Smoothing Out Volatile Times with Gas Token Flexibility

The Web3 industry continues to expand in just about every way possible. Every week, platforms announce new features, new underlying technology, and new benefits for the Web3 community. The pace of innovation is rivaled only by that of AI, but looking at the two industries it just goes to show what a unique and incredible time we are living in.

And that is especially great news and something to hold onto, as it also seems like the rest of the world is going insane.

The madness in the markets along with the normal cycle of industry has resulted in fears of a Web3 bear market. While not great, this has happened a number of times before, and each cycle the community as a whole is more mature and has more tools in place to handle it. There have been some bubbles in the market (pixelated NFTs, anyone?), but overall, the market is finding more and more use cases that tie in directly with traditional business, markets, and society as a whole.

So what does a bear market mean for Web3 this time around? Like other times, it means that the highly speculative trading might take a hit, as that element of the market is always going to be high risk, high reward…but much riskier as token prices plateau. Where does the bear market have less effect? Well, it turns out that there are many new platforms that have established themselves since the bear market, and industries like RWAs, valuable traditional industries using Web3 tech, and unique distributed economies like DePINs will continue to build value and possibly even grow through a downturn. This is great news and gives some idea where portfolios might want to distribute their presence. However, these areas aren’t risk-free, and a bear market still means that people and platforms need to be smart and take the right steps to shore up their Web3 involvement. Let’s take a look at one area that seems to be very helpful for de-risking volatility for platforms that are building their own ecosystems: Base Tokens.

Base token shrinkage or expansion?

For those ecosystems that allow users to build out their own chain, those chains can enjoy massive freedom in how they operate. From token minting, governance, specific protocols, or fee generation, these chains can customize exactly what they want. This is great in many ways, but it does create some issues in a bear market. The first problem is volatility and gas fees.

Many of these platforms, and the foundation on which they are built, require specific tokens to use for gas fees, in order to build up value in that token as more and more people use the network. As long as the network is expanding and growing both volume and users, this is great. But a system that requires never-ending growth to work is not very stable, and is definitely not a good idea in any market that experiences both upturns and downturns. When this happens, fewer people using the platform means that the token is used less, which means that the token can become more volatile. In a market, it doesn’t take long before that volatility can create a major loss of value in the token as its users lose confidence. This can even result in a mass selloff, essentially killing the token and potentially the entire platform.

Other ecosystems have pushed the opposite direction, foregoing some of the easy wins that come with forcing a specific gas token, but realizing that these wins are tied directly with a bull market in general and a spike in growth for the platform itself. Instead of going that route, these ecosystems open up the choices for gas tokens, allowing for volatility-calming tokens like BTC or stablecoins like USDS and USDT.

The ecosystem of Aurora, which has developed solutions for platforms to set up entirely customized virtual chains quickly, recently announced that they are pushing hard toward gas token expansion. Without limiting other choices, this upcoming feature enables developers to use stablecoins (USDC, USDT, DAI) and Bitcoin as the native currency for their Virtual Chains. The choice to link gas tokens and the fees to these much more stable sources can simplify the transaction fee process so that users are already familiar with it. This is important because during times of market downturns, users are much more wary of transaction fees, and those that seem complex or dubious, or that create losses through volatility, will discourage members of a community from participating. It goes without saying, but this system is also a lot nicer for users because it eliminates the need for additional token swapping, instead using currencies they are very likely to already own.

Looking forward

Although Aurora is focused on virtual chains, which already enable small teams to develop major platforms, this decision to smooth out the market uncertainty of volatile token conversions, while using tokens that are already more stable, should be noted by other large ecosystems. Web3 users can feel when a market is even threatening to begin a downturn, and their risk avoidance kicks in hard. Anything large ecosystems can do to stabilize transactions, gas fees, and other elements of Web3 will be very helpful. Aurora’s use of a large, common validator system through NEAR is another way to combat the risk and volatility for smaller platforms, but that’s a topic for another time.

Connect your Virtual Chain to Ethereum, NEAR, and Aurora instantly with the Bridge Widget. Liquidity from all the chains, right where you need it.

Get started now on Aurora Cloud Console 👉 https://t.co/sTUVbmYv4o pic.twitter.com/JANpkjxAYo

— Aurora (@auroraisnear) April 8, 2025

It does feel good knowing that the Web3 industry is more mature and ready for the next bear market, with more value than ever in the markets and more use cases than ever spread over not just Web3, but traditional industries as well. With smart decisions on gas tokens, along with many other smart ideas, we can insulate Web3 even more, bearing through this market as quickly as possible so we are ready to enjoy the next growth phase.

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