Neiro and NEIRO are listed on Binance, is the meme coin sector迎来 a turning point?

Author: Wenser, Odaily Planet Daily

The "case sensitivity dispute" of the meme coin Neiro has once again put Binance in the spotlight.

However, this time, Binance co-founder He Yi's response has been remarkably calm and restrained, which may also suggest that meme coin projects will be more cautious in Binance's future listing strategies. In a recent article titled "He Yi Responds to Listing Controversy: Considering Community Voices, Several Relatively Dispersed and Low Market Cap MEME Tokens Were Listed," we can clearly see that community voices still have a significant impact on Binance's decision-making. At the same time, Binance's internal organization is not as "makeshift" as previously imagined by the outside world.

The simultaneous listing of the new Shiba Inu coin Neiro and NEIRO on Binance is indeed a rare "spectacle" in the meme coin sector and can be seen as a "turning point" for the meme coin market. Odaily Planet Daily will provide a brief overview and analysis of the related events in this article.

Event Recap: Uppercase NEIRO Contract Launched First, Lowercase Neiro Spot Contract Followed

If the initial "Neiro token case sensitivity dispute" was still at the level of confrontation between "conspiracy groups" and "decentralized communities," then the "involvement" of Binance, known as the "largest exchange in the universe," undoubtedly added fuel to the fire.

Uppercase NEIRO Contract Launched First: Did the Conspiracy Group Defeat the Crypto Community?

On September 6, Binance issued an official announcement stating that "Binance Futures will launch NEIROETH perpetual contracts with 1-75x USDT leverage." The news quickly prompted a market reaction—NEIRO's price rapidly broke through $0.16, with a 24-hour increase of up to 139.25%, and it briefly surpassed $0.2 in the following days.

Relevant information from Binance's official announcement

It is worth mentioning that at that time, the NEIRO token was criticized by several users on the X platform, who claimed that the "conspiracy group" behind it had previously distributed tokens through multiple addresses and gradually sold them, followed by a wash trading period lasting for two months; moreover, before the Binance contract launch, NEIRO had also seen a slight increase, leading some to suspect possible "insider trading."

Despite NEIRO's trading volume reaching hundreds of millions of dollars on exchanges like Bybit, the project's high internal holding rate of 78% made crypto players who joined due to the relatively fair participation threshold of meme coins scoff. There were also voices in the market and community criticizing Binance's listing actions and expressing disappointment.

However, things soon took a turn.

Lowercase Neiro Spot Contract Followed: Can the Community's Fire Spread?

On September 16, ten days after the announcement of the "Uppercase NEIRO Contract Launch on Binance," Binance officially announced again that "Binance will list First Neiro on Ethereum (NEIRO), Turbo (TURBO), and Baby Doge Coin (1 MBABYDOGE) and add seed tags for them."

Due to the token ID in the official announcement also being uppercase NEIRO, many mistakenly believed it was the previously launched NEIRO project and did not pay much attention. However, the contract address showed that the project was actually the lowercase Neiro project, which at that time had a market cap of only around $20 million.

Moreover, not only was the distinction between uppercase and lowercase Neiro quite confusing, but Binance's "one-click three coins" operation also left many users puzzled—although TURBO and BABAYDOGE can indeed be classified as "established meme coin projects" in terms of trading volume, project operation, and market recognition, such a concentrated "spot listing" of meme coins was as rare as the previous "BOME listing on Binance in three days."

At 4:30 PM that day, Binance issued another announcement stating that "Binance Futures will launch NEIROUSDT and 1 MBABYDOGEUSDT perpetual contracts with 1-75x USDT leverage." Furthermore, the Binance official announcement specifically reminded: "Please note, this contract is for 'First Neiro on Ethereum' (NEIRO), with the address 0x812ba41e071c7b7fa4ebcfb62df5f45f6fa853ee. It is a different token from the NEIROETHUSDT contract launched on September 6, 2024 (address: 0xee2a03aa6dacf51c18679c516ad5283d8e7c2637)."

Many people suddenly realized: "It is indeed the lowercase Neiro token supported by many members of the Chinese community that has successfully landed both spot and contract on Binance." The market cap of Neiro surged rapidly within a few hours, skyrocketing from $20 million to over $120 million; in contrast, the price of uppercase NEIRO quickly plummeted, dropping below $0.1 within a few hours, reaching a low of around $0.072, with a maximum daily decline of over 50%, currently maintaining around $0.076.

Many exclaimed: In the end, it was the crypto community that triumphed over the "conspiracy group."

Binance announcement information interface

After Neiro successfully achieved both spot and contract listings on Binance, Binance subsequently released two more announcements: "Binance will list NEIRO, TURBO, and BABYDOGE on Earn, Swap, and Margin Trading," and "Binance's staking lending has added NEIRO, POL, TURBO, and other borrowable assets," showing far greater support for the lowercase Neiro project than for the uppercase NEIRO project.

Although some criticized Binance for further lowering the "listing standards," in the current volatile and increasingly tight liquidity market, considering the exchange's main demands, meme coin projects with market attention, active trading volume, and stable operations are indeed "within range," which is understandable.

Community Voices: Some Act on the Wind, Some Dive Deep, Some Run Empty on Both Ends

Regarding the simultaneous listing of uppercase NEIRO and lowercase Neiro tokens on Binance, the voices and reactions from the crypto community are quite intriguing.

When the NEIRO contract was launched, some people "couldn't wait to become part of the conspiracy group," while others made short-term trades and successfully profited; some overly believed in the "Binance effect," only to be caught in a high buy-in. After the launch of the Neiro spot and contract, the previous "diamond hands" finally received their corresponding rewards and were all jubilant; there were also lucky ones who preemptively positioned themselves, making tens of thousands of dollars in profits; of course, some had previously cut losses on Neiro holdings to buy NEIRO tokens, ultimately missing out on Neiro and could only lament.

Lucky Ones or Insiders? A Whale Accumulates Over 20 WETH in Neiro, Floating Profit of $355,000

On September 16, according to on-chain analyst Ai Yi's monitoring, an address that happened to accumulate 1.3 billion Neiro on September 15 earned a profit of 694% in one day. This lucky one, 0x4bb, had previously withdrawn 21.667 WETH from a CEX, buying 1.3 billion Neiro tokens at an average price of $0.00003924 and holding them until now, with a floating profit of $355,000.

"Drilling" KOLs: Laser Cat, Philanthropist

According to Chinese crypto KOL and Tinfun NFT founder "Laser Cat," he stated on the X platform that thanks to the price increase of the token brought by Binance's listing of the Neiro project, he achieved nearly $2 million in profit from a single meme coin project. Previously, he also retweeted a tweet from the on-chain monitoring account Onchain Lens tracking his personal address's purchase of Neiro tokens.

Additionally, another Chinese crypto KOL "Crypto Philanthropist" also reaped significant rewards. He had previously stated that he was more optimistic about the community-supported Neiro project, summarizing: "I initially bought $50,000 worth of Neiro, with a cost around a $17 million market cap; when the $50,000 rose to $100,000, I sold $50,000 for cost recovery, leaving the remaining $50,000 holding all as profit. Recently, I checked, and the profit is now worth about $400,000 (equivalent to 9 times profit), and I just took out half of the profit; I still have $200,000 in profit left."

Victims of Market News: Lost $250,000 in Just a Few Days

Of course, this feast was not something everyone could "enjoy the fruits of," and some had to "pay the price." Crypto KOL "San Francisco is not Paris" stated on the X platform that "due to participating in the trading of uppercase and lowercase NEIRO/Neiro tokens, I ultimately lost about $250,000."

Early SHIB Sellers Enter, Neiro Continues

Certainly, the dispute over the uppercase and lowercase NEIRO/Neiro token projects has temporarily come to a close, but the development of the Neiro project continues.

According to Spot On Chain monitoring, an early SHIB buyer exchanged 1,003 ETH (worth $2.31 million) for 2.86 billion Neiro on September 18.

It is worth mentioning that although this whale made $145 million from SHIB between 2021 and 2022, the last three transactions, including NEIROETH and the second SHIB transaction, have resulted in a loss of $13.48 million.

As of the time of writing, the price of NEIRO tokens has stabilized around $0.073, with a market cap of approximately $73.7 million; the price of Neiro tokens once approached $0.0009 but has now fallen back to around $0.0008, with a market cap of approximately $337 million.

Binance's Shift: Multiple Considerations, Caring for the Community, The Second Half of the Meme Coin Sector Approaches

Finally, we will briefly analyze the NEIRO/Neiro case sensitivity dispute event, gaining insight into the future direction of the meme coin sector, which has been hot since the beginning of this year. In some respects, the second half of the meme coin sector may have already arrived.

Binance's Shift: From "You Can Short," to "Consider Hotspots," to "Admit Shortcomings"

In March of this year, with the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs, market sentiment surged, Bitcoin prices broke new highs, and Ethereum prices once approached $4,000; coupled with the Solana meme coin boom led by BOME, the market entered a phase of high liquidity and extremely active trading.

Seizing this opportunity, Binance, as an industry-leading exchange with over 200 million users and a cryptocurrency barometer, initiated a wave of listings that now seems somewhat "crazy"—launching dozens of higher market cap projects within just a few months. At that time, "high FDV, low circulation" "VC coins" also became a hot topic in the market.

Additionally, it was during this time that the U.S. SEC launched a highly tense investigation into Binance, which ultimately led to a $4 billion settlement, and founder CZ temporarily left the market after three months of imprisonment and a phased result of stepping back from frontline management at Binance.

At that time, many were extremely dissatisfied with Binance's "crazy market exploitation" approach. In response, He Yi, as Binance's "face," bluntly stated: "For projects you don't believe in, you can short them." This showcased the market leader's dominance and the harsh reality of market survival of the fittest.

Previous tweet from Binance co-founder He Yi

As September arrived, with the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut information still shrouded in secrecy, the market showed signs of fatigue after experiencing waves of turbulence. He Yi, one of Binance's "decision-makers," may have recognized the different impacts brought by changes in the market environment and began to pay more attention to "community feedback." His statements have shifted from sharp and direct to more like heartfelt communication with community members.

Recently, He Yi spoke in a Telegram group, stating: "Binance has no intention of directing memes; the problem is that there are currently no hot topics. To summarize, there are roughly three categories:

1. TG mini-games, many opportunities.
2. A large number of infrastructure projects issuing tokens, all high-valuation VC coins.
3. The market is left with meme coins that have heat; the previous contracts indeed followed the trend of large Neiro, and community feedback indicated meme coins were becoming more like tokens, so we spent some time looking for relatively low market cap, dispersed holding projects to test the waters.
4. For other types of projects, we are also keeping an eye on them. If anyone thinks there are good coins worth recommending, feel free to suggest.

But Binance is a trading platform and will try to provide a variety of tokens that the market needs, but investment carries risks, and I hope everyone can DYOR as much as possible before buying and selling."

On one hand, this statement indirectly explained the recent listings of TON ecosystem project tokens like DOGS, HAMSTER, CATI; on the other hand, it also showed Binance's goodwill and sincerity to the community: while considering hot topics, they will listen to community opinions and suggestions.

Moreover, He Yi's latest article mentioned at the beginning was extremely sincere and humble, stating: "Everything I have gained today is a product of the times, a result of the rapid economic development brought by globalization, the flattening of information brought by the rise of the internet, and the opportunities from the blockchain industry emerging from nothing, not because I am particularly gifted, but rather because in the early days of the industry, 'there were no heroes, which made the little ones famous.' This means: 'I may not be right.'"

The Second Half of the Meme Coin Sector Approaches: Active Trading, Market Attention, and Continuous Topics Are Essential

In addition, the NEIRO/Neiro case sensitivity dispute may also signify that after experiencing the Solana meme coin boom represented by BOME, the PVP meme coin boom led by pump.fun, and the celebrity meme coin boom represented by MOTHER, DADDY, as well as the meme coin boom led by "New Shiba Inu Neiro," the meme coin sector has entered its second half.

On one hand, the rapid rise and fall of meme coins will become less frequent, and meme coin projects will begin to emphasize "topic relevance," "breaking boundaries," and short-term "wealth creation effects"; on the other hand, meme coins will no longer have the strong appeal to outsiders that they once did. In the current tightening liquidity environment, the "final destination" of meme coin projects may enter the "To VC" and "To Exchange" entrepreneurial stage.

As we mentioned in our previous article "The Evolution of the Crypto Venture Capital Cycle (Part 1): Rebuilding a New World"—"VC coins were once meme coins"—the current meme coins and future meme coin projects may have to face the situation where "meme coins are also VC coins."

Recent news indicates that according to The Data Nerd's monitoring, since September 10, Wintermute has accumulated approximately $3.4 million worth of NEIRO tokens. As of now, this address holds tokens worth approximately $4.55 million, accounting for about 6.2% of the total supply. (Note from Odaily Planet Daily: There are speculations in the market that Wintermute may be the market maker for the NEIRO project, but this information has not been verified.)

After all, whether a successful meme coin can stand out from thousands of projects requires not only its "original narrative" but also "capable market makers," "strongly cohesive communities," and "project parties or volunteers advocating for it." In other words, meme coins without combat effectiveness lose from the very beginning, suffering devastating defeats.

This may also be an important reason why, after experiencing high-intensity PVP, despite the emergence of one-click token issuance platforms across various ecosystems and platforms like mushrooms after rain, the meme coin sector is gradually cooling down.

Conclusion: Meme Coins Depart from the "Makeshift Development Period"

Finally, allow me to make a somewhat arbitrary conclusion: the era when three to five people could launch a meme coin project and, with the help of the market and community, see its market cap break through tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars may be hard to return. Meme coins have already departed from the previous "makeshift development period."

As we mentioned in our article "After the Meme Summit, the Base Meme Coin Ecosystem Officially Enters the Second Half" written in June this year, meme coins that can succeed solely by their own efforts are already hard to find in the Base ecosystem. The subsequent poor market performance of the representative meme project DEGEN and the "NFT artist's second entrepreneurial venture" MFERCOIN, which imitated BOME, also indirectly confirms our judgment.

Now, this viewpoint has expanded to the entire crypto industry—perhaps it is time for meme coins to welcome the entry of "regular troops."