BaseCTO: A Movement From the Trenches. Reigniting the Base Ecosystem

8 min readSep 8, 2024

The Story of BaseCTO

Introduction

Im Gorgepappa. Ive been involved in tons of projects on Base in all kinds of roles. As a project leader, team member, advisor and as a community member. I was one of the main guys behind the BaseCTO movement before it became a token.

This is my personal account of the journey so far — what we’ve been through, how we’ve rallied, and where we’re headed. From the initial disappointment that sparked the movement to the unexpected twists that ruined and then reshaped the project, this is the story of BaseCTO as I’ve experienced it, along with my reflections on the progress we’ve made and the exciting future that lies ahead.

The Birth of a Movement

On July 8, a group of core community members from Okayeg launched a new initiative. It began simply — a group chat on X (formerly Twitter) — inviting the best minds from the Base ecosystem. At first, no one quite knew the group’s purpose. However, it quickly gained momentum as a collective response to the community’s frustration with the so-called “Onchain-summer,” which had fallen short of expectations.

The mood across Base projects was grim. Prices were down, engagement was low, and motivation was dwindling. Yet, this group chat became a refuge, where members rallied together, supported each other, and brainstormed ways to reignite the Base ecosystem. Soon, the movement migrated to Telegram, where it truly came to life.

Some proposed backing a single project, believing that pushing a meme project to a $100 million market cap could ignite interest and get attention back to Base. Others preferred to support all Base projects equally, creating a cooperative atmosphere. Despite these differences, the group maintained high spirits, raiding for each other and engaging in playful banter, including memorable skits about Jesse Pollak. Even Jesse himself eventually joined the Telegram group.

The Unplanned Token Launch

Then came an unexpected twist. Out of nowhere, someone launched a token with the ticker $CTO and shared it in the Telegram group. No one knew who had created the coin, and this caught the community off guard. Up until that point, the group had agreed they wouldn’t launch a token; their focus was purely on supporting the Base ecosystem. The introduction of $CTO divided the group.

Initially, I wasn’t keen on $CTO. But as key members of the group began buying in, I knew it would pump and decided to follow suit — only to face technical difficulties with my wallets. I spent all night trying to buy, while the market cap skyrocketed from $10K to $300K. After smashing a couple of keyboards and mobile phones i went to bed. The next morning, it hit $12M. And a couple of hours later it hit 16M.

For me, it felt like i missed out on the biggest play of my life. And i had worked hard to build up the BaseCTO movement. But instead of sulking, I decided to help the community push forward, even though I didn’t hold any $CTO. The momentum was incredible, with the Base community rallying behind the project. Content creators joined in, producing amazing art and videos for BaseCTO. It felt like we were finally on the path to achieving our dream of hitting $100 million marketcap with a project from the trenches and sparking real interest in Base again.

The Rise and Fall: Chaos Within

Unfortunately, chaos soon followed. Personally I was focused on building the strongest raiding team on Base. But at the same time it was clear that the team became dysfunctional. The $CTO launch had been unplanned, and no one knew who was truly in charge. Decision-making was slow and it was hard to get things done.And a constnat sell pressure from unknown wallets caused panic in the community and further paralyzed the team. The market cap, that hit $16M within 24 hours of launch, plummeted to $1.3M. This served as a floor for a couple of days. And it looked like it could turn from here.

And just when the community has regained some faith, news broke that someone had ran off with the marketing wallet, which held 1% of the token supply. This was the last drop for a lot of the big holders, and caused even loyal whales to sell. It was a brutal week, and the setbacks was just piling up. I felt responsible, even if I had nothing to do with any of the BS that went down. But I continued to engage with the community, trying to work it out. By the time the dust settled, the market cap had dropped to $180K. A project with a narrative and the resources to run to 100m or even 1B was wasted, because of greed and incompetance.

The Community Takeover: The Rebirth of BaseCTO

Kind of ironic. A token with the ticker $CTO. And the narrative is about doing a CTO of Basechain. And now we had to CTO it.

At this point, many thought it was the end of $CTO, but a core group refused to give up. They pushed for a community takeover, personally I knew how much of a struggle this would be, and i must admit the motivation was not top. But after much convincing, I agreed to lead the effort, to try to give the project and the community a second chance. We got control of the socials, and came up with a plan.

What emerged was an even better story — BaseCTO became truly organic. It was now a community-driven project with great distribution and an engaged, hard-working team.

We wanted BaseCTO to return to its roots. Turn it into a movement that reflected the Base community’s values: mutual support, shared goals, and a commitment to uplifting the entire Basechain ecosystem.

Strengthening the Core: Building a Dedicated Group

We have always had a strong core community. The guys who refused to give up and kept fighting even after the 99% retrace.

But one of the most exciting recent developments has been the formation of a new group of strong supporters. The team has gotten several new resourceful additions. Having a committed and influential team is crucial to running BaseCTO efficiently. This new group aims to streamline operations while driving the project forward. Recently we have had very productive weeks, and despite very rough market conditions, we managed to hit a $1M market cap again several times. Before the market hit us with another surprise out of our control.

We have managed to show real strength in a extremely difficult situation. And that was without any resources and with minimal support. Going forward we have enhanced support, marketing funds and a stronger team/community than ever.

Several exciting developments are in the pipeline for BaseCTO, including:

Partnerships: We’re formalizing partnerships to ensure they are mutually beneficial and properly managed. Our newly hired partnerships manager has already made significant progress, and we are working on utilizing our partners even more effectively.

NFT Collection: We’re planning a unique NFT collection featuring prominent Basechain characters and our partners. We think this collection can get a lot of attention, as it is another step towards uniting the memes of Base. Now inside a big NFT collection. This is still in the planning phase, but we’re are in touch with several artists for collaboration.
Game Development: A new game is nearing release, and despite our modest market cap, it’s been attracting attention for its high-quality development. The game looks great and we are excited to keep working towards the release. It will feature a lot of Basechain characters and our partners, just like our planned NFT Collection. Our game developer is working fulltime with developing the game, and he will keep adding features and potential utilities to the game.

Social Media Growth: Our social reach is expanding, with 500 new Twitter followers and over 2,000 Telegram members. Now sitting at 4700 twitter followers, and 3700 telegram memebrs. These numbers reflect growing interest in the project. Our reach on socials is something that we value, as it also gives us the opportunity to use it to support our frens.
Network Expansion: We now have 25 project leaders in the BaseCTO council, we are bouncing ideas, sharing tools and promote eachother through co-marketing stunts. This network can give us and our partners an edge, and gives us the opportunity to solidify our position as a leading project in the Base ecosystem.
The Elite Bag Working Squad (EBWS) — a group of 40 dedicated members — has been working tirelessly on various aspects of the project. The collaboration with EBWS has also boosted our marketing wallet from 0.5% to 0.85% of the total supply. EBWS remains fully committed to growing BaseCTO.

The Road Ahead

Our conviction helped us build a strong core community. However, I recognize that a dedicated group of committed supporters is crucial for the next stage of our journey.

BaseCTO stands at the threshold of an exciting future. The foundation and vision are in place, the team is becoming stronger and more organized, and the community’s passion remains a driving force. We’ve seen incredible highs and some challenging lows, but the resilience and creativity of the BaseCTO community continues to push the project forward.

With the growing network and community and numerous upcoming initiatives, BaseCTO has all the potential to climb to the very top of Basechain, solidifying its position as a unique and impactful project.
And when we do this, it will be one of the all time great stories in crypto. With all these these backlashes, all of them out of our control. The community has kept their conviction. The underdog story, and the goal of the project is to support deserving people and their projects. So even if you dont buy it, you should definetly be rooting for us.

We are becoming The Base Native Token. With or without you.