BNB-based memecoins plummet after CZ says tweets are 'not endorsement'

BNB Chain’s memecoin craze has taken a sudden about-face, with many tokens losing between 60% and 95% of their value in the past 24 hours after Binance founder Changpeng "CZ" Zhao cautioned that his social media posts should not be viewed as trading signals.

CZ was responding to a separate tweet from user YazanXBT, who warned traders that sending coins to CZ’s wallet or tying token names to his posts did not reduce risk.

Zhao replied that his tweets are “not endorsements,” and stressed: “Now I just tweet normally, any overlap to memes is coincidental."

Prices of BNB memetokens trading on PancakeSwap — the leading decentralized exchange on BNB Chain — tumbled shortly after Zhao’s tweet. Some were only a few hours or days old, while others had been trading for months.

Several pairs saw their market caps fall by more than 95% in 24 hours as liquidity drained and traders exited positions.

'BNB SZN'

At the peak of the frenzy on Tuesday, more than 100,000 onchain traders had bought into these new BNB memecoins, according to Bubblemaps, with about 70% in profit at the time.

One trader booked more than $10 million, while 40 others cleared seven-figure sums, and 900 more wallets saw gains above $100,000.

That wave of trading lifted activity across BNB Chain’s decentralized exchanges. PancakeSwap processed nearly $80 billion in trades in September — its busiest month since November 2021. October is already off to a strong start, with $30 billion in volume cleared during the first nine days alone.

DEX volumes overall have hovered around $19 billion in the past 24 hours, with BNB Chain platforms accounting for about 40% of that.

Zhao himself acknowledged the trend in a Tuesday post declaring it “BNB meme szn!”

The activity also helped push Binance's native BNB to a record high of about $1,350 on Tuesday before easing back to roughly $1,270 today, according to The Block price page data.