ZORA rallied as high as 44% on May 26 following buzz around a new token launched by ex-Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan

ZORA (ZORA) climbed to an intraday high of $0.0135 on May 26, lifting its market cap beyond $38 million, as trading volume surged 256% to top $48 million in 24 hours.

RALLY: ZORA price soared 44% as Balaji Srinivasan launches new token

ZORA (ZORA) price rallied to an intraday high of $0.0135 on May 26, pushing its market cap past $38 million. Volume also surged 256% to over $48 million in 24 hours.

The move came as several users on X, formerly known as Twitter, reported that Srinivasan had deployed a new token, titled “The Network State”, named after his 2022 book, on the Zora platform.

The token was launched on May 26, 2025.

For those unfamiliar, Zora lets users mint content from decentralized social apps like Farcaster into ERC-20 tokens. This includes text posts, images, videos, or audio—basically anything users would normally post on social media, but on-chain. Once minted, these "content coins" can be listed and traded on platforms like Uniswap.

Users upload their media, set the title and price, and Zora handles the minting. Once live, the content becomes a tradable asset in a decentralized marketplace, where community demand will determine its value.

Within hours of launch, the Network State token reportedly saw its market cap cycle between $2.7 million and $7 million, showcasing strong initial interest.

While it’s a separate asset from ZORA, the shared platform and Balaji’s name seem to have indirectly boosted sentiment for ZORA itself.

Investors are likely anticipating the broader Zora platform to gain traction from the attention. Many users on X pointed out that ZORA may be a safer and more liquid proxy play for those who want exposure to the hype without directly buying into the brand-new token.

What is Zora?

Zora was launched in May 2020 by three former Coinbase (NASDAQ:) employees as a creator-first NFT platform designed to decentralise media and empower content ownership. Initially built to support the minting and trading of NFTs, the platform later evolved to allow users to tokenise on-chain content from decentralised social apps.

In 2023, Zora introduced its own Layer 2 network to improve scalability and reduce costs for content publishing.

By 2025, it expanded further with the launch of a native token, ZORA, described as “a memecoin for the Zora community.” Despite having its own chain, the team launched the token on Base, Coinbase’s Layer 2, on April 23 to tap into its wider user base.

The token has a capped supply of 10 billion. Its distribution includes a 10% airdrop to early users, 20% for community incentives, and 5% for liquidity. The remaining portions will go to the treasury, team, and strategic contributors, all subject to vesting schedules.

In May 2022, Zora secured a $50 million funding round that valued the platform at $600 million. The round was led by Haun Ventures, with contributions from Coinbase Ventures and Kindred Ventures.