Maverick Protocol aims to bring ‘MemeFi’ to Base

Maverick Protocol has launched a “MemeFi” platform on Coinbase’s Base network aiming to bring decentralized finance (DeFi) to memecoins, it told Cointelegraph on Dec. 9. 

Dubbed goose.run, the platform is intended as Base’s answer to Pump.fun, the famed Solana (SOL) memecoin platform.

In addition to matching pump.fun’s core functionalities, such as liquidity bootstrapping for new tokens, goose.run also lets users lend and borrow against memecoins. 

“We think [Base] is pretty greenfield” for memecoin platforms, Bob Baxley, a Maverick contributor, told Cointelegraph. 

“There’s certainly other folks that have tried, but none of them really gotten traction,” Baxley said.

In October, Base became the largest Ethereum layer-2 network by total value locked (TVL). It has a TVL of nearly $4 billion as of Dec. 9, according to DefiLlama.

Related: SecondLane shops Pump.fun equity stake at $1.5B FDV

Borrowing against memecoins

Unlike conventional DeFi lending platforms, such as Aave, which service a two-sided market, on goose.fun “the pool itself is the counterparty for the borrowing,” Baxley said. 

This makes lending and borrowing available “from day one” of memecoin listings, goose.run told Cointelegraph in a statement. 

In theory, tokenholders could use this feature to double down on memecoins with leveraged long positions, Baxley confirmed.

Goose.run also plans to integrate video broadcasting, so memecoin launches become “capital formation for content creation,” Baxley said. 

In addition to goose.run, Maverick operates a decentralized exchange (DEX) on five blockchain networks, including Base.

Legitimate asset class?

Fuelled by venture capital funding and political speculation, memecoins now command upward of $128 billion in market capitalization, according to CoinGecko.

Memecoins are emerging as a “legitimate asset class,” researcher Cryptonary said in a September report, adding that “institutional memecoin holdings reached over $200 million in May, marking an over 220% increase since the start of the year.”

Rather than purely speculation, memecoins play “a vital role in stimulating network activity,” Paul Veradittakit said in April. 

In 2024, the memecoin platform Pump.fun earned more than $1.25 billion in revenues, according to DefiLlama. 

In December, Pump.fun’s revenues dropped after the platform disabled its livestream feature in response to reports of harmful content being broadcast. 

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