DEGEN—a memecoin on Coinbase’s L2 network Base —skyrocketed in price and trading volume over the last 24 hours after its inclusion on the exchange’s listing roadmap and Base’s architect Jesse Pollak joining the firm’s executive team.

Named for crypto traders who take outsized risks and even irrational actions, the DEGEN token has seen its price jump 127% from $0.004 on Tuesday to $0.009 at presstime, while its volume grew by a multiple of 15 from $8.5 million to $136.8 million, data from CoinGecko shows. 

DEGEN’s spikes came shortly after Coinbase made public on Tuesday on X that DEGEN was added to the exchange’s listings roadmap. While a spokesperson for Coinbase said the company does not comment on specific asset listings, she said “any asset that Coinbase Exchange affirmatively decides to list” is put onto the roadmap.

DEGEN pumping also follows Pollak’s announcement on Monday that he was now the lead on Coinbase Wallet and had joined the exchange’s executive team. 

Read More: Coinbase Launches Its Smart Wallets, Dubbing It Crypto’s ‘IPhone Moment’

Listing Tokens With Activity Aids Coinbase’s Bottom Line

Memecoins often increase the activity of the blockchain they reside on. For example, the memecoin frenzy on Solana caused an uptick in the network’s fees and users. Since Base’s onchain activity directly corresponds to Coinbase’s net income, the firm’s inclusion of the DEGEN memecoin is strategic. 

“Memecoin season seems to be going from one blockchain to another. It arrived to Solana, TRON, TON and now Base,” said CryptoQuant’s head of research Julio Moreno to Unchained over Telegram. “For Coinbase, [the upcoming listing of DEGEN] is important in order to attract more user and transaction activity into Base as Coinbase generates revenue from transaction fees.”

“Base is becoming a core revenue generator for [Coinbase] so it makes sense to see them double down in onchain stuff, [namely adding DEGEN to its listing roadmap],” wrote an investment researcher at an early-stage venture capital company, who asked to remain anonymous since they did not receive permission from their employer to talk to the media. “Listing tokens from the Base ecosystem naturally drives more onchain transactions and trading activity,” he added. 

Read More: What Base’s Rapidly Growing Revenue and Usage Means for Coinbase Stock

DEGEN’s soon-to-be arrival to the exchange makes the memecoin the fourth token native to Base to have support for spot trading on Coinbase, joining lending platform Moonwell’s WELL, decentralized exchange Aerodrome’s AERO, and borrowing platform Seamless’ SEAM, according to Rishi Prasad, who works on product at Coinbase. 

News Boosts Flagging DEGEN Price

The substantial price increase has helped those in the DEGEN community, such as users on decentralized network Farcaster, specifically those in the degen channel. “Degens euphoric,” wrote @Garrett, who is growth lead at digital design studio Lazer Technologies, in the degen channel, while another user @MacBudkowski said, “Imagine how much it’d have pumped if the world wasn’t on the brink of the world war 3,” referring to escalating conflict between Iran and Israel. Farcaster channels are akin to subreddits where users can post content related to the channel’s focus. 

“$DEGEN hasn’t had many catalysts recently yet the community has still been tipping in $DEGEN,” wrote Luciano DeAngelo, a builder and active user on Farcaster, to Unchained via Telegram. Users of Farcaster can receive an allocation of DEGEN through airdrops and tip other creators for quality content with their allocated DEGEN. “Those who have continued to participate in the mechanism despite price decline are now being rewarded,” DeAngelo added. The 8th airdrop round for DEGEN went live on Sept. 27, 2024. 

On March 31, 2024, DEGEN was trading at roughly 5.7 cents, making its market cap nearly $710 million, but by the end of June, the token shed the vast majority of its value, dumping to less than a cent. The market cap for the memecoin has been sub $100 million for the last three months, before its recent October gains which helped its market cap surpass $160 million at the time of writing. 

DEGEN, while native to Base, is also used as a gas payment token for Degen Chain, a layer 3 blockchain that is less than a year old and built atop Base.