Case study · 31 Oct 2026

ZORA on Base: a week of DEX activity, checked on a public node

We followed ZORA's measured pools on Base for seven days. Every number below comes from the chain, and we re-ran one of the findings on a public node to show you get the same answer without us.

Window 24 Oct 2026 14:00 → 31 Oct 2026 14:00 UTC · token 0x1111111111166b7fe7bd91427724b487980afc69 (Base, chain id 8453)

The five events of the week

1. Active liquidity −85% on pool 0xadb8…0ea3 (Aerodrome Slipstream), 26 Oct 09:00–17:00 UTC.
2. Active liquidity −82% on pool 0xa0ca…0fc7, 29 Oct 21:00 → 31 Oct 09:00 UTC (6 findings grouped into one event).
3. Volume 5× normal, 29 Oct 20:00 → 30 Oct 03:00 UTC.
4. Volume −86%, 28 Oct 23:00–00:00 UTC.
5. Active liquidity −70% on pool 0xa0ca…0fc7, 28 Oct 23:00–00:00 UTC.

Active liquidity is the in-range liquidity that a concentrated-liquidity pool reports in its own Swap events. It is not TVL and not a USD amount, and it is compared only with the same pool's earlier hours.

Event 1, checked without us

The Evidence Card of event 1 says: the median active liquidity of pool 0xadb8…0ea3 averaged 0.15× its 24-hour baseline from 26 Oct 09:00 to 17:00 UTC, measured over 156 swaps in blocks 53,108,021 → 53,121,621. The card also gives the exact request to check it:

curl -s -X POST https://base-rpc.publicnode.com -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": "eth_getLogs",
  "params": [{
    "address": ["0xadb8fb846dbd3bd6a23335cee65bb610c1cf0ea3"],
    "topics": [["0xc42079f94a6350d7e6235f29174924f928cc2ac818eb64fed8004e115fbcca67"]],
    "fromBlock": "0x32a5d35", "toBlock": "0x32a9255"
  }]}'

We ran it on a free public Base node on 31 Oct 2026. It returned 156 Swap logs, the same count as the card. Taking the liquidity word of each log (word 3 of the data), the median per hour and the mean of the eight hourly medians gives 1,670,996,608,073,519,071,232 — exactly the card's value. The script we used:

import json, statistics, urllib.request
RPC = "https://base-rpc.publicnode.com"
def call(method, params):
    req = urllib.request.Request(RPC, json.dumps({"jsonrpc": "2.0", "id": 1, "method": method, "params": params}).encode(),
                                 {"Content-Type": "application/json", "User-Agent": "check"})
    return json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(req))["result"]
logs = call("eth_getLogs", [{"address": ["0xadb8fb846dbd3bd6a23335cee65bb610c1cf0ea3"],
             "topics": [["0xc42079f94a6350d7e6235f29174924f928cc2ac818eb64fed8004e115fbcca67"]],
             "fromBlock": "0x32a5d35", "toBlock": "0x32a9255"}])
t0 = int(call("eth_getBlockByNumber", ["0x32a5d35", False])["timestamp"], 16)   # Base: one block every 2 s
hours = {}
for log in logs:
    ts = t0 + 2 * (int(log["blockNumber"], 16) - 0x32a5d35)
    hours.setdefault(ts // 3600, []).append(int(log["data"][2 + 64 * 3:2 + 64 * 4], 16))
medians = [statistics.median(v) for _, v in sorted(hours.items())]
print(len(logs), "swaps;", f"{sum(medians) / len(medians):,.0f}")   # 156 swaps; 1,670,996,608,073,519,071,232

What this does and does not say

• It is a statistical change in the measured pools. It does not identify a cause. The card lists other possible explanations: a market-wide move, a new or removed venue or routing change, one large participant or automated strategy, or a listing, incentive or news event.
• Only the measured pools are counted, not ZORA's whole market.
• 14 of 16 checks passed. The two warnings are about USD valuation (two price estimates differed by up to 6.9% in some hours). This report uses no USD value, so swap counts, token amounts and liquidity are not affected.
• WATAM is independent and not affiliated with Zora. This is not investment advice.

Why it matters

A token team can show its community, market makers or an exchange what happened in its pools, with a query anyone can re-run. A listing or risk desk can check a token's DEX activity before a decision instead of trusting a chart. A fund can see liquidity changes in a pool within hours, with the evidence attached.

Get the same report for your token

The free 7-day evidence report is available for every available EVM token in our catalog — open your token's page and request it with your work email. If your token is not listed yet, write to admin@wearetheartmakers.com.

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