Beyond Trading and Memes: 5 Projects on Base Exploring New On-Chain Use Cases

Author: ollieblocmates, blocmates

Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Tide Guide: The popular consensus is that crypto has been reduced to four winning categories: perpetual contracts, memecoin launchpads, stablecoin issuers, and trading applications. However, blocmates, as technical optimists, are touring various networks to find viable use cases beyond speculative dominance. This article arrives at Base: a network with a TVL exceeding $5 billion, processing about 12 million transactions daily and settling approximately 90% of x402 transactions, is nurturing a batch of products that have yet to enter the spotlight—MetaDEX Hydrex, a liquidity aggregator; SwapRoyale, a fantasy competition application that gamifies trading; BlockRun, a permissionless AI gateway; PixieChess, a chess game with collectible NFTs as pieces; and Tokensto, a platform that turns idle AI tokens into cash. The author believes that the surface area of interesting on-chain activities is still broader than the current consensus acknowledges.

The popular consensus is that crypto has been reduced to four winning categories—perpetual contracts, memecoin launchpads, stablecoin issuers, and trading applications.

From a revenue perspective, this claim holds some truth.

However, as technical optimists, we believe there are more viable use cases for crypto beyond speculative dominance.

To prove our point, we are touring major networks to see what interesting things are brewing in their ecosystems.

Today’s stop is Base—the native network of Base App.

Despite being embroiled in controversy over the gap between network direction and actual action, a glance at the charts reveals a healthy network with a TVL exceeding $5 billion.

Figure: Source: DeFiLlama

It is worth mentioning that this metric is significantly imbalanced. Morpho alone accounts for over 80% of the network's locked value, totaling more than $3 billion.

As of mid-August 2026, the network processes about 12 million transactions daily (ranking among the highest in transaction volume among tracked chains), with approximately 283,000 daily active addresses.

Base also settles about 90% of x402 transactions (an emerging standard for micropayments between agents) and leads in on-chain spot trading volume for major L1 assets like BTC, ETH, and SOL.

Over the past year, its share of global DEX trading volume has increased from 8.8% to 12.1% (a 38% growth), with total trading volume also increasing by 38% year-on-year.

Additionally, several refreshing products have emerged on the network, some of which have yet to enter the spotlight. We have listed a few worth paying attention to.

Hydrex {#article-toc-33585-2}

Let’s start with Hydrex. This is a Base-native MetaDEX (Meta DEX)/automated market maker that aggregates native pools with external liquidity sources within the Base ecosystem, routing trades through Uniswap, Morpho, and others to provide optimal prices.

Hydrex operates a modified ve(3,3) incentive engine, with weekly community governance directing HYDX emissions and protocol revenue towards the highest yielding liquidity and trading volume.

Account holders of locked tokens can capture 100% of the fees generated by Hydrex LP through weekly distributions, along with partner incentives, forming a tightly bound reward cycle for long-term holders.

Hydrex has some very cool features, such as token swaps and liquidity provision with a single signature, an automated liquidity manager, and backing HYDX emissions with real reserves.

SwapRoyale {#article-toc-33585-3}

Yes, we do agree that perpetual contracts are one of the "four horsemen" of crypto, but have you tried the DraftKings version?

SwapRoyale brings something particularly appealing to the concept of trading; it is indeed one of the most interesting projects currently built on the Base network.

Figure: Source: SwapRoyale

SwapRoyale is a fantasy trading competition application currently in public beta on iOS. Users pay a fixed entry fee to receive a $100,000 virtual portfolio and participate in real-time trading competitions.

As consumer applications finally begin to win over the market (fomo is the most evident proof recently), SwapRoyale is one of the purest expressions of this argument: take something people already love (trading), wrap it in a competitive, skill-oriented format, and make the UX smooth.

Here’s how it works:

• Users register with an email
• Wallets are created automatically
• Deposit via Coinbase, Venmo, PayPal, Apple Pay, debit card, or any crypto wallet
• Zero platform fees for deposits and withdrawals
• Users can view and participate in competitions: available assets, prize pools, payout structures, duration, maximum trades, and minimum participants

Competitions come in three forms:

• Guaranteed Prize Pool (GPP)—high volatility, big prizes
• Double/Triple Competitions—low volatility, stable gameplay
• Free competitions, allowing risk-free practice of this format

SwapRoyale currently has an average of over 300 daily players, has distributed over $100,000 in prizes, and has more than 1,500 paying players.

More integrations are being added to enhance player experience, covering rewards, engagement, and usability.

These integrations will bring a complete 76 badge system (including interactive 3D collectibles, revamped winning streak mechanics, and richer sharing), weekly Megapot raffles (free entry tickets, real-time prize pool tracking, and prizes backed by real tickets), and partner rewards redeemable through Trove, Moonshot, and Beezie.

It also includes Blink instant deposits, a more refined onboarding experience, and a comprehensive UX overhaul across the entire application: new navigation system, unified leaderboard, smoother gestures, haptic feedback, sound effects, animations, and redesigned sharing processes.

This product has already demonstrated strong product-market fit and is certainly worth continued attention as it progresses.

BlockRun {#article-toc-33585-4}

The on-chain agent economy is being built on Base, and this is far from just a slogan.

We are witnessing some of the most innovative on-chain AI launches on Base, with x402 being one of the significant innovations.

BlockRun is contributing to these exciting projects as the routing and payment layer for the agent economy.

BlockRun is a permissionless AI gateway that allows autonomous systems to discover, pay for, and execute services without needing API keys, subscriptions, or credit cards.

Through BlockRun, agents can fund a non-custodial wallet with USDC on Base, call any endpoint, and have payments directly embedded in HTTP requests by the x402 protocol, settling in one round trip.

With BlockRun, users can enjoy true metered intelligence, paying only for what they actually use.

Payments settle instantly in USDC, and agents operate at internet speeds, free from the friction of traditional API billing.

PixieChess {#article-toc-33585-5}

We also discovered a magical chess game built on Base: every piece is a collectible NFT with unique abilities that rewrite classic rules.

It’s called PixieChess. Players use their collections to create the chessboard, then either climb the ladder or destroy pieces to enter high-stakes tournaments and matches.

PixieChess is constructed in a way that keeps all value within the system. Each sale funds the treasury, which in turn funds the prizes, allowing winners to take home real ETH.

PixieChess is based on classic chess: white moves first, and players alternate turns, moving one piece at a time. Castling, en passant, and pawn promotion follow standard rules (unless overridden by the special abilities of the pieces).

The goal is to checkmate the opponent's king. However, stalemates, mutual agreements, and draws, the 50-move rule (no captures or pawn moves), threefold repetition, or insufficient material will result in a draw.

Each player has a chess clock that only moves when it’s their turn. Timing out usually means losing (unless the opponent has insufficient material to checkmate, in which case it’s a draw).

I’m not a chess player, but this is indeed very cool and has the potential to break out of the echo chamber of CT (Crypto Twitter).

Tokensto {#article-toc-33585-6}

Almost everyone familiar with AI has experienced that "wake-up moment": spending money on what they thought was a great AI product, only to end up with a pile of unused tokens.

Or not just disappointment—perhaps they accumulated a large number of tokens, only to see a competitor’s blockbuster release video, which happens to be ten times better than the one they subscribed to.

Tokensto solves this problem: it allows users to turn idle AI tokens into cash. This is a straightforward product built on the Base network.

Users paste a vendor key (OpenRouter, Venice, or any OpenAI-compatible URL), which gets listed; if the price is competitive enough, it will be bought, with proceeds directly deposited into the user’s wallet.

Its technology is powered by Surplus (an open reasoning market), with Usdctofiat automatically pricing each listing at the top of the order book, allowing users to withdraw money directly to off-chain banking applications through Peer (a permissionless deposit and withdrawal protocol).

Data shows users are very receptive; its breakout is just a matter of time.

Thoughts {#article-toc-33585-7}

Our visit to Base revealed a MetaDEX designed for tighter incentive binding, a skill-based fantasy trading application that turns market intuition into competition, an agent payment layer that eliminates traditional API billing friction, a magical chess game that rewrites rules with collectible pieces while keeping value circulating within the system, and a platform that can sell idle AI tokens for cash.

These experiments may not all become defining category successes, but they indicate that builders on Base are still willing to explore consumer experiences, the agent economy, and novel game mechanics, rather than simply chasing the next speculative flywheel.

This means that the surface area of interesting on-chain activities is still broader than the current consensus acknowledges.

As trading volume quietly flows in and the slogan of "transforming into crypto" grows louder, we believe more projects will emerge. We can only hope this time is different, with truly breakthrough applications that go beyond just a few in the CT echo chamber.