The Binance listing team that has been looked down upon, even Zhao Changpeng can't stand it anymore?

Author: 1912212.eth, Foresight News

Recently, the overall market has been fluctuating and continuously declining, and the MEME craze seems to be gradually fading. However, the meme coin TST on the BNB Chain has suddenly exploded in popularity.

On February 6, the market cap of TST was only $500,000. On February 9, Binance announced its listing, and TST immediately surged past a market cap of $500 million, increasing over 100 times in just three days. Currently, TST has dropped from its peak of $0.52 to around $0.17, a decline of over 60%.

Originating from an Educational Video

Recently, the BNB Chain team created a video tutorial on the Four.meme platform featuring the token TST as an example. This detail was discovered and vigorously promoted by savvy KOLs in the Chinese community, quickly leading to a significant price increase.

Upon learning of the speculation, the BNB Chain team quickly deleted the private key of the creator's address (which held 0.13% of the total token supply). No one in their team or at Binance holds this token. Zhao Changpeng has repeatedly clarified on Twitter that he and his team have no connection to it. Perhaps due to its "decentralized" nature, this statement did not cause TST's price to drop; instead, it sparked another wave of speculation due to its popularity and buzz.

However, after its official listing on Binance, TST did not escape the "listing on Binance leads to a drop" curse and soon began to decline. Another meme coin from the BNB Chain ecosystem, CHEEMS, which was listed at the same time, also faced misfortune, dropping from a high of $0.001884 to $0.0007.

After TST was listed on Binance, savvy whales chose to take profits. However, as newly listed coins on Binance faced another significant drop, the crypto community once again questioned Binance's listing standards and whether the BNB Chain ecosystem could gain momentum.

Wealth Effect Dwindling, Community Refuses to Pay for BSC

As a leading exchange in the crypto industry, Binance has previously garnered market acclaim through its strong wealth effect and listing effect. Now, times have changed; VC coins on the exchange are no longer favored by the market and are generally facing a survival crisis, while on-chain meme coins have become a wealth haven for users.

This phenomenon has led to a general weakness in the rise of altcoins on exchanges, with sharp declines when they do fall. Aside from mainstream coins, most altcoins have experienced significant corrections over the past two months. Meme coins have also seen a period of decline following the Trump-themed coins.

Binance finds itself in a dilemma regarding its spot listing strategy; listing tokens with a high market cap often yields low returns, while those with a low market cap carry excessive risks, and significant price fluctuations may lead to heavy losses for many investors. Additionally, since Binance's global expansion, it has also been troubled by compliance issues, affecting the advancement of many businesses.

He Yi has stated that Binance has a complex token listing review process. However, the recently listed TST, which was created just a few days prior, raised questions among some community members: Does Binance really have a thorough review process? Or is it choosing a fast track to support the BNB Chain ecosystem?

The Struggling BNB Chain

Since CZ's release from prison last year, he is no longer allowed to participate in the daily operations of Binance according to legal regulations. As an influential figure in the industry, his scope of involvement remains quite broad. For instance, in investment and public chain ecosystem sectors, Binance Labs has officially rebranded to YZi Labs, transforming into a large family office, with its investment scope expanding from cryptocurrency to AI and biotechnology. In its official announcement, it stated that CZ will continue to play a key role in investment activities, directly engaging with entrepreneurs and providing guidance.

Moreover, the ecological progress on the BNB Chain has also drawn CZ's attention. Recently, Binance Labs invested in the ecological re-staking project Kernel and the DEX project THENA. However, the re-staking craze has not reignited, and the price trend of THE indicates that the community is not buying in, with the price dropping from a high of $4.18 to $0.47. Another ecological project, CAKE, has recently fallen to around $1.6, not far from its historical low of $1.05.

Behind the crisis, the BNB Chain launched an AI agency program this year and introduced the meme launch platform Four.meme to GMGN, attempting to catch the wave of memes and AI agencies, but the awkwardness lies in its slow response, coinciding with a downturn in the market.

The BNB Chain performed well in the last cycle, but this cycle has been mediocre, and it can even be said to have fallen far behind. The performance of ecological projects has been lackluster, and the meme ecosystem has not shown improvement. Compared to Solana and Base chains, the trend has clearly declined. As of January 30 this year, the daily active address count on the Solana network was six times that of the BNB Chain, and even the new L2 player Base surpassed the BNB Chain in daily active addresses, whereas about a year ago, the daily active addresses on the BNB Chain were twice that of Solana.

With the ecosystem stagnating and the wealth effect lacking, CZ, as the face of the brand, can no longer sit idle.

On February 7, CZ initiated a vote on "Should BNB Chain attempt to eliminate or actively reduce the MEV issue?" and stated, "I hate any form of front-running, and MEV feels like that to me. In a decentralized world, no one can completely stop it. But there are ways to reduce it."

Subsequently, CZ responded multiple times on Twitter regarding TST-related issues and expressed his views, leading to a brief surge in TST's popularity, with some early buyers making substantial profits.

Following the meme discussion, CZ also specifically addressed the community's concerns regarding the listing process, stating, "As an observer, I think there are some issues with Binance's listing process. The platform announces first, then lists four hours later. While a notification period is necessary, during those four hours, the token price can be pushed up on DEX, and then someone sells it on CEX."

In response, community members suggested that CEX could optimize the listing process by synchronously providing initial liquidity, incentivizing liquidity programs, and connecting with DEX liquidity pools. CZ responded to the suggestions, stating, "I think CEX should automatically list (almost) all tokens like DEX, but I am no longer responsible for operating CEX."

Conclusion

If CEX were to automatically list almost all tokens like DEX, it would raise significant questions regarding CEX product positioning, listing effects, and more. CZ's recent frequent tweets addressing issues related to BNB Chain and token listings are certainly aimed at responding to community concerns, but based on the current performance of some representatives, the results have been minimal.

Perhaps the root of the problem goes far beyond Binance itself and involves deeper issues within the entire crypto industry: crypto nihilism, a series of meme bloodsucking, a lack of industry innovation, and selling tokens becoming the main business of project parties…