterring serious developers. However, he added, “If you’re so fragile that you’re scared by young people having fun with permissionless systems, then you won’t succeed at all.” After a previous meme frenzy, co-founder Toly also urged the community to stop the pre-sale model.

Base, on the other hand, appears to have a different perspective on meme coins. In April, Jesse Pollak, head of Base’s ecosystem protocol, said, “Meme coins are an important part of the on-chain economy. We’re glad to see more meme coin-based activities helping people engage with blockchain technology. The energy on Base is vibrant, and we see these meme coins bringing thousands into this new economy. We see a thriving meme economy shining brightly in the Base ecosystem.”

In summary, Solana and Base’s journeys with meme coins resemble a god descending a mountain and meeting a climber ascending. Solana, with its past experiences, is now cautious, while Base is ambitious and eager to reach new heights. Objectively, both platforms have the necessary conditions for fostering meme culture, such as a large user base and vibrant community. Subjectively, Solana, having benefited from meme coins in this bull market, has also faced the drawbacks of memes on other projects, leading to a desire to moderate the trend for balanced ecosystem growth. Conversely, Base is keen to leverage memes to boost ecosystem activity and is determined to continue climbing towards the peak of meme coin success.

Disclaimer：

1. This article is reprinted from [PANews]. All copyrights belong to the original author [Frank]*. If there are objections to this reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team, and they will handle it promptly.
2. Liability Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.
3. Translations of the article into other languages are done by the Gate Learn team. Unless mentioned, copying, distributing, or plagiarizing the translated articles is prohibited.