What Are Other Chains Doing Amidst the Hype of Robinhood?

Author: 0xFacai

$8.15 million in fees per day, $54.3 million per week.

This is the profit data released today by Pons, the launch platform on the Robinhood Chain.

Leading the narratives of "crypto-stock pairing" and "holding token distribution," platform tokens are soaring, and new "golden dogs" are emerging. Robinhood is attracting on-chain traders to reallocate their funds and time.

For established ecosystems, the threat is imminent. What countermeasures have they taken?

Solana Officially Joins the Fray {#article-toc-33835-2}

On the launch platform side, Solana is betting on StonkFun.

StonkFun allows meme tokens to be paired with stock tokens and other crypto assets. Stock tokens like SPY and assets like ZEC can also serve as trading pairs. The transactions of memes subsequently drive the circulation of these assets on Solana, providing a concrete scenario for crypto-stock pairing and on-chain asset trading.

STONK is the platform token of StonkFun, and a portion of StonkFun's revenue is used to buy back and burn STONK. The buyback panel shows that StonkFun has cumulatively invested about $2.82 million to buy back STONK, with the buyback curve accelerating significantly in early September. The trading heat in the ecosystem can thus be converted into buying pressure for the platform token, and the rise of STONK brings more attention to the launch platform.

The platform also uses a portion of trading fees to buy back and burn the top ten tokens by market capitalization within the ecosystem, distributing weight according to market cap. This gives leading projects the opportunity to continuously receive platform support, and the trading heat can also be transmitted to ecosystem tokens.

ZCAT is one of the most notable among them.

An anonymous cat in a paper bag encapsulates the privacy culture of Zcash into a meme. It pairs with ZEC on Solana and accumulates reward funds through a 3% transfer fee, which is then converted into ZEC and proportionally distributed to eligible holders. Players holding ZCAT have the chance to receive ZEC.

This is also the logic that Ansem emphasized when promoting ZCAT. On September 7, he publicly stated that he bought ZCAT the day before and had already received ZEC distribution. In his view, those who are optimistic about Zcash's continued rise and its market attention will also seek related, more volatile memes; and this meme, placed on Solana where traders have already gathered, makes perfect sense.

Holders of Zcash and meme players are not necessarily the same group. ZCAT provides an intersection for both: the former can see familiar assets and privacy symbols, while the latter can obtain a meme that is easy to spread and can receive ZEC during the holding period. Ansem's role is to present this logic to a larger group of traders.

More eye-catching than KOL promotions is the attitude of Solana's official account.

On the evening of September 7, the Solana official account rarely posted a meme-like image: a person in a suit and a paper bag stands in front of the NYSE podium, with the Solana logo behind him. The caption reads simply, "The bag stays on." The paper bag points to ZCAT, while the stock trading scene echoes STONK.

Behind this image is a series of actions. Previously, Solana's official account and co-founder Toly had interacted with StonkFun; Raydium integrated its issuance business and also posted a cat-themed tweet saying, "I love cats," which was seen as a response by the ZCAT community. The participation of the issuance platform, trading protocol, and ecosystem accounts has amplified the heat of ZCAT.

With this relay, STONK and ZCAT have both surged to new highs.

However, the enthusiasm from the official side has also drawn dissatisfaction from the Solana OG meme community. KOL JW100X questioned why NEET, which has been operating for a year, has not received such treatment, while the new hot topic has only taken two days to get everyone putting paper bags on their heads.

The official now needs to prove that this support for memes within the ecosystem can benefit more seriously managed projects. The visible change at present is that Solana has at least begun to take proactive measures to provide help to the ecosystem.

The Inept Base {#article-toc-33835-3}

On the Base side, the "style suddenly changed" as Hunter Biden announced the launch of LAPTOP on Base on September 9.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the team will receive 30% of the supply, which will be locked for six months and released over two years; airdrop targets include wallets that lost money on TRUMP.

For retail investors who have already developed "PTSD" from celebrity tokens, it is difficult to rebuild trust based solely on a new name and a little airdrop, especially since Hunter Biden is already in significant debt.

"Hunter Biden says he doesn't know how to repay his $15 million debt," now he knows.

Solana has already experienced the aftermath of the celebrity token frenzy. The wild fluctuations of political and celebrity tokens have dragged down the ecosystem's reputation, and disputes surrounding meme issuance and trading have entered the courts, with the "Pump.fun case" even once listing Solana Labs, the foundation, and related executives as defendants. Although the claims against these Solana entities were withdrawn on August 31, the reputational and legal costs incurred by Solana are a precedent for Base.

Moreover, Base's own market situation is a mess.

In this round of popular memes on Base, Basecat and BLUECHIP are two representative high-market-cap tokens. After the LAPTOP news broke, both saw significant price declines, with 24-hour drops of 26.46% and 8.99%, respectively.

Before new buyers appear, the announcement of celebrity tokens is first grabbing the attention of existing players. Those preparing to participate in the new launch need to free up funds, while existing memes still need to compete for buying pressure and maintain community confidence. For already weakened Basecat and BLUECHIP, this competition is closer to draining existing resources, making it hard to celebrate as a positive for the ecosystem.

Cobie has been clarifying for Base, stating: "Issuing tokens on Base does not require Coinbase's permission, and LAPTOP is not a joint issuance by Hunter Biden, Jesse, Coinbase, or Base. The appearance of a token on a permissionless chain does not represent official endorsement."

But this does not address Base's passivity in this round of competition. The official cannot decide who issues tokens but can decide where to allocate its marketing resources and product capabilities. Traders expect an ecosystem worth staying in: existing projects have room for sustainable operation, new applications can meet new demands, and new hot topics can show participants more opportunities.

In this specific meme market, Base has yet to present a response that matches the threat from Robinhood, instead allowing an unissued celebrity token to occupy the center of discussion. The community's dissatisfaction with it stems from this gap.

BSC, on the other hand, has its own rhythm, relying on a relatively fixed path for listing management and a stable base of Chinese retail investors, coupled with the rise of FOMO, allowing the narrative of Chinese tokens to continue spreading. Topics that were originally limited to the Chinese circle can now be seen by more people, and BSC's overall momentum is steadily improving.

Only Base has begun to fall behind, watching Robinhood become the embodiment of its dreams.

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