Across a quick rewind to late December 2023, this narrative answers what is degen in crypto by following how the $DEGEN token appeared on Base, scaled from a meme into a movement, and ultimately shaped its own lane. Through posts made on Farcaster’s decentralized social app, we trace the token’s community, culture, and onchain mechanics like a guided tour for any crypto user curious about this story.
Farcaster-First Tokens on the Blockchain Social Graph
Before $DEGEN took the stage, other experiments on Base L2 were already testing the waters on Farcaster’s social network. Satire around off-chain scoring surfaced as $POINTS from Rainbow Wallet collaborators, while $WOWOW riffed on minimal-effort replies referenced by cofounder Dan Romero; naturally, the irreverent $FARTS showed up too. For tracking and storing assets across chains, Zerion Wallet remained a popular mobile app among this crowd.
Those early trials showed Farcaster works as an ideal launch ramp for crypto tokens and their meme lore:
- Using onchain handles for curated allowlists — distribution can be targeted
- Tight, crypto-literate audience — a niche user base ready to trade
- Channels as ready-made rooms — community building lands quickly
Building inside a channel with an existing audience tends to accelerate growth more than starting from zero.
Airdrop 1 and the Build of the Core
Right around Christmas, Jacek, the lead developer behind $DEGEN, revealed the project. At that time, Farcaster had under two thousand daily users; most were builders or classic degens who lived onchain. Among the app’s channels, the /degen room—created early by the Warpcast team—was a lively spot for discussing prices, risk, and how not to get rekt.
The first airdrop allocated fifteen percent of a 37B supply to Farcaster posters active in /degen, with multipliers for actions that drove engagement. The distribution model aimed to avoid concentrating the token among a few large accounts and instead reward a broad base of users.
A separate fifteen percent went toward a market-making pool so that a total collapse would effectively require every wallet to claim and immediately sell at once—Jacek noted this design as a rough price floor during an Aburro conversation. That fair approach to launch forged a holder base aligned with the meme’s identity and culture. For many, the token became a badge signaling onchain-native credibility, and momentum arrived fast.
Community-Led Brand and Degen Wallet Culture
Beyond a name and ticker, branding initially was almost nonexistent. The community itself assembled the look, language, and in-jokes. OG Farcaster users like , @wake, and @ helped define key memes for the token’s culture and social identity.
- Native nickname for holders — Degentlemen
- Aspirational outcome — Degenerational wealth
- Core symbol for messages — Top hat emoji flair
The top hat gesture hinted at a playful Farcaster aristocracy: being early, being different, and avoiding the noise of other social platforms. That emblem made it easy for users to rally around a shared story.
Degentlemen Chat and App Alpha
Once Warpcast introduced private rooms for group discussion, the DEGEN crowd moved swiftly. 0xen spun up the Degentlemen chat, capped initially at about two hundred people. The roster quickly became a who’s who of the Farcaster elite; even Marc Andreessen appeared briefly before being re-added after a short removal. That chat turned into an information hub for updates, app alpha, and coordination.
Logo Design: Build the Visuals
A community bounty invited designers to deliver a logo. The temporary icon—a purple poker chip with a dollar sign—felt recognizable to any degen but lacked uniqueness. Submissions overwhelmingly emphasized two ideas that matched the social narrative and Base roots.
- Meme-forward icon — Top hat as the visual anchor
- Farcaster colorway — Purple palette for origin consistency
Early Support From Farcaster and an App Feature
All the DEGEN chatter appeared to lift platform metrics. As a surprise, Dan Romero shipped a fun touch: a top hat reaction that automatically appeared on casts mentioning $DEGEN. That small feature gave the meme extra visibility inside the social feed.
Bountycaster and Developer Support
The token’s energy started to reach builders beyond trading circles. Bountycaster added payouts denominated in $DEGEN, allowing developers to build, get support, and be rewarded in the same token the community already used every day.
Degen Bot: Trade Feeds on Social
Because Farcaster is open and largely onchain, anyone can ship new tools without central approval. One day after launch, @ released a bot that broadcast onchain $DEGEN trades into the feed. Large buys triggered celebration; sells occasionally drew good-natured shaming, prompting some users to justify why they hit the sell button.
Basepaint Day 169 on Blockchain Art
Collaborative pixel art on Basepaint fit the DEGEN vibe perfectly. @ pitched the theme that day and it won. The finished piece, Day 169, later traded at a notably higher floor compared to most other days. With just 713 editions, it became a collectible onchain artifact—and one print hangs in Jacek’s office.
Market-Making Rewards on Base
A meme coin must land both its story and its market mechanics. $DEGEN balanced culture and coin: incentives for providing depth on Uniswap were generous and accessible beyond whales. Because Base offers minimal fees and easy onboarding from Coinbase, many first-time users tried LPing as a way to learn and trade with low costs.
People who missed the pricey DeFi summer now could add funds for under a dollar in gas, even testing with fifty dollars to understand the app flow. A public scoreboard added a competitive twist, helping growth and keeping users engaged through updates.
Frames App Feature Launch
On January 26, Farcaster rolled out Frames—interactive mini-apps that live directly in the feed. Jacek announced a bounty calling for a $DEGEN Frame, and developers delivered quickly: giveaways, NFT mints paid in the token, and simple games that rewarded winners with DEGEN.
Excitement extended well beyond degens; builders from across web3 flocked to the social network to ship features. Usage spiked visibly—one glance at analytics makes the Frames launch date easy to spot.
Momentum Spills to Crypto Twitter
Alongside the Frames wave, $DEGEN’s price movement grabbed attention outside Farcaster. With Farcaster lacking a native token, $DEGEN informally became the network’s coin in the eyes of many farmers, who assumed using the token might help them farm Farcaster exposure. New users poured in, boosting both holder count and price through early February.
As the community joked about “removing zeros,” veterans and newcomers alike rode the trend.
Integrations Across Apps and Protocols
As the token’s price climbed and the meme carried momentum, integrations started to stack up. Protocol and app teams targeted Degentlemen as a sought-after audience. Timeswap, for instance, introduced leverage—an option the degen crowd often gravitates toward—giving more ways to trade and hedge.
Angel Round and Funding Update
In early February, roughly a million dollars’ worth of ETH was swapped into $DEGEN; later, Nick Tomaino of 1confirmation confirmed the move. Shortly after, Jacek announced an angel raise of 490 ETH—about $1.5M at the time—backed by Farcaster heavyweights, signaling continued support from core builders.
Feb 22: Claiming Rewards by LPs
Late February brought the first claim window for incentives paid to those adding depth to pools. With ETH rallying and a broader uptick in crypto, many early participants realized gains. The $DEGEN chart dipped temporarily, but the retrace did not last long as demand returned.
Airdrop 2 and Tipping App
While Frames dominated attention, Jacek unveiled the second airdrop and introduced daily tipping. Users received a small $DEGEN allowance each day to tip posts on Farcaster, adding a social rewards layer inside the app’s feed.
Initial excitement invited spammers and bot farmers, especially as Crypto Twitter discovered Farcaster. Jacek responded with rule changes that disallowed 3,3-style engagement baiting and farmer behavior. Over time, tipping became more organic; as the token appreciated, daily limits carried real value, and users aimed support toward genuinely helpful content.
At one point, nearly a third of all casts included $DEGEN references, a sign of how deeply it crossed into everyday conversation.
More Markets: Aerodrome and First CEX Listings
Although a Coinbase listing remained a dream for many holders, access continued to broaden. Aerodrome—Base’s counterpart to Velodrome—provided new incentives and yield routes for those contributing to trading depth. By March, listings appeared on several CEXes such as BitMart, HTX, BingX, Poloniex, and others.
Organically, $DEGEN became the most widely listed token from the Base ecosystem, and basic game theory suggested additional exchanges would list to meet user demand rather than cede new clients.
Apps With DEGEN and Grants
The concentration of active holders made the token enticing for consumer app builders. Perl, a Farcaster-native betting game, adopted $DEGEN as its in-game currency; Jacek followed by awarding a 10M DEGEN grant to support that integration and help the project grow.
Drakula App Uses $DEGEN
Then the vampires arrived. Drakula—Alex Masmej’s web3 video app resembling TikTok—launched with DEGEN-based rewards as a key go-to-market tactic. It became one of the first consumer apps to lean on a memecoin to acquire, retain, and motivate users at scale, and the strategy delivered strong engagement.
What’s Next for the Token
By this point, calling $DEGEN just a memecoin misses the bigger picture. The community sculpted a brand that evolved into Farcaster’s unofficial currency, spanning tips, games, and countless social use cases. Price performance likely extended runways for a new wave of creators and developers to build on Base.
Next up is DEGEN Chain, a Layer-3 where $DEGEN pays for gas and degen-native apps can flourish. Expect more tokens to launch there, feeding growth for Farcaster, the broader ecosystem, and the degen wallet experience across web3.
Whatever unfolds, one outcome feels certain: teams will analyze this playbook, adapt it, and try to recreate parts of an unlikely, unforgettable crypto chapter. Try DEGEN in Zerion Wallet to help you explore, trade, and keep track of updates.
