# $ZORA: The Thesis, and What’s Playing Out Now

> Our thesis now and then

**Published by:** [Social Graph Ventures](https://paragraph.com/@socialgraphventures/)
**Published on:** 2025-07-21
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@socialgraphventures/zora-the-thesis

## Content

Our Thesis (Then) When we first published this memo internally, $ZORA had just launched. The token was dropping fast. The narrative wasn’t clear. But we weren’t betting on a memecoin. We were betting on a protocol shipping with speed. One that could monetize attention directly onchain. Over the years, Zora had evolved from:A minting platform → Into its own L2 → Into a consumer monetization app for creatorsWhat stood out early:High-velocity shipping: AI-gen content, USDC support, mobile-first UXA viral creator coin modelClear fee capture and protocol revenueA team with product and market design DNAThe mechanics were tight:Creators mint content → fans buy coinsLiquidity routes through $ZORACoins quote-paired on Uniswap v4Zora Labs collects ~0.25% of every tradeAt peak, Zora hit ~$5B in annualized volume and ~$6M in run-rate revenue. Even though most of the trading volume happened off-app, we saw that as a wedge. Not a weakness. What’s Playing Out Now $ZORA is still down from its post-TGE high. But the product is in a stronger position. Creator coins launched, and they work. Any user can mint a creator coin, which is bonded to a content coin. Coins trade on bonding curves, quote to $ZORA , and settle instantly. It feels like a TikTok feed with embedded markets, where attention is liquid.Feed and screens Engagement is healthy:Creators with 5+ post interactions show 11–27% D30 retention (a16z cites 25% D30 as strong for social)Increasing cohort usage from creators, from 3 posts per month on month 1, to 10 by month 4.The quote model compounds usage, pioneered by Virtuals. Each coin trade touches:The creatorThe buyerZora LabsAnd the $ZORA token itselfReferral flows, top-holder comment pins, and monetized posts are beginning to structure the attention economy. This is a consumer product that earns protocol revenue. Distribution is getting solved. Zora is now deeply integrated with Base through TBD, an official, TikTok-style app built around Zora rails. This isn't just a monetization layer. It’s becoming infrastructure. They distill it in 6 core pillars:In app user sharing: All flows will promote users to share their content on other social mediaCreator Partnerships & Incentives: 1M allocated to onboarding sub 10k tiktok + 50-60k IG followers creators across music, fashion, lifestyle and mememakingNew users: Paid marketing on social channels, with a focus on TikTok20% of the total TGE is being allocated for incentives: Both trading incentives on pools, but also other types of incentives to grow the community.Events and media: Podcasts and events with a crypto focus but also a creator focusDev partnerships: Teams like Base, Noice, and others are integrating and building on top of the Zora protocolA quick search of “Zora” on tiktok shows virtually no results, and the chances of it growing and going viral, with some efforts, are high. Metrics CheckFrom our Dune Zora currently trades at ~$250-300M FDV. Volume peaked at $1.8B monthly annualized. Fee structure: ~1% total, with ~0.25% to Labs. That’s ~$18M in annual protocol revenue at peak. Volume is now at 594M annualized, July month-through. And that’s with just ~4-7k daily active creators. We think Zora has the UX and economic model to onboard 10–100x that base over the next 12 months. More metrics in our Dune here: https://dune.com/socialgraphvc/dollarzora Labs Entities as R&D Spend There’s an ongoing debate in crypto around protocol vs. Labs value capture. We don’t speak for Zora Labs, but we’ve spoken with the team multiple times and this is how we frame it: Labs revenue is best seen as R&D spend. The 0.25% cut to Labs isn’t value extraction, it’s the fuel for:Iterating on creator toolingBuilding growth infraRunning ecosystem experimentsImproving UX across mobile and webIf Labs succeeds in compounding usage, building stickier monetization, and deepening protocol liquidity, that value will reflect back into the token. It’s a cost center. Just one that ships. Ads One of the biggest open questions, risk, and opportunity is ads. Right now, brands aren’t participating in the content coin economy. But the opportunity is there. If Zora can build an ad system native to its coin mechanics, where brands pay to sponsor posts, hold coin supply, or amplify creators, it becomes a self-reinforcing attention market.Top coin holder pins a commentBalaji's on Ads There are already glimpses:Pinned comments let top coin holders display a messageThat’s an early ad unitIt can evolve into brand-native monetization for posts and campaignsIf Zora pulls this off, it won't just be paying creators. It’ll be routing brand dollars through token rails, and doing so natively, not via banners or popups. We think they’ll get there. The Team The team has backgrounds from Coinbase, and has been consistently high-velocity and focused on building unique experiences that combine crypto-native and Web2-native UX. They’ve pushed the space forward with new ideas like bonding-curve-based quote coins, content-based tokenization, and referral mechanics. Zora has shown it’s willing to experiment publicly and build fast, traits we value in teams going after new social, creator, and monetization mechanics. Jacob Horne – Co-founder & CEO Former product manager at Coinbase, pushing USDC and Coinbase Ventures, two of the greatest product lines within Coinbase. He focused on Ethereum and DeFi integrations. Jacob is known for his deep thinking on crypto market design, NFTs, and creator monetization. He is the public face of Zora and frequently shares vision and updates via interviews and X. He previously worked on crypto-enabled fashion projects and has been building Zora since 2019. Dee Goens – Co-founder Ex-marketer at Coinbase, and a veteran of the early NFT movement and creative communities. Dee has played a key role in shaping Zora’s early ecosystem partnerships and community strategy. He's focused on making Zora accessible to underrepresented creators and emerging digital cultures. Tyson Battistella – Co-founder & CTO Leads engineering at Zora. Tyson was previously at Coinbase as well, working on smart contract infrastructure. He architected many of the protocol components Zora uses today, including its minting tools and L2 integrations. Token Zora raised $60M, lastly at ~$600M from Haun Ventures. With a "multiyear runway", according to the team. ​​$ZORA token has a total supply of 10 billion tokensStrategic Contributors (Investors): 26.1% (2.61 billion $ZORA)Treasury: 20% (2.00 billion $ZORA)Community Incentives: 20% (2.00 billion $ZORA)Team: 18.9% (1.89 billion $ZORA)Airdrop: 10% (1.00 billion $ZORA)Liquidity: 5% (0.50 billion $ZORA)UnlocksAirdrop (10%) and Liquidity (5%): Fully unlocked at Token Generation Event (TGE) on April 23, 2025.Community Incentives (20%): Fully unlocked at TGE, available for immediate distribution to support ecosystem growth.Team (18.9%) and Strategic Contributors (26.1%): Subject to a 6-month cliff post-TGE, followed by linear monthly vesting over 36 months.Treasury (20%): Subject to a 6-month cliff post-TGE, followed by linear monthly vesting over 48 monthsThis means that the 6 month cliff post TGE, on Oct 23 2025, the team and investors will have unlocked the initial set of supply of the token. Final Thoughts Yes, the token is still down. But:Usage is climbingEcosystem integrations are deepeningCreator retention is slowly getting healthyAnd protocol revenue is realZora isn’t a pure memecoin play. It’s a monetization rail for the crypto-native attention economy. We still think it’s one of the clearest bets in consumer crypto today.The foregoing material is provided to professionals of Social Graph Ventures LLC and solely for the purpose of such individuals’ evaluation of the investment opportunity described herein. This material is not intended to provide any person with investment advice or any recommendation regarding the appropriateness or merit of any investment for such person on an individual basis. These materials are not intended to create any investment advisory relationship.

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