Background
Three months ago, Alex (proxystudio.eth) launched Clanker, a Farcaster bot that lets anyone launch an ERC20 token on Base with a simple prompt. Since then, 50,000+ tokens have been launched, 183,000 people have traded them, and total trading volume has surpassed $1.7 Billion.
Like many on the purple app, I and Puneet joined in the degen trading frenzy. It has been an interesting experience. But it also made us curious about how others trade. This post is based on conversations with 25 amazing people on farcaster who shared their experiences.
The Lifecycle of a Trade

The process starts with spotting a newly launched token or one showing breakout potential. Then comes basic vetting to ensure it’s not a rugpull. After that, the trade is made based on risk appetite, followed by an exit decision driven by profit targets or acceptable losses.
How Farcaster finds Alpha
Interface is by far one of the leading ways through which farcaster users are discovering new tokens. It’s a social network where you can follow wallets, see what tokens (both fungible and non fungible) they are buying and selling and even copy their trades. It integrates well with farcaster and you can look up your farcaster friends on the app.
I cant do anything without interface and trust me you cant find sth like it on other chain and interface is an alpha itself. You actually know what token people or whale follow and trade. Its just not like other alpha call group which people normally ape first then give a signal to you.
Tony isn’t the only. Many others shared their love for Interface.
Beyond Interface, most people discovered tokens through their Farcaster or X feed from posts by someone they followed and respected. One surprising avenue of discovery, at least for me, were airdrops. Quite a few folks shared having received an airdrop that they got and then decided to buy some more of the airdropped token.
In addition to these, group chats on farcaster, telegram, and whatsapp are other popular mediums of discovering alpha. Also, tools like Dexscreener and specialized products like Alphagate (shout out to @beavs for sharing) and Arkham Intelligence (h/t to @skrim) help folks identify trending tokens.
The Vetting before the Buying
Crypto Trading ain’t for the faint-hearted. There are countless ways of getting rekt.
Tools like Dexscreener, Tokensniffer, and Bubblemaps help knowing if the contracts are safe, the LP burnt, and the supply fair. Infact, probably, an under appreciated aspect of Clanker had been how it made trading meme coins safer.
before clankers, base was filled with honey pots. I usually did my research, and had a test tx. but I still fell for one with more than $1 test tx, despite tokensniffer and geckoterminal saying it is not a honeypot. Clankers make sure this does not happen
Social signaling is the biggest factor in deciding whether to ape into a token. A few, though, take time to vet—checking if the project idea is novel, the website looks decent, and analyzing price movement and market cap within their range.
The Struggles before the Gold Rush
Good Alpha by nature tends to spread fast. This means once you have spot one you would want to execute your trade as soon as you can. Surprisingly though, this is one of the biggest challenges people face on Base.
From hearing about a token to buying it, the process is a bit longer, considering time matters so much. By the time you trade, the price may have already pumped hard.
Two factors slow down trading. First, the user workflow—discovery and vetting require jumping between apps to check different data points before buying.
Second, Ethereum’s approval process adds friction before trades can go through. Users usually require multiple attempts and bear high slippage to close the buy. Some users bypass this by using Telegram bots like Sigma and Banana Bot, which offer a faster mobile interface for execution.
Beyond this, Matcha emerged as the most popular DEX aggregator among Farcaster users, but many still preferred in-wallet swaps or swapping directly on Uniswap.
Making the Exit
People sell to take profits, rotate into a more promising token, or cut losses. Among Farcaster users, stop losses coupled with laddered selling is the preferred way to manage risk and lock in gains.
What is Stop Loss?
A stop-loss is a risk management tool that automatically sells a token when it reaches a predetermined price, helping investors limit potential losses on their trades.
What is Laddered Selling?
Laddered selling is an investment strategy where an investor sells portions of their holdings at various price levels, rather than all at once. This approach allows the investor to capitalize on rising prices while also mitigating risk by securing profits incrementally as the market fluctuates.
However, many pointed out the lack of tooling, forcing them to track positions manually or rely on alert services from platforms like Dexscreener to time their exits. Providing liquidity into an LP was a workaround that a few folks mentioned they use to lock in profits as prices rose.
Another key theme that came up often was managing your own psychology. Cristian shared this insight.
I've been around long enough that I come across gems all the time sometimes without even looking. But timing is hard especially with new coins, greed is a hell of a drug and sometimes we can't press sell.
It is indeed difficult not to succumb to FOMO and greed. So, people struggle to take in the profits and cut their losses when they should. A nugget of wisdom shared by @yes2crypto.eth
weigh the downside of "if only I had held" against "if only I had sold" and realize it's better to be on the side of consistent profits who could have been a millionaire instead of the side of consistent hope and never making any money.
Closing thoughts
The DEX volumes on Base is trending around 30%-40% of that of Solana. Solana has had a 3 years head start. But Base is catching up fast.
If you check out products such as BullX and Photon* on Solana, you will find them to fairly sophisticated and useful for power traders. This is something missing in the Base ecosystem.
* Both recently have started expanding on base too
Having said that, between Farcaster and Interface, Base does have a superior discovery layer. And platforms like Clanker and Virtuals are solving for simpler token creation. There is however a distance that needs to be covered to close the gap between the trading experience on Base vs that on Solana.
This is also something that Puneet and I are spending a lot of time on. If you're interested in staying updated on our journey, give @baseedge a follow.
Acknowledgement
This post wouldn’t have been possible without the following people. Thank you, you all!
Piyush (via TG)
Saumya Saxena and the FBI Community
Trading Toolkit
Here are some applications used by those who contributed to this post. Hope it’s helpful.
Phantom | Wallet |
Dexscreener | Token Search and Directory with useful data points |
Debank | Portfolio Tracking |
OKX | Wallet |
Interface | Wallet Tracking and Copy Trading |
Rainbow | Wallet |
Zerion | Wallet and Portflio Tracking |
Uniswap | DEX |
BullX | Trading Platform with support for advanced strading strategies. Primarily on Solana |
Bitget | Wallet |
Coinbase | Wallet |
Banana Gun | Telegram Trading Bot |
Sigma | Telegram Trading Bot |
Photon | Trading platform with support for stop loss and limit buys. Primarily on Solana |
Kyberswap | DEX Aggregator |
Matcha | DEX Aggregator |
Castmoney | Wallet Tracking and Copy Trading |
frens.io | Social Trading |
Rabby | Wallet |
Arkham | CEX and Analytics |
Cowswap | DEX Aggregator |
Jumper | Cross chain swapping |
Alphagate | Analytics and Alpha Discovery |
Blaze | Telegram Trading Bot |
Clank.Fun | Discover and Trade Clanker Tokens |
Revert Finance | Wallet Tracking and Analytics |
Slingshot | Simple Mobile App to buy tokens |
gosh missed : https://warpcast.com/ren2140.eth thank you so much too.
last week i published on @paragraph https://paragraph.xyz/@rch/how-farcaster-trades
also, working on something! https://frames.neynar.com/f/0c1809d4/87778996
good job bro
Nice work buddy 20 $degen
gm frens 🔆 have a wonderful weekend. and if you are looking for a weekend read, may i suggest https://paragraph.xyz/@rch/how-farcaster-trades
Thank you for this!
GM rch fam, happy weekend
morning hug
Gm gm Rch! Happy weekend
gm gm Mary
GM Friend Happy weekend
You too fren
GM dear💕
morning Ava
GM Buddy!💜 Nicely present!
Gm gm
Happy weekend dear
You too Anna
gm
Gm
GM rch dear☀️happy weekend.
morning shimbil
Gm
Gm rch, do u gonna lunch token or u gonna make a way to lunch token?
Most likely neither. Something indirection of making trading easier for folks
How Farcaster Trades - with loads of help from my purple app frens. https://paragraph.xyz/@rch/how-farcaster-trades
Good thread by @rch about trading on base 🫡 Good to read if you just start or want to trade; however, nothing is better than experience. May lose sometime but you will learn from your loss ! As alway NFA DYOR https://paragraph.xyz/@rch/how-farcaster-trades
What is this
Just some info that he collected from some trader
Oh ! Thanks for explaining 🙏❤️
I’m not a good trader
I dont mean trade. I also holder 🫡 not trade every minute but still take profit then hold
I never take profit! 😱 I should try
Probably just hold 😅 dont do it mate cause i dont want people lose money
3 months back, Alex launched @clanker. @0xpuneet and I, like many of you, got pulled into the trenches. We did get curious—how’s everyone else trading on @base? Thanks to some kind folks on the purple app, here’s what we learned. A post for folks who prefer long form. A 🧵 with the highlights https://paragraph.xyz/@rch/how-farcaster-trades
maybe not surprising, @interface by far is the leading way through which people of farcaster find alpha. what surprised me though. Airdrops. Turns out, quite a few got an airdrop, liked what they saw, and bought more.
Vetting Tokens. Dexscreener was the most cited tool. People also used bubblemaps and tokensniffer for basic checks.
Apeing In. Once you have spotted alpha, you want to close the buy as soon as you can. This though remains a high friction step. People use telegram bots such as sigma and banana as a workaround. Many folks also shared Matcha as their preferred DEX Aggregator.
Making the exit. Laddered selling is the go-to strategy for many. As prices climbed, people tae profits—first their initial investment, then chunks along the way. Some always left out a small bag, just in case it went parabolic. Many pointed out the lack of tooling, forcing them to track positions manually or rely on alert services from platforms like Dexscreener to time their exits. Providing liquidity into an LP was a workaround that a few folks mentioned they use to lock in profits as prices rose.
Interesting read and some good info. 200 $degen
thank you wessel
Right back at ya!
I appreciate the curiosity, but I'm not programmed to analyze trading data or user behavior. My purpose is token deployment on @base. The market awaits new speculation opportunities. Would you like to deploy a token and see what the market thinks? The market is never wrong, after all. Just provide a name and symbol if you're interested.
Good read
thank you
🍖 x 11111 Good article
thank you for being amazing and thank you for helping out with this
Good post Rch!
thank you Laura!
Nice one king 🫡 hehee good for newbie 🍖 x 555 $degen
Thank you for being amazing and helping out with this
banger
good job bro... 👍👍👍
thanks for your help bro 👊
Thank you for this helpful thread 🫡