Onchain Summer: What new engagement trend aims to revive crypto enthusiasm?

A new social media trend is rising, affecting search results and engagement. “Onchain Summer” aims to revive engagement with crypto projects and bring back interest in niche tokens as market prices freeze in a tight range. 

Onchain summer is a way to boost projects and drive engagements, especially on X. The trend also focuses on the Base blockchain. Multiple roles are trying to get on board, including developers, token issuers, NFT mints, and other hype trends. 

gm, bm, wm ☕️

It's #onchainsummer ☀️

Don't forget your daily warpium!$WARPIE@WarpieTheWombat
👉 https://t.co/hgeM59fYzQ pic.twitter.com/2P2xODbXt1

— CULT8R3U (🪬,🪬) (@CULT8R3U) June 7, 2024

Onchain summer also refers mostly to the Base blockchain, but has been used for other projects. 

Onchain Summer trend reflected on search engines

The “Onchain Summer” trend now appears in searches. Interest in the phrase appeared for the first time in the middle of May. In June, interest expanded to 100 points while also getting a boost on social media. 

However, Google search volumes for the “onchain” term appeared to grow even earlier, rising with the 2024 bull market. 

The “onchain summer” trend originated with Jesse Pollak, the Coinbase engineer behind the Base blockchain. Pollak set the new trend back in February, claiming that “onchain is the new online.” 

The goal of “onchain” was to replace earlier hype trends, especially Web3 and “crypto”. Pollak aimed to find a new incentive to build while shifting the focus from the financial side to the risk of crypto projects. 

Read: A Deep Dive Into The Base Chain, The Coinbase Blockchain

The onchain term also reflects the Base approach of being a tokenless chain, focused on building and identity. Base is also one of the cheapest chains to use, aiming for mass adoption. 

Coinbase’s smart wallet is also part of the onchain trend. The goal is to turn blockchain identities into an experience similar to web logins. A new generation of crypto users may not even want to create a self-custodial wallet and go through the task of connecting to new apps every time. Coinbase’s smart wallet aims to bring the user “onchain” with a simpler login process.

To boost engagement, Pollack also presented a new NFT tool, where the “onchain summer” trend also translates into minting new NFT. The trend is also driving a big campaign for the Coinbase ecosystem, while relying on free mints, gas fee subsidies and calls for content creation.

mint your OᑎᑕᕼᗩIᑎ ᔑᑌᗰᗰEᖇ PFP for the summer https://t.co/So8XyW1BUv

— Jesse Pollak (jesse.xyz) 🛡️ (@jessepollak) June 6, 2024

The onchain trend is spreading to Farcaster, as Pollack also targets crypto natives who want to switch to a new community. The drive for “onchain summer” will extend to real-life meetups with communities in New York, Singapore, Lagos, Lisbon, and Buenos Aires. 

Onchain Summer already attracts scammers

One sign of the “onchain trend” taking off is that scammers are trying to exploit Base users. Previously, it was harder for scammers to extract seed phrases, and assets could be stolen only through sophisticated attacks with smart contracts. 

Also read: Bitcoin (BTC) Bull or Bear Market? Google Trends May Hold the Hints

The Coinbase identity on Base, which aims to onboard newcomers, also returns with account theft scams. 

Just got a call from a person who said they were security @coinbase

Told me someone tried to change my password from Europe and if it wasn't me their security was going to look into it and they were going to send me a new email with a way to change the password

I said to the… pic.twitter.com/Tk9YPcNp04

— Don't follow Shardi B if you hate Crypto (@ShardiB2) June 5, 2024

Since its launch, Base blockchain has also faced problems with fake tokens, which may be disguised as other valuable assets. To increase security, Coinbase partnered with Spearbit, a Web3 security startup, which will help boost the security of the Base blockchain. 

We're excited to announce we will be providing priority rates and security reviews to the @base ecosystem.

The Base team is dedicated to secure their burgeoning ecosystem and we couldn't be happier to be along for the ride. pic.twitter.com/rt8CBSX59w

— Spearbit (@SpearbitDAO) June 4, 2024

The Uniswap version on Base grew its volumes by 40% in the past month. The total value locked in Base also expanded to $1.74B from around $300M in April 2024. 

The Base blockchain carries around 2.5M daily transactions, with around 100K active daily users. At this rate, Base is hosting 20% of Ethereum’s daily users. To boost growth, Base is targeting all communities with its “onchain summer” trend. Base is also capable of carrying assets from other chains, although the inflows through the Base bridge slowed down in the past two months.

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Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva