The Base network is growing rapidly, attracting funds from various investors. Its TVL has grown from $45 million in July 2023 to $1.6 billion as of writing. As such, many new crypto projects are launching on the Base chain, and they’re attracting growing interest from crypto investors.
These new Base projects are expected to grow and return value to early investors through their tokens. However, where there is an opportunity to make money, there is also the danger of losing it to scams or bad projects.
Our guide aims to help you to analyze the best new Base chain projects for crypto investors in 2024.
Friend.tech is a decentralised social network that allows users to mint and sell keys from popular accounts, allowing people in their network to message them.
The more popular or influential a person’s account becomes, the more expensive their keys are, allowing people to leverage and benefit from their social networks.
Friend.tech is built to track Twitter (now X) followers. The network augments a successful social platform and includes some financial incentives for creating quality content and growing your audience.
Friend.tech suffered a hack several weeks ago that drained roughly $300K from users’ connected accounts.
Also, much of the hype from its initial launch has died down, which is not bad, provided users begin to pick up over time.
Friend.tech hasn’t launched its Base token yet, but intends to do so later this year.
Arcadia is a platform at the intersection of artificial intelligence and decentralised finance. Leveraging AI, the platform creates and runs profitable yield-bearing strategies across various protocols.
AI is a strong narrative that is expected to change how we do things as time goes on. As a result, a subgenre called Intent protocols, which use AI to achieve desired outcomes, is rising.
In Arcadia’s case, the platform uses AI to run self-compounding DeFi strategies that generate real, sustainable yield.
As the first platform doing this on the Base network, Arcadia enjoys a first-mover advantage and has a current TVL of $1.84 million.
Arcadia is not the only platform in the crypto space focused on using AI to run DeFi strategies. Eventually, it will face competition, especially if already-established protocols decide to offer similar services.
Arcadia hasn’t confirmed the launch date for its Base token yet.
Avantis is a perpetual trading protocol that allows users to trade cryptos with leverage of up to 100x. It is shaping to be a major (if not the major) derivatives trading platform with a current TVL of $6.99 million.
Avantis is set to enjoy the first mover advantage, the same advantage that the Dex, Aerodrome Finance, enjoys.
Furthermore, like Aerodrome Finance, Avantis is also funded by the Base Ecosystem fund, which invests in key infrastructure protocols.
Although Avantis is a perp leader on the Base network, it is in a competitive space as all chains have perp trading platforms, and several multichain protocols are rising that could migrate to the Base network and displace Avantis.
Astaria is a lending market that executes intent-based borrowing and lending agreements. It is a project at the forefront of the new intent-based sub-niche within the AI niche which involves setting outcome parameters and allowing AI to figure out the processes.
The platform allows borrowers and lenders to create their own loan agreements and add them to an intent feed. Lenders and borrowers can then accept (or reject) proposals.
Astaria allows users to set their terms in the lending marketplace, creating a truly decentralised market where users set the market and agree before transacting. This could allow for better rates, which attract more users.
Astaria sounds great on paper; however, one immediate risk is that users do not get their loan agreements fulfilled immediately, depending on their terms. Cartels can form, forcing interest rates down or high (depending on what side they lie on), which could eventually destroy the platform’s integrity.
Astaria hasn’t launched its Base token yet, but is expected to do so later this year.
Renzo is a liquid restaking platform that allows users to stake their Ethereum staking derivatives to earn rewards for helping to secure a new network of applications.
Renzo is not native to the Base network; however, it made our list because of its tremendous growth within a relatively short period and its upcoming token launch.
Renzo is the second largest liquid restaking platform with a TVL of $3.9 billion and is available on seven blockchain networks. The largest liquid staking platform, Ether Finance, launched its token at a market cap north of $300 million.
The gap between the TVL of the largest liquid staking platform and Renzo’s is not up to $300 million. And while the largest is available only on Ethereum mainnet, Renzo is available on seven chains, giving it more liquidity.
Renzo landed in hot water with the community recently due to its tokenomics model and airdrop allocation, which were less than desirable. According to reports, team members and insiders control about 70% of the total supply.
While this may not immediately impact the token’s price, it could be detrimental to decentralised voting and lead to significant sell pressure.
Renzo has not launched its own coin yet but will do so soon – in fact, its new coin launch is to expected to happen sometime in May.
Base chain projects are cryptocurrency projects that are built on the Base ecosystem. They could be anything from games to decentralised exchanges, perpetual trading platforms, and social networks.
However, not all crypto projects that run on Base are limited to Base. Some are multichain, meaning they are simultaneously available on multiple blockchain networks. An example is Uniswap; while the exchange is available on the Base network, it is not referred to as a Base project.
Hence, a qualifying factor of Base chain projects is that they originate from the Base network.
There is no specific way that Base chain projects work that is inherently different from projects on other chains or unique to the Base network.
The network provides the infrastructure to run crypto projects by processing transactions on a separate layer and then adding them as a batch transaction to Ethereum. On the application level, Base chain projects enjoy fast transaction processing speeds at a low cost.
As there are a growing number of new Base coins that carry different functions, how they work varies individually. For example, the functions that Friend.tech offers are different from that of Avantis; hence, to get a deep understanding of how Base chain projects work, you need to study each project or token individually.
Selecting a single candidate as the best new Base coin for investors is subjective as each possesses unique properties, carries unique functions, and appeals to different investors.
However, we can list criteria that can be applied across most new and upcoming Base projects to discover those with investment potential.
Utility is the function that a project serves. The more central the function is, the better the project’s chances to grow long-term.
A good example of this is Aerodrome Finance, the first native Dex on Base. The project’s token has grown 160x since launch because its function is central to financial activities on the Base network.
The same applies across all chains and projects.
Tokenomics is the economic model that governs the use of a project’s token. This includes the token’s supply, initial allocation, and how the tokens are used to capture ecosystem value.
There is no perfect tokenomics model; however, projects with tokens well integrated into the ecosystem, required to access services, and limited in supply tend to perform better than those lacking these qualities, provided the project itself continually attracts external value.
A good example of this is Ethereum. The network requires ETH to access the blockchain ecosystem and its resources, so all projects that wish to launch and all users that wish to process transactions need ETH.
While its token supply is technically limitless and new tokens are minted to reward validators, the system burns a portion of transaction fees, so ETH should remain deflationary, provided the network continues to attract and retain developers and users.
Experienced teams run businesses better than inexperienced ones. While many Base projects are decentralised, the team behind the business logic and execution greatly influence its success.
Teams with industry experience and connections can more easily secure funding to power rapid development; they can easily hire great talent and have the experience needed to navigate the nuances of their industry, qualities that contribute to a successful launch and operation.
The potential upside investors could gain is usually the first reason anyone invests in newly launched tokens, either on Base or any other chain. Newly launched tokens, especially, can potentially return several multiples of their initial investment.
Most newly launched Base tokens start trading at a significantly low price, allowing investors who are quick on the draw to scoop up large amounts of tokens with relatively small capital.
For example, a $300 investment in Aerodrome Finance’s AERO token during its first few weeks of trading would have netted over $30,000 in profit at its current price (as of writing).
Some projects incentivise users to buy and stake tokens early. For example, wallets that bridged ETH to Base during the first few days of mainnet launch have been allocated memecoins by some projects that want to reward early users.
New Base coins are untested. While tokenomics models may look good on paper, they may not always work as intended.
Crypto history is filled with stories of projects that had to rework their tokenomics because their initial assumptions did not play out. Gala Games is a good example of this. The project started with 50 billion tokens but had to cut it down to 34 billion after the token failed to retain value due to an overly large supply.
Many projects opt to launch a small percentage of their total supply initially, and this can lead to volatile price movements as the tokens are more sensitive to money flows due to their low volume.
A low initial supply could also infer large token unlocks in the future, which could create significant selling pressure.
When a disproportionately large percentage of a token’s total supply is allocated to early investors and team members, the risk that the token gets dumped upon launch is higher.
Some projects protect against this by implementing lock-up periods and emission cliffs. However, even 1-year lockup periods delay token unlocks; they do not eliminate them.
The legality of investing in newly launched Base coins depends on individual projects, not on the fact that they run on Base. Some projects offer services that require some regulatory approval, like those that offer RWA services that require them to partner with traditional financial institutions.
However, just because a new Base coin might unregulated doesn’t automatically make it illegal. This status depends on the laws in the region you live in.
Tools are available to help aid your search for new projects and tokens launching on most blockchain networks, including Base. A good example is Defillama, a platform that tracks money flows across financial apps on popular blockchain networks.
Defillama lists all projects that offer financial services on the Base network, and you can use this information to find new projects that just launched their tokens or are about to.
Crypto social media lives on Twitter, so to catch projects early, you need to be plugged into new projects’ official social media accounts and that of the Base chain. If you don’t know which projects to follow, follow the Base chain’s account, as it tends to retweet posts by new projects.
You can also follow influencers with insider knowledge or connections as they know which projects and tokens are launching before others. If you do not know any influencer accounts, execute an advanced search on Twitter for any successful token launch and find the first account that tweeted about it before or after the launch. Chances are that you’ll find them.
Tracking the projects that VCs fund is a good way to get in early on new projects that have the backing of large venture capital firms. Sites like Coincarp and Cryptorank track funding rounds for crypto projects.
You can then filter out new projects on the Base chain and position for those that haven’t yet launched tokens but are due to launch soon.
To buy new Base tokens, you’ll need to sign up for a low-fee crypto exchange. We used Coinbase because they built the Base network and may be faster in listing Base tokens than other exchanges.
Navigate to the Coinbase website and open an account by clicking Sign Up. Choose the type of account you want, ideally an individual account for a person, and fill out the form with your email, name, and password.
Next, verify your account by submitting KYC documents like a government ID and proof of address documents like a utility bill.
You can either deposit funds into your account or buy crypto directly. Depending on your location, the deposit option may not be available; hence, we went with buying crypto directly.
We explored the best new and upcoming Base projects and chose Friend.tech as our top choice as it is the first social finance platform of its kind, not just on Base but in all of crypto. As such, it has a significant first-mover advantage and is in a unique position to grow.
However, if decentralised social finance does not appeal to you, the four other projects listed are all primed for growth and are in various categories, so you have some diversity.
None of the projects here have launched their tokens yet, but when these new Base coins launch you’ll need to buy them on a crypto exchange. We have a guide that explores the best cryptocurrency exchanges for getting tokens.
The cryptos covered in this guide were chosen through rigorous research. We paid attention to utility, reputation, community, and growth potential.
The tokens listed are the best we found in the various categories we listed them. For example, we listed Avantis as the best upcoming derivatives trading platform as it has a first-mover advantage on perps on Base.
Check out our why trust us and how we test pages for more information on our testing process.