The Zero-Gas Cult: Sponsoring Your Community's Trades with frfr.fun Paymasters

In the fast-paced, high-stakes world of cryptocurrency, community is everything. We've seen standard communities, we've seen tokenized communities, and we've seen memecoin frenzies. But a new paradigm is emerging — one that fundamentally alters the user experience and removes the single largest point of friction in decentralised finance: gas fees. Welcome to the era of the Zero-Gas Cult.

If you are a creator, a developer, or a community builder looking to launch a token, you already know that onboarding new users is a monumental task. The hurdle isn't just convincing them to buy your token; it's forcing them to acquire a native network token (like ETH) just to pay for transaction fees. This is where Account Abstraction — specifically an ERC-4337 Paymaster integration on Base — changes the game entirely.

This guide dives deep into how you can use the infrastructure provided by platforms like frfr.fun — a USDC memecoin launchpad on Base — to completely sponsor gas fees for your community. By allocating 1% of your token's launch supply to a Paymaster like Pimlico or Biconomy, you can ensure your community never pays a single cent in gas fees to trade your token.

Chapter 1: The Gas Fee Friction Problem

To understand why the zero-gas model matters, we first have to examine the traditional Web3 onboarding experience.

Imagine you are a successful content creator with a massive following on YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), or TikTok. You decide to tokenise your community by launching a memecoin. Your followers are excited. They download a wallet, fund it with USDC via an on-ramp, and head to a decentralised exchange to buy your token.

They click Swap.

Suddenly: Insufficient funds for gas.

Your user is confused. They have $100 in USDC and only want to spend $90. But they don't have ETH on the Base network to pay the network transaction fee. Now they have to go to an exchange, buy ETH, bridge it to Base, and try again.

By the time they work through that, a large share of your potential buyers have abandoned the transaction entirely. Gas fees are the ultimate conversion killer. They introduce friction that is entirely foreign to Web2 users accustomed to seamless experiences where the platform quietly handles backend costs.

In Web3, we have historically passed the cost of block space onto the end-user. But what if we didn't? What if the creator could abstract this cost away, treating it as a standard customer acquisition cost (CAC)?

This is exactly what the Zero-Gas Cult is all about.

Chapter 2: The Magic of ERC-4337 and Paymasters

The solution lies in ERC-4337, the Account Abstraction standard co-authored by Vitalik Buterin and published in 2021. Since launching on Ethereum mainnet in March 2023, ERC-4337 has enabled over 40 million smart accounts and processed more than 100 million UserOperations — a tenfold increase from the prior year. The Ethereum Foundation itself notes over 26 million smart accounts deployed and more than 170 million UserOperations processed as of mid-2025.

What Is Account Abstraction?

Traditionally, EVM-compatible chains like Base have two account types: Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs), controlled by private keys (like MetaMask), and Contract Accounts, controlled by code. EOAs are the only accounts that can initiate transactions — and they must pay gas in the network's native token.

ERC-4337 changes this by allowing smart contracts to act as primary accounts. More importantly, it introduces a parallel mempool of UserOperations that can be bundled and executed by a third party called a Bundler.

The Two EntryPoint Versions

Two audited EntryPoint versions are live: v0.6 (widely deployed) and v0.7 (released 2024, with improved paymaster and aggregator interfaces). Most production deployments now target v0.7 for its enhanced policy controls.

Enter the Paymaster

Within the ERC-4337 framework, a Paymaster is a specialised smart contract that sponsors gas fees for users. When a user initiates a UserOperation, the Paymaster steps in and tells the network: "I will cover the ETH gas fee for this specific transaction."

Companies like Pimlico and Biconomy have built production-grade Paymaster infrastructure. Pimlico's Verifying Paymaster, for example, now supports over 100 chains, including Base, and allows developers to load funds via a dashboard and sponsor gas on-chain. Their ERC-20 Paymaster also lets users pay gas with ERC-20 tokens like USDC, enabling additional flexibility.

As a token creator, you deposit funds into a Paymaster contract and set specific rules — for instance, sponsoring gas only for transactions involving your specific token contract. The result: users sign transactions and trades go through. No ETH required. No gas anxiety.

The May 2025 Upgrade: EIP-7702

A critical companion upgrade arrived with Ethereum's Pectra hard fork on May 7, 2025. EIP-7702 allows existing EOAs to temporarily execute smart contract code during a single transaction, gaining Account Abstraction features (batch transactions, sponsored gas, session keys) without needing to deploy a new smart wallet. EIP-7702 is complementary to ERC-4337, not a replacement — wallets can implement both, leveraging existing Paymaster infrastructure. Major wallets including Ambire and Trust Wallet have already rolled out EIP-7702 support.

Industry projections anticipated over 200 million smart accounts by late 2025 as the combination of ERC-4337 and EIP-7702 created new adoption pathways.

Chapter 3: Why Base Is the Perfect Chain for Zero-Gas Launches

Why execute a Paymaster strategy on Base instead of Ethereum mainnet or another Layer 2?

Base, incubated by Coinbase and built on the OP Stack, has rapidly become a leading Layer 2. It crossed $15 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL) in January 2025, making it the second-largest L2 by TVL behind only Arbitrum. Its average daily revenue reached $185,291 in 2025, surpassing Arbitrum's ~$55,025/day — a testament to the volume of activity being processed.

The network's gas economics make the Paymaster model viable:

Base's minimum base fee sits at 0.005 gwei, equating to approximately $0.002 for a typical 200,000 gas transaction at an ETH price of $2,000.
In November 2025, Base founder Jesse Pollak announced the gas limit was raised from 100 to 125 million gas per second, following migration to the more efficient Reth client. The network has set targets of 400–500 Mgas/s by early 2026, dependent on the TrieDB database restructuring project.
Even during peak congestion in June 2025, Base fees only reached five cents per transaction — far below Ethereum mainnet, where a simple swap still averaged around $0.39 post-Dencun upgrade.

If you were to sponsor gas on Ethereum mainnet, it could cost meaningful amounts per trade, particularly at scale. But on Base, sponsoring a trade costs fractions of a cent. This mathematical reality is what makes the zero-gas memecoin launch economically sustainable for creators of all sizes.

Additionally, Base, Polygon, and Optimism lead ERC-4337 adoption among all chains, with Base seeing particularly strong growth following dedicated infrastructure support. This means the tooling, bundlers, and Paymaster SDKs you need are mature and production-tested specifically on Base.

Chapter 4: frfr.fun — The Launchpad for the Zero-Gas Cult

frfr.fun is a USDC memecoin launchpad built on the Base network. It is designed to strip away the complexity of launching a token, allowing creators to focus on building their community.

Key Features of frfr.fun

USDC Settlement: All trades on frfr.fun settle in USDC. This is significant in a market dominated by volatile crypto-to-crypto pairs. Your community members always know exactly what they are buying and selling in dollar terms, removing cognitive overhead and reducing the slippage anxiety that plagues ETH-paired tokens.

Fair-Launch Bonding Curve: All coins on frfr.fun launch via an automated bonding curve — fair access for everyone, no pre-sale allocations to insiders, no front-running.

Creator and Referrer Rewards: Creators earn 6% of all trading fees generated by their token. Referrers earn 14%. This built-in revenue stream is critical to sustaining the zero-gas model long-term, as we will detail in the next chapter.

All-in-One Dashboard: Live tracking of Base launches, market cap charts, creator livestreams integrated directly into the platform, and advanced analytics tools — frfr.fun is a comprehensive hub for building and monitoring a tokenised community.

When you combine USDC settlement with an ERC-4337 Paymaster, you create a powerful flywheel: users trade freely in dollar terms, the creator earns fees, those fees fund the Paymaster, and the community continues trading without friction.

Chapter 5: The 1% Allocation Strategy

How do you fund a Paymaster sustainably without paying out of pocket indefinitely? The answer lies in your initial tokenomics.

The 1% Rule

When launching your token on frfr.fun, dedicate 1% of total token supply specifically to a treasury wallet earmarked for gas sponsorship.

Here's the mechanic in full:

Step 1 — Secure the allocation. Before community trading begins, ensure you control 1% of the supply designated for Paymaster funding. This can be done via creator allocation tools or early bonding curve purchases.

Step 2 — Liquidate incrementally. As your token trades on the frfr.fun bonding curve and its market cap grows, periodically sell small portions of your 1% allocation into USDC, convert to ETH on Base, and deposit into your Pimlico or Biconomy Paymaster contract.

Step 3 — Configure Paymaster policies. Within Pimlico or Biconomy's dashboard, set a sponsorship policy targeting your specific token contract address. Policies can be fine-tuned with rate limits per wallet, spending caps, and whitelist rules — crucial for preventing Sybil abuse (more on this below).

The Economics

At a modest $100,000 market cap, your 1% allocation is worth $1,000. At Base's typical per-transaction cost of ~$0.002 for a standard swap, that $1,000 can theoretically sponsor 500,000 individual trades.

And the 1% allocation isn't your only funding source. As the creator, you earn 6% of all trading fees on frfr.fun. At meaningful volume, this ongoing revenue stream alone can fund the Paymaster indefinitely. Between the 1% initial allocation and the 6% creator fee stream, your community's gas is effectively subsidised in perpetuity — a self-sustaining ecosystem.

Chapter 6: The Psychology of Sponsoring Gas Fees

Why go through the effort? Because the psychological impact of a gas-less experience is profound.

Eliminating Gas Anxiety

In traditional crypto trading, users track Gwei, wait for lower fees, and hesitate before small trades. The mental math of "is this $5 trade worth the $1 gas fee?" actively suppresses engagement and market depth.

By running a zero-gas launch, you remove this entirely. Users trade $5, $50, or $5,000 worth of your token without a single mental calculation about network costs. This encourages high-frequency engagement, micro-transactions, and a more dynamic market.

Building Genuine Loyalty

When you tell your audience, "I am paying your gas fees," you make a powerful statement. You are signalling that you value participation over extraction. In a memecoin landscape full of rug pulls and low-effort cash grabs, a creator who invests in Paymaster infrastructure stands out as someone with genuine skin in the game.

This builds something rare: a cult-like loyalty. Your community becomes fierce advocates because you have provided them with the best UX in Web3 — and they know it.

Chapter 7: Step-by-Step Launch Guide

Step 1 — Build the Narrative

Before touching a smart contract, educate your community on the concept. Tease the "Zero-Gas Cult" framing. Explain that unlike other tokens where gas fees eat into every trade, your token is free to trade on-chain. Attract Web3-native users who are tired of paying for block space, and Web2 users who never wanted to deal with gas in the first place.

Step 2 — Create Your Token on frfr.fun

Connect your wallet on frfr.fun and use the "Create coin" feature. Choose a name and ticker that resonates with your brand, confirm the USDC settlement pair, and launch on the bonding curve.

Step 3 — Secure the 1% Paymaster Fund

Ensure you hold the 1% allocation in a treasury wallet you control. Do not mix this with personal holdings — treat it as a community infrastructure budget.

Step 4 — Set Up the Paymaster

Go to Pimlico or the Biconomy dashboard:

Create a new project on the Base network.
Fund your Paymaster gas tank with initial ETH on Base (seed this out of pocket initially, to be reimbursed from your 1% allocation).
Configure sponsorship policies: whitelist your token contract address, and set per-wallet rate limits (e.g., 10 sponsored trades per wallet per day) to prevent bot abuse.

Pimlico's Verifying Paymaster supports USDC as a funding currency — you can even load the Paymaster balance in USDC and let Pimlico handle the ETH conversion internally, streamlining the management workflow.

Step 5 — Integrate an AA-Compatible Wallet

Your users need an ERC-4337 compatible smart wallet to benefit from the Paymaster. The most seamless option for consumer audiences is Coinbase Smart Wallet, which supports passkey creation and gasless transactions natively, requiring only an email address or FaceID. For custom frontends, SDKs from Biconomy, Privy, or ZeroDev provide full integration paths with React and vanilla JS.

With EIP-7702 now live on Base (post-Pectra), users with existing EOA wallets can also access Paymaster-sponsored transactions without migrating to a new wallet address — a major step forward for existing community members.

Step 6 — Go Live and Monitor

Announce your zero-gas launch. As volume flows, monitor your frfr.fun analytics dashboard and track your 6% creator rewards. Check your Pimlico or Biconomy dashboard regularly to ensure your gas tank is topped up, using creator rewards and periodic 1% allocation liquidations to refill it.

Chapter 8: Overcoming the Challenges

Sybil Attacks and Bot Abuse

If a transaction is free, malicious actors may deploy bots to spam micro-trades, draining your Paymaster without generating meaningful community value.

The fix: Pimlico's policy engine allows per-wallet rate limits, global daily spend caps, minimum USDC balance requirements, or even NFT-gated access to Paymaster sponsorship. The inherent trading fees on the frfr.fun bonding curve also act as a natural deterrent — a bot absorbing trading fees on every micro-transaction will lose money regardless of gas sponsorship.

Treasury Management

Your Paymaster fund is denominated in a volatile asset (your token). If the token's price drops significantly, your runway shortens.

The fix: Diversify your Paymaster funding sources. Don't rely solely on the 1% allocation. Treat the 6% creator trading rewards as the primary ongoing income stream, and use the 1% allocation as a reserve buffer. Because creator rewards are generated from trading volume, they flow exactly when the network is being used most — creating a naturally balanced funding mechanism.

Wallet Compatibility

Not all users will have AA-compatible wallets out of the box.

The fix: Coinbase Smart Wallet covers the majority of Base's user base. For broader audiences, integrate a Privy or Biconomy embedded wallet on your frontend, allowing users to create a wallet with just an email — no extension downloads, no seed phrases.

Chapter 9: The Broader Impact on the Base Ecosystem

The concept of the Zero-Gas Cult doesn't just benefit individual creators. It serves as a catalyst for the entire Base ecosystem.

Coinbase has been explicit about its mission to bring the next wave of users onchain. In 2025, Base's direct connection to Coinbase's 120 million monthly users gave it a distribution advantage that no other L2 can replicate. USDC, now the most widely used application on Base, averaged 83,400 daily users in November 2025 alone — a 233% increase year-over-year.

But distribution alone doesn't solve onboarding friction. That's where Paymasters fill the gap. By popularising gas sponsorship through engaging platforms like frfr.fun, creators act as the vanguard of mass adoption — beta-testing the UX infrastructure of the future.

When a user experiences a zero-gas token for the first time, their expectations are permanently raised. They will no longer tolerate clunky, gas-heavy dApps. They will demand Account Abstraction everywhere. This is how standards propagate — not from top-down mandates, but from users experiencing something better and refusing to go back.

Chapter 10: Case Study — The Hypothetical Launch of $CULT

Let's visualise this with a practical example.

Alex is a streamer with 50,000 highly active Discord members. He wants to launch $CULT as a governance and access token for his community. His audience plays video games — they don't trade crypto.

Alex uses frfr.fun to launch $CULT on Base. He integrates Coinbase Smart Wallet on his website, allowing community members to create a wallet with FaceID or an email address and fund it instantly via Apple Pay or card on-ramps into USDC.

He sets up a Pimlico Paymaster on Base, deposits an initial $500 in ETH, and configures a policy: sponsor all $CULT buy and sell transactions for any wallet created via his site, up to 20 trades per wallet per day.

During his livestream — broadcast natively through frfr.fun — he tells his audience: "Log in with your email, load up some USDC, and buy $CULT. I'm paying all the transaction fees. No crypto setup required."

The results:

Conversion rates far exceed typical token launches because there is zero "crypto tax" on new users.
Volume spikes. $CULT climbs the frfr.fun leaderboard.
Alex's 6% creator rewards generate meaningful revenue in the first 24 hours. He routes a portion back into the Pimlico Paymaster.
The Zero-Gas Cult becomes self-sustaining.
Alex's community members have now used a blockchain application — and most of them have no idea.

This is the onboarding story Base was built to tell. This is the experience that converts Web2 audiences into Web3 participants.

Chapter 11: The Future of Creator Economies

The integration of Paymasters on platforms like frfr.fun represents a fundamental shift in how we view the creator economy. We are moving from an extractive model to an additive model.

Historically, launching a token was viewed sceptically as a way for creators to extract liquidity from fans. The Zero-Gas Cult flips this dynamic: the creator actively subsidises the community's experience. It transforms a token launch from a "cash grab" into a genuine infrastructure investment where the creator has real skin in the game.

As Account Abstraction matures — accelerated by EIP-7702's inclusion in the Pectra upgrade — gas sponsorship will shift from a unique marketing hook to a fundamental expectation. Just as we expect free shipping from major retailers, crypto users will increasingly expect zero-gas trading from top-tier community tokens. The platforms and creators that establish this standard now will capture lasting loyalty.

The on-chain creator economy is being built in real time on Base. The tooling is production-ready. The economics work. The UX playbook is clear.

Conclusion: Build Your Zero-Gas Cult

The days of losing your community to Insufficient Funds for Gas errors are over.

By combining:

ERC-4337 Paymaster infrastructure (via Pimlico or Biconomy) on Base,
USDC-settled fair launches via frfr.fun,
A 1% token supply allocation for Paymaster funding,
And 6% ongoing creator fee rewards routed back into the gas tank,

...you have everything you need to build a community where trading is frictionless, onboarding is instant, and your users never think about gas fees again.

Allocate that 1%. Route those creator rewards. Tell your followers you are sponsoring their journey into Web3.

Build your Zero-Gas Cult today. The infrastructure is live, the economics work, and the future of community tokens is frictionless.

All network fee data and ERC-4337 statistics are sourced from Base documentation, Alchemy, Ethereum Foundation, and CoinLaw research (2025). Paymaster product details reflect Pimlico and Biconomy documentation as of Q1 2026. frfr.fun platform features are as described by the platform.