The Base network has experienced a surge in token issuance driven by Zora's "content token" mechanism, yet it faces a decline in active addresses and transaction volume, according to a report by PANews on January 28. This highlights a "vanity metric" issue, where the ease of issuing low-cost tokens inflates statistics without fostering genuine user engagement or economic activity. A notable example is the $thenickshirley token, launched by content creator Nick Shirley. Despite initial hype and a market cap peak of $15 million, the token's value has plummeted to around $75,000, with minimal trading volume. Analysts criticize such tokens for lacking a fundamental value proposition, describing them as "speculation on speculation."