Base, Kaito Yaps, And Own.App

I discovered how SocialFi is turning social media into a crypto-powered economy where creators earn real income and own their digital identities at Token 2049, similar to DePIN.

I still remember when social media first felt like magic, a place where creativity could travel the world in seconds. But as my audience grew, I also realized something else: the platforms owned the data, the content, and the rewards.

That imbalance is what SocialFi is changing. And Growing. Per Micro Marketing Insights, the global SocialFi market is projected to exceed $10 billion by 2033.

Base, Kaito Yap, and Own.App are leading this new wave where creators can turn their engagement into income. Base is building its own SocialFi ecosystem that rewards participation and community growth. Kaito Yap is developing a model where data, influence, and insights become creator-owned assets. Own.App is giving users the power to earn directly from the content they post and the attention they generate.

Together, they reveal how the next evolution of social media is not just about sharing.

It is about earning.

What Crypto SocialFi Is

SocialFi is the fusion of social media and decentralized finance, designed to give users true ownership of their digital lives. It begins with identity, where your profile, data, and reputation are tied to a blockchain wallet that you control. From there, every post, comment, or connection becomes a verifiable action that can earn or build value.

Instead of likes and follows enriching centralized platforms, SocialFi turns engagement into an economy. Users can earn tokens for contributing content, curating communities, or simply participating in conversations. Those rewards can be traded, reinvested, or used within the platform itself, transforming online activity into tangible income.

What makes SocialFi revolutionary is the shift from rented space to owned identity. Your audience, your content, and your earnings travel with you across platforms. Behind the scenes, blockchain technology, smart contracts, and decentralized governance ensure transparency and fairness so creators and users share in the upside, not just the platforms.

It is both a financial and philosophical evolution, an internet where social capital becomes financial capital, and where the people who create the value finally own it.

Why Crypto SocialFi Matters

The world’s social platforms monetize billions of hours of user attention every day. Yet most creators earn nothing for that contribution. SocialFi challenges that imbalance by paying users for participation and engagement. It aims to democratize influence, create fairer systems for creators, and realign incentives between communities and platforms.

There is also a broader significance. As artificial intelligence transforms content creation, authenticity and ownership become more valuable than ever. SocialFi can anchor that authenticity through on-chain identities and verified social graphs. It provides a transparent ledger of contribution and reputation, something AI cannot easily replicate or fake.

From a business perspective, SocialFi opens an entirely new layer of engagement economics. Token incentives can replace or complement marketing spend. Community members can become investors and evangelists. Brands can experiment with loyalty and reward systems that integrate directly with decentralized ecosystems.

Crypto SocialFi and Coinbase

Coinbase is fast emerging as one of the most influential players in SocialFi’s evolution. What started as a crypto exchange has become a full stack financial platform enabling seamless access to the decentralized economy. One example of this is the Base app, an everything app that brings together a decentralized social network, app discovery, chat, payments, and trading all in one place.

At its core, with the Base app any post can be tradable. In this model, posts, videos, and images can all become coins, digital assets that users can own, trade, or monetize. The experience is designed to be simple and social. Discovery, trending, and trading happen as easily as a double tap. The Base app effectively turns social feeds into dynamic marketplaces, where attention and creativity translate directly into value.

Base shared new data underscoring the demand for this SocialFi layer. There are now 1.2 million people on the waitlist, creator earnings already exceed 500,000 dollars, and beta users are engaging three times more than traditional social apps. Around 40 percent of beta participants are using mini apps, signaling a growing appetite for embedded, decentralized experiences that live inside social environments rather than outside of them.

At Token 2049, Jesse Pollak, Creator of Base, talked about how onchain social can revolutionize the creator economy. He explained: “This is about rebuilding the creator economy, the largest digital economy in the world, and making it actually work for creators. Right now, creators bring their content into walled gardens, and don’t make money. 95% of the value is taken by platforms. Onchain social flips that script, so 95% goes to creators, and everything is instantly monetized. This way, creators’ content is valuable and they can benefit directly from it.”

This ecosystem hints at a broader Coinbase vision, a world where social interaction and finance converge. With its Farcaster integration, Base is connecting identity, social presence, and trading activity across Web3. Users can buy, sell, or trade directly inside a social conversation, blurring the line between community and commerce.

By making it possible to trade anything, from memes to music, Base is redefining the architecture of digital ownership. Base is a critical infrastructure layer for SocialFi, where creativity becomes currency and every interaction can carry economic meaning.

Crypto SocialFi and OWN

A more direct example comes from Own. App, a creator-first social platform calling itself “The New Social Standard.” It’s a gamified, decentralized TikTok where creators compete and monetize ranked content through real engagement, earning via in-app revenues and the $OWN token. Users keep 100% ownership of their audience and content, with blockchain running invisibly in the background. They simply create, post, and earn as they would on TikTok or Instagram.

Own. App reflects the SocialFi ethos of transparency and empowerment, rejecting opaque algorithms and showing creators exactly how engagement drives visibility and rewards. It marks the evolution of SocialFi V2, shifting from niche crypto experiments to a seamless, global movement.

At Token 2049, I met Katia Zaitsev at a Vogue Singapore event. She’s the Co-Founder of Own . App. She told me “For SocialFi or the next Social Media/Creator Platform to succeed, it has to be seamless, blockchain invisible and creator first. Creators shouldn’t have to learn about blockchain or wallets to benefit from the platform when making a Get Ready With Me Video. They should just log in, create, and earn, like they do today, but with true ownership, equal opportunity and higher payouts. This is the only way we will convert billions of users.”

Own. App bridges today’s social platforms and the decentralized networks of tomorrow, emphasizing direct creator-to-community connections where followers become owned networks. Currently live in beta with 30% daily active use, most users don’t even realize it’s decentralized. New livestream and monetization features will launch in November, alongside strategic partnerships, talent agency collaborations, and a Tokenized Creator Fund offering higher payouts and global equal pay.

“The goal isn’t just to redistribute wealth to the current creators, but to rebuild the system itself so that a creator in Africa, Latin America and many other countries can have the same opportunity and earn the same for their engagement as one does in the U.S.,” said Zaitsev.

She continued, “There are 1 Billion creators currently who do not have access to monetization, but have the same engagement and reach as a US creator. In an era where social media feels increasingly fragmented by borders, regulation, and censorship, SocialFi’s promise is radical in its simplicity: a world where creators own their audiences, their content, and their future. Own. App is tackling that gap by eliminating algorithmic bias and regional barriers to even the playing field for the next generation of creators,” she added.

Crypto SocialFi and Kaito Yaps: It’s All About The Data

If OWN focuses on creator economics, Kaito tackles the information layer of SocialFi. Kaito uses artificial intelligence to organize crypto data and communities, rewarding users through its Yap system, a tweet-to-earn mechanism where people earn Yap Points for creating or sharing valuable insights.

This approach transforms information discovery into a financial activity. Users compete on quality and relevance, not just virality. Those Yap Points feed into Kaito’s leaderboard, future token rewards, and even access to its Capital Launchpad, which uses social reputation to determine participation in early-stage crypto funding.

A few SocialFi platforms publish reward pools tied to top contributors. For example, Kaito’s Yapper leaderboard allocates monthly rewards for top creators. In Market Reports, about 25 % of creators with 10,000–100,000 followers report earning via crypto tipping or NFT sales alone. This signals that monetization is already active in the ecosystem.

With more than one million registered users, Kaito is quickly becoming one of the most data-rich ecosystems in the Web3 social landscape. Its Yap system powers what the company calls data-driven attention formation and data-driven capital formation. In other words, data becomes the new social graph. Every contribution builds proof-of-ownership, proof-of-activity, proof-of-credit history, and proof-of-social influence, creating an interoperable layer of identity and value that extends across platforms.

As Kaito Founder, Yu Hu, explained on stage at Token2049, the company’s focus is on data as the foundation for trust and growth in SocialFi. “Our mission is to transform how data powers communities. With Yaps, we are creating a system where every action generates proof — proof of knowledge, proof of participation, and proof of credibility. This is how data becomes capital.”

Kaito’s model reveals the next stage of SocialFi evolution, merging social reputation, financial access, and artificial intelligence. By rewarding not just noise but signal, it turns social engagement into an economic filter for quality information and establishes data as the connective tissue of the new decentralized internet.

How to Get Started Making Money With Crypto SocialFi

Making money with SocialFi begins by choosing the right platform for your goals. Each ecosystem offers its own model for earning. Some reward engagement through tokens, others emphasize creator reputation or data sharing. For example, creators on Own.App can monetize performance-based content, while Kaito Yap’s platform rewards valuable insights shared within its network. Base’s SocialFi community experiments with models where users earn for participation, governance, and network growth.

The first step is to claim your digital identity through a connected wallet. This becomes your foundation for earning and reputation. From there, consistent participation matters. Posting, commenting, curating, or building communities generates on-chain engagement that translates into potential rewards. Many users choose to stake or trade their tokens for added value, while others reinvest them to access premium tools or governance rights within their network.

To earn sustainably, look for platforms that connect rewards to real utility rather than speculation. The strongest SocialFi economies reward long-term contribution, transparency, and collaboration instead of one-time hype.

The New Earning Mindset For Crypto SocialFI

Earning in SocialFi is about more than quick returns. It requires a mindset shift from follower counts to ownership and community value. Each user becomes a stakeholder whose reputation, creativity, and engagement directly impact their income.

The model works because it aligns incentives.

Users earn for creating value, communities grow organically, and platforms thrive through authentic participation. While risks like token volatility and over-gamified systems remain, the potential is enormous. SocialFi offers a more equitable path forward where creators and users can finally build both influence and income together.

The Future Is Owned By Crypto SocialFI

The next chapter of SocialFi is being written right now. The focus is shifting from hype to real income and lasting value. As platforms mature, creators are finding more consistent ways to earn from their time, talent, and communities. Artificial intelligence will help match creators with audiences and optimize rewards, while tokenized incentives will turn loyal followers into true financial supporters.

Hybrid platforms are beginning to blend user-friendly social features with decentralized finance tools that allow instant earning, trading, and ownership. Governments and regulators are starting to clarify how digital rewards and tokens fit into the broader financial system, which will help SocialFi move from the edges of innovation into the mainstream economy.

When I think about what comes next, I see a future where making money online is no longer limited to influencers or advertisers. Every creator, community, and participant will have the chance to earn, to own their impact, and to turn social energy into real economic opportunity.

The future is not just social. It is owned by crypto SocialFi.