I truly believe that when the bull market returns, we'll see a base season of epic proportions. And with so many macro factors starting to line up, this is coming sooner than you'd expect. That's why in this post, I want to give you a head start by sharing 6 under-the-radar projects on base that could absolutely rocket once base season arrives.
Table of Contents
Why Base
But before we dive in, let me first explain why I'm so bullish on Base. So Base is a layer 2 blockchain developed by Coinbase with one simple mission to bring the world on chain. To make that happen, they need a blockchain that's both secure and scalable, right? Well, so far, it looks like they're succeeding.
In August, base had nearly 16 million new addresses, dwarfing the growth of every other layer 2 out there. In early September, they had a whopping 4.2 million daily transactions, more than any other L2, and nearly four times more than Ethereum itself. Furthermore, base's total value locked is second on the list of all L2s, with only Arbitrum being higher.
So yeah, the metrics look great. There's no doubt about that. But there's another reason why base is set to rocket.
And that has to do with this relationship with Coinbase. You see, Coinbase is one of the biggest exchanges in the world, and it now acts as the custodian for 90% of the spot Bitcoin ETFs, which means that when the bull market comes back, trillions of dollars in institutional capital could flood into crypto and Coinbase would be in a prime position to benefit. And by sheer association, base would likely benefit as well, especially if Coinbase takes some of those profits and reinvests it into base's ecosystem and growth.
But now comes the million-dollar question, which is which projects in the base ecosystem are the best bets if all of this were to happen?
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1. Aerodrome
Well, first on my list is Aerodrome, a next-generation AMMDEX that is designed to serve as base's central liquidity hub. Aerodrome actually got a lot of its features from Velodrome, an established DEX on optimism. But one area that Aerodrome excels at is slippage.
Slippage is basically the difference between the price you see on your screen versus the price you actually get when you make the trade. We've all experienced this before, right? Like when we use DEXs, it can be super frustrating when you make a trade and don't get back as much as you were expecting. But Aerodrome has worked really hard to solve this issue for us.
And it did so with the implementation of concentrated liquidity pools called Slipstream, which helped traders to not get affected as much by rapid pool changes. Since this implementation, Aerodrome has been crushing it, climbing from below 20% to around 60% dominance over Uniswap on base. Furthermore, when it comes to the fees it's generating, it's higher than any other DEX out there.
And as a bonus, it's just one of two protocols that shares 100% of its fee revenue with its token holders. So no doubt Aerodrome is doing some great things and has put itself in a strong position to benefit when base starts to boom.
In fact, I could even see a world where at the peak of the next bull market, Aerodrome plus Velodrome collectively flip Uniswap in terms of combined market cap. And if you do the math, you'll see why that is so bullish for Aero.
2. Seamless protocol
Anyhow, next up, we have Seamless protocol and its governance token Seam. So this is a lending and borrowing protocol that puts a massive focus on its community.
It had no public or private sales, meaning that, unlike other projects, it can truly be described as decentralized. But Seamless also has some other cool features that set it apart like its integrated liquidity markets or ILMs. These ILMs essentially automate various DeFi strategies for you.
So you don't have to go in and do all the manual work yourself to set those up and manage them. This automation is free and it's a godsend for less experienced users as they don't have to worry about things like being liquidated if their positions go out of range. And it seems like people are catching on to this when we look at the results.
Their ETH USDC 3X ILM, which basically does a 3X leverage on the price of ETH, reached capacity in less than a day and its supply caps had to be raised as a result. Users of the ILM saw strong gains already during the mini bull run from the end of 2023 to the start of 2024, and they massively outperformed people who simply held ETH instead. Now, in general, ILMs are starting to gain traction across the crypto space.
So Seamless is definitely on to something here, and there's plenty of room for growth. Its fully diluted market cap is only around $120 million right now, but also only 11% of its tokens are allocated to insiders. So this is a super small allocation if you think about it, and it massively reduces the risk of us getting dumped on.
So this means there's huge potential for growth during the next stage of the cycle, and anyone holding Seam should be excited.
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3. ETH XY
Okay, so for our next project, we're looking at something that I've personally invested in. It's an on-chain MMORPG game called ETHXY.
So this rapid-fire game consists of head-to-head poker battles, which gives users the chance to win loot that can be collected or used to develop their character. It's driven by the SEXY token, which stands for Settled ETHXY, and it's designed to maximize usage and improve gameplay.
But what's special about it?
Well, originally it was built on the Base Layer 2 network, but the team has actually decided to build its own Layer 3 world chain that rolls up onto Base as it'll enable a whole new class of game mechanics with super fast and cheap transactions.
But even without that, its popularity has already been rising. It already has over 100,000 games played under its belt. And looking forward, there are a lot of other things to be excited about.
For example, it has a strong team and it taps into two big narratives that could see major growth this cycle, gaming, and the metaverse. Not only that, this game is also fun to play. It's not like those Gamefy projects in the past that had a ton of hype but fell short because they weren't actually that fun to play.
ETHXY, on the other hand, keeps it simple with its poker battle games, which have users raving about how engaging and addictive it is. On top of all this, it's the sheer memeability of the project. Like once things really get going, you could easily see this attracting a ton of attention due to its ticker symbol and the way it's set up.
And with a super low FDV of currently around 10 million, if it does catch on, it could go absolutely parabolic. However, because of how small this market cap currently is, this is probably one of the more risky bets on the list. So just keep that in mind if you're thinking about buying it.
4. Alien Base
All right, so next up is an exchange that looks to combine the features of a DEX with the usability of a CEX. It's called Alien Base. And the problem it's solving is the fact that DEXs are super popular these days, but they're often quite complicated.
So any attempt to make it easier for people is a great idea. Alien Base has a much more user-friendly interface, more along the lines of what you'd expect from a centralized exchange. But it still holds on to the decentralized principles that rule a DEX.
A big part of this is its Epsilon technology, which seamlessly aggregates all the pools on the base network, selecting the safest and most efficient pathways for swaps. This means that Alien Base aims to have the fastest and cheapest swaps on all of base. Now, it also has some other features such as a token generator and straightforward pool deployment, which simplify the process even more to make their product truly top-tier.
So it definitely has some solid foundations, but it also has some big plans for the future. Its emission schedule is really bold, with the aim of making the platform self-sustaining within just three years. And it also has some things lined up, such as 100% revenue sharing from their fees and a ton of new products to improve their ecosystem.
As a result, Alien Base is seeing its users start to grow. And with an FDV of just around 30 million right now, there's so much more room to run, and it could have a truly amazing cycle when base season begins.
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5. Moonwell
All right, next up is Moonwell, a lending and borrowing protocol that aims to make DeFi accessible to everyone.
You see, while DeFi lending and borrowing offer great opportunities for people, their complexity often drives people away. That's why Moonwell is here to simplify the process. It's super intuitive design and self-custody architecture means that people can lend, borrow, and claim rewards quickly and easily while maintaining complete control over their assets.
A big factor in Moonwell's offering is its integration with Morpho, a next generation lending protocol that allows it to leverage a couple of neat features, which are proving to be quite the hit. These are its Moonwell vaults, as well as its isolated markets, which make the lending and borrowing process much less daunting for new users.
These products have been super successful thus far, and we've seen Moonwell continue to rise up the charts for both users and fee generation, where it recently found itself in the top five of all lending and borrowing protocols.
Also, with the launch of Coinbase's wrapped BTC, called CBBTC, we can fully expect demand for Moonwell and other DeFi platforms to surge when the market picks up. With all this in mind, this project seems like it's primed to make some moves, especially with its FDV only being $150 million and the fact that it recently got listed on Coinbase.
6. Degen Chain
Okay, so next up, we have one of the most hyped projects on the list, and I'm sure some of y'all were wondering why I haven't mentioned it yet.
I'm talking about Degen Chain, of course, a layer 3 blockchain with a focus on meme coins. DeGen, its native token, initially started off as a meme coin itself, but has since evolved significantly and added a ton of use cases for its diehard Farcaster community.
These DeGentlemen, as they call themselves, are mostly crypto OGs who built DeGen from the ground up, with only 15% of the tokens allocated for the developers and the rest going to the community and the LP.
This means that their following is wildly loyal and committed to its success, which is why we've seen a ton of games, NFTs, and rewards created for its community as a result. It now boasts nearly 900,000 holders, and in terms of TVL, it is now third out of all layer 3s on Ethereum. So that's great, of course, but there are a couple other reasons why I think this project could absolutely rocket and mint millionaires in the process.
First, it's because SocialFi is a narrative that's picking up steam across the crypto world, and DeGen could definitely ride that wave. But second is the meme coin craze, which has been the best-performing sector by far this cycle. If things really get going, there's no doubt that memes will do well, and DeGen is in a great position to capitalize on it.
Final Thoughts
But anyhow, there you have it, my 6 base projects that I'm betting will rocket when the bull market returns. But what do you think? Are there any projects on base that I missed that you also like? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading.