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Zora
NFT marketplace· founded 2020

Zora: From NFT Platform to Creator Coins on Base

Zora is a crypto app and open-source protocol where creators publish posts that become tradeable tokens. It started in 2020 as an NFT platform and is still widely searched as an "NFT marketplace", but its current protocol turns each creator profile and each post into an ERC-20 "coin" traded on Coinbase's Base network 126. Zora is built by Zora Labs, Inc., a Delaware company 5. The key distinction: buying a Zora coin is buying a volatile token in a trading pool, not a collectible with fixed supply per item, and every trade pays a fee that is split with the creator 23.

Facts checked 9 cited sources No score on this page, no affiliate links
Zora rating and evidence Best nft marketplaces rankingzora.co
Founded2020NFT marketplace Official sitezora.coopens in a new tab Incidents10 with recovery confirmed In our ratingsNFT marketplacesopen the scorecard

At a glance

Company
Zora Labs, Inc. (Delaware), founded 2020 5
Co-founders
Jacob Horne, Dee Goens, Tyson Battistella 5; Dee Goens became CEO in September 2026 8
Type
Creator-coin app and protocol; originally an NFT platform
Network
Base (coins and ZORA token); Zora also launched its own layer 2, Zora Network, in 2023 16
Custody
Coins are on-chain tokens held in the user's wallet
Trading fee
1% on creator and content coins, 0.01% on trend coins 3
Token
ZORA, 10 billion fixed supply, no governance rights 5
Official site
zora.co (docs: docs.zora.co)
Last checked
October 23, 2026

From NFTs to coins

Zora launched in 2020 around minting and trading NFTs, and in 2023 it added Zora Network, its own layer 2 chain built on Optimism's OP Stack 6. In 2025 it shifted to "coins": its current developer documentation covers only the Coins Protocol, which runs on Base 1. Zora Labs raised a $50 million Series A in May 2022 led by Haun Ventures 56.

The company is small. In September 2026 The Defiant reported that co-founder Dee Goens had replaced Jacob Horne as CEO, with headcount under 10 and protocol fees on Base down about 99% from a year earlier 8.

If you are looking for a conventional NFT marketplace with listings and offers, our guide to how NFT marketplaces work covers that model.

How Zora coins work

Every coin has a fixed supply of 1 billion and trades in its own pool on Uniswap V4. A Zora-built "hook" contract attached to each pool collects fees and pays out rewards on every trade 24. There are three types 2:

Coin type What it represents Supply split Paired with
Creator coin One per profile, ticker = username 500M in the pool; 500M to the creator, vesting over 5 years ZORA
Content coin A single post 990M in the pool; 10M to the creator at launch The creator's coin
Trend coin A topic or meme, unique ticker All 1B in the pool; no creator allocation —

Prices move with buying and selling in the pool, so thinly traded coins can swing sharply and large trades suffer slippage. A content coin's value is tied to the creator's coin, which in turn trades against ZORA, so a fall in either flows through 23.

Fees

Creator and content coins charge a 1% fee on each trade (coins created before protocol version 2.2.0 charged 3% unless migrated). The fee is split 3:

Recipient Share of the 1% fee
Creator 50%
Platform referral (app where the coin was created) 20%
Trade referral (app where the trade happened) 4%
Doppler (liquidity tooling) 1%
Zora protocol 5%
Locked back into the pool as liquidity 20%

Rewards are converted and paid in ZORA 2. Trend coins charge only 0.01%, all to the protocol 3.

Sniper tax. For the first 10 seconds after any coin launches, the fee starts at 99% and falls in a straight line to the normal rate. It is meant to deter bots that buy instantly at launch 3. A buyer who trades in those seconds can lose most of the purchase to fees.

Network gas on Base is extra. Illustration with assumed numbers: buying $100 of a creator coin after launch costs $1 in protocol fees, of which $0.50 goes to the creator, plus gas and any price impact.

The ZORA token

ZORA launched on April 23, 2025 on Base with a fixed supply of 10 billion 57. Zora first called it a coin "for fun only", and it carries no governance rights or claim on Zora Labs' equity 567. Launch allocations were 57:

Allocation Share
Investors and strategic contributors 26.1%
Community incentives 20%
Treasury 20%
Team 18.9%
Retroactive airdrop 10%
Liquidity 5%

Team and investor tokens unlock monthly over three years and the treasury over four, each after a six-month delay. About 44.7% was circulating in August 2026, according to Zora's filing 5. Ongoing unlocks add supply. Zora Labs earns a share of coin trading fees, and its filing states that no mechanism directs fees to ZORA holders 5.

Risks to understand

  • Speculative, illiquid tokens. Most creator and content coins have small pools. Prices can fall to near zero and you may not be able to sell meaningful size.
  • Smart-contract risk in Zora's factory and hook contracts, Uniswap V4 and Base 4.
  • Token dilution. Scheduled ZORA unlocks continue into 2028–2029 57.
  • Impersonation and scam coins. Anyone can create a coin; tickers and profile names can mimic real creators. Check the creator's verified profile before buying.
  • Company concentration. A small team operates the app, and the protocol's economics depend on trading activity, which has fallen sharply 8.

Incident record

1 outcome unclear

ZORA airdrop claim exploit

April 24, 2025outcome unclear
One day after launch, an attacker combined Zora's airdrop claim contract with 0x's Settler contract to extract 5,500,777 ZORA, about $128,000 at the time. Zora's filing says neither the ZORA nor the 0x contracts were compromised, and that the funds had not been recovered and no formal post-mortem was published 5. No other incident involving Zora's contracts was found in the DefiLlama hacks database or the sources checked 9.
Outcome
Funds lost (airdrop allocation); not recovered.
Source: blockworks.com

Hacks in DefiLlama’s public database are also scored as the security record on the Zora rating page.

Questions about Zora

Is Zora still an NFT marketplace?
Zora began as an NFT platform, but its current protocol documentation covers creator, content and trend coins on Base rather than NFT listings 12.
How do creators earn on Zora?
From 50% of the 1% fee on every trade of their creator and content coins, paid in ZORA, plus their own vested creator-coin allocation 23.
Does the ZORA token give governance rights?
No. Zora Labs states there is no DAO or foundation and ZORA confers no governance rights 5.
Who owns Zora?
Zora Labs, Inc., a Delaware corporation backed by venture investors including Haun Ventures 56.
What chain does Zora use?
Base, Coinbase's layer 2. Zora also launched its own chain, Zora Network, in 2023 16.

For CoinPulse's separate assessment, see CoinPulse's Zora rating and evidence and the NFT marketplace ratings.

Zora elsewhere on CoinPulse

Rated on open dataZora rating and evidenceScored in nft marketplaces: every criterion, its weight and the source behind it.NFT marketplaces
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Guides for nft marketplaces users

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Sources

  1. 1Zora Docs — documentation index.docs.zora.co
  2. 2Zora Docs — Coins Protocol.docs.zora.co
  3. 3Zora Docs — Protocol Rewards; Trend Coins. ;docs.zora.co
  4. 4Zora Docs — Hook System.docs.zora.co
  5. 5Blockworks — Token Transparency filing: Zora (filed 2026-08-14).blockworks.com
  6. 6The Block — Zora announces 'for fun only' memecoin (2025-03-03).theblock.co
  7. 7crypto.news — Zora to launch token on Apr 23 (2025-04-21).crypto.news
  8. 8The Defiant — Dee Goens replaces Jacob Horne as CEO (2026-09-09).thedefiant.io
  9. 9DefiLlama — Hacks database. (API accessed 2026-10-23)defillama.com

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What changed on this page

  • 2026-10-23Profile created.
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