CZ's Meme Experiment: Can Money, Collaboration, and Infrastructure Lead to a New Future for BNB Chain?

By: blockbeats|2025/03/17 08:00:05
Share
copy
Original Title: "Can the Meme Narrative Reverse the BNB Chain Decline?"
Original Author: hoidya, Animoca Research Researcher

Many public blockchains spend money to build a Meme ecosystem, but whether such efforts are effective and how to make them effective are still open questions.


Recently, BSC has had to turn to developing a Meme ecosystem to drive overall on-chain ecosystem growth in response to the prevailing trend.


Specifically, BSC recently announced on the 17th a distribution of 4.4 million in liquidity incentives to Meme tokens. Many have likely felt their determination to develop a Meme ecosystem, with attention to management, ecosystem development, infrastructure, community, and more. They have undertaken a series of support measures:


1. Liquidity Incentive Program (spending money)
2. Ecosystem partnerships (enabling the ecosystem to spend money)
3. Infrastructure development (making infrastructure more suitable for meme transactions)


Today, I will use three indicators to show their progress, both to inform others about the outcomes of the BSC Meme ecosystem and to demonstrate the potential effects of this approach to other ecosystems. The article is roughly divided into three sections:


1. Summary of key development milestones on BSC from early February to March 11th
2. Observing the development outcomes of the BSC Meme ecosystem from three dimensions
3. Conclusion & Development Recommendations

Let's Get Started:


Key Timeline:


- February 6th: CZ responds to TST


- February 9th: Binance announces the listing of TST


- February 11th: CZ announces on Twitter, "BNB Chain has been constrained for too long, it is time to break free"


- February 12th: Announced the target areas for BNB Chain build by 2025


- February 13th: CZ announces he will post a photo and name of a dog three hours later


- February 15th: Implemented improvements to BNB Chain to ensure high bids transactions are included


- February 17th: Published an article educating users on avoiding malicious MEV; announced the launch of the meme 4.4 million liquidity incentive program


- February 19: Announcement of the meme Liquidity Plan Day 1 winner


- February 20: Announcement of the meme Liquidity Plan Day 2 winner


- February 21: Announcement of the meme Liquidity Plan Day 3 winner; cz to personally experience on-chain products


- February 23: cz's first use of DEX's AMM, LP, and other functions, stating that the DEX user experience needs improvement; BNBChain announces a one-month TVL incentive plan


- February 24: Foresight Ventures commits to invest $25 million to support the BNB Chain's BIA plan project; AI Hack Workshop distributes over 500k in rewards; Gas-free Initiative; and Trustwallet & GMGN collaboration


- February 28: BNB Incubation Alliance hosts an event in Denver


- February 27: PinkPunkBot supports BNBChain


- March 3: cz announces that Ronaldinho's STAR10 token will be exclusively issued on the BNB Chain


- March 4: Article published "What is BNB Chain Thinking in 2025?"


- March 6: BNB Chain launches bug bounty with a $100k reward; hosts "What Kind of Hackathon Do We Need" Twitter Space; hosts a series of featured activities


- March 7: $4.4 million in liquidity support distributed to top memes; Pascal hard fork introduces gas abstraction, smart contract wallets, bundled transactions, etc.


- March 10: BNB Chain announces the second round of liquidity support plan

Now moving on to the analysis section:


· TVL Changes
· On-chain activity metrics
· Ecosystem token price

TVL:


- BSC's TVL decreased from 5.5 billion in early February to 4.7 billion, a 14% decrease. The TVL of other chains decreased from 112 billion to 82 billion, a 26% decrease.


- During the BSC period, TVL changed in line with the total TVL, but it was notably observed that the inflow amount was higher on February 9 and February 13 during this period compared to other times. On the other hand, other chains saw higher inflow amounts mainly on February 4, March 1, March 3, and March 5; the times when BSC experienced higher outflow amounts were similar to those of other chains (look at % change)

CZ's Meme Experiment: Can Money, Collaboration, and Infrastructure Lead to a New Future for BNB Chain?

On-chain Activity Metrics:

- Active Addresses: The meme campaign on BSC during this period did not bring about steady user growth, with significant user increases only on the 13th, 14th, and 19th; however, it quickly returned to normal levels (maintained at 1-1.5m). In the latter part of the period, Sui's active users were steadily increasing and surpassed those of BSC.

- Daily Transaction Volume: There were significant breakthrough points in transaction volume on the 13th and 19th. However, in the latter part of the period, Sui caught up with transaction volume, maintaining it at 4.5-5m.

- DEX Trading Volume: BSC's DEX trading volume continued to grow on the same dates. However, overall, in the latter part of the period, it showed a downward trend. But Solana's downward trend was more pronounced.
- Transaction Fees: After a steady rise, BSC's transaction fees surged on the 13th, then remained at the level of 0.13.

BSC Ecosystem Tokens with a Market Cap over 100m:


Over 90% of the 100m tokens experienced a decline. Only ACT saw a triple-digit percentage increase during this period.
Other tokens such as OM, NFT, CHEEMS, etc., also had some gains, mostly around 5%.

Different Market Cap Tokens on BSC:


During this period, the group with a market cap of 50-100m performed the best, while the other groups mostly showed a pure downward trend.

Different Category Tokens on BSC:


During this period, the Meme category had the best performance, while other categories maintained a decline of over 20% for nearly 30 days.

Summary:


· TVL saw a significant decrease, but the magnitude of the drop was not as high as in the total TVL of other chains. Additionally, the TVL growth seems to have little correlation with BSC's meme liquidity incentive program during this period: 1) there was no significant increase in TVL the day after the program 2) subsequent to the program, there was no apparent reversal in TVL growth 3) there were almost no instances where the TVL growth % surpassed that of other chains.


· On-chain activity metrics only showed increases on the 13th and 19th, returning to normal afterward. This suggests that the Meme liquidity program did not sustainably drive user growth metrics for BSC.


· Looking at token price performance, both large and small-cap tokens experienced a decline, with mid-cap tokens being the only ones showing an upward trend. Moreover, Meme likely attracted buying volume during this period of liquidity incentives, hence performing the best among the four tracks. However, in the other track of interest to BSC, Ai agent, a similar trend was not observed, possibly indicating

1) Meme capturing liquidity from other tracks

2) Ai agent lacking sufficient appeal to drive user purchases

Overall, the impact of BSC's meme program seems less than ideal, as it briefly brought about wealth effects, liquidity, and users, none of which seem sustainable in the long run.


Some Small Thoughts:


I believe the core purpose of a meme is similar to the bandwagon effect, where wealth effects drive users, and user experience drives infrastructure development. Infrastructure development can further give confidence to public chain teams to scale. Thinking from this perspective, I think that meme ecosystem development is something that should be done.


However, as to whether it should be done, how it should be done, and how much money to spend, I do not have a good idea yet. I am not an expert in this area, so I will leave it to the brothers and sisters in the comments section.

Original Post Link

You may also like

a16z Leads $18M Seed Round for Catena Labs, Crypto Industry Bets on Stablecoin AI Payment

Traditional finance is still stuck in a "human-to-human" model, while Catena aims to achieve "AI-to-AI" interaction.

Pharos, deeply integrated with AntChain, is about to launch. How can we get involved?

What is the relationship between the $8 million funded NewChain and Ant, and how will they interact?

Key Market Insights for May 16th, how much did you miss out on?

1. On-chain Flows: $111.3M inflow to Ethereum this week; $237.6M outflow from Berachain 2. Largest Price Swings: $ETHFI, $NEIRO 3. Top News: Data: Solana Network's revenue reached $7.9M on the 13th, surpassing the sum of all other L1 and L2 chains

The End and Rebirth of NFTs: How the Meme Coin Craze Ended the PFP Era?

There must be another Labubu hidden beneath the ruins.

Key Market Intelligence on May 14th, how much did you miss out on?

Featured News


1.Binance Alpha Launches HIPPO, BLUE, and Other Tokens

2.Believe Ecosystem Tokens See General Rise, LAUNCHCOIN Surges Over 250% in 24 Hours

3.Tiger Securities Introduces Cryptocurrency Deposit and Withdrawal Service, Supports Mainstream Cryptocurrencies such as BTC and ETH

4.Current Bitcoin Rally Possibly Driven by Institutions, Retail Traders Yet to Join

5.Binance Wallet's New TGE Privasea AI Participation Requires a 198 Point Threshold, with a Point Consumption of 15


Trending Topics


Source: Overheard on CT (tg: @overheardonct), Kaito


PUMP: Today's discussions about PUMP focus on its new creator revenue-sharing model: the platform will allocate 50% of PumpSwap revenue to token creators, sparking varied reactions from users. Some criticize the move as insufficient or even misleading, while others view it as a positive step the platform is taking to reward creators. Meanwhile, PUMP faces market pressure from emerging competitors like LetsBONKfun and Raydium, which are rapidly gaining market share. Users also express concerns about PUMP's sustainability and potential regulatory risks in the U.S., with discussions extending to the platform's impact on the entire memecoin ecosystem.


COINBASE: Today, Coinbase became the first crypto company to join the S&P 500 Index, replacing Discover Financial Services, sparking widespread industry attention. The entire crypto community views this milestone as a significant development, signaling that crypto assets are further integrating into the mainstream financial system. The news has sparked lively discussions on Twitter, with many users pointing out that this may attract more institutional investors to enter the Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency markets.


XRP: XRP became the focal point of today's crypto discussion, with its significant market movements and strategic advances drawing attention. XRP has surpassed USDT to become the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, sparking market excitement and discussions about its future potential. The surge in market capitalization and price is believed to be related to increasing institutional interest, deepening strategic partnerships, and its role in the crypto ecosystem. Additionally, XRP's integration into multiple financial systems and its potential as a macro asset class are also seen as key factors driving the current market sentiment.


DYDX: Today's discussions about DYDX mainly focused on the dYdX Yapper Leaderboard launched by KaitoAI. The leaderboard aims to identify the most active community participants, with a total of $150,000 in rewards to be distributed over the first three seasons. This initiative has sparked broad community participation, with many users discussing the potential rewards and the incentive effect on the DYDX ecosystem. Meanwhile, progress on the ethDYDX to dYdX native chain migration and historical airdrop events have also been topics of discussion.


Featured Articles


1. "What Is 'ICM'? Holding Up the $4 Billion Market Cap Solana's New Narrative"

Overnight, the hottest narrative in the crypto space has become "Internet Capital Markets," with a host of crypto projects and founders, led by the Solana ecosystem's new Launchpad platform Believe, releasing this phrase. Together with "Believe in something," it has become the new slogan heralding the onset of a bull market. What exactly is the so-called "Internet Capital Market," will it become a short-lived hype phrase like the Base ecosystem's previous Content Coin, and what related targets are available for selection?


2.《LaunchCoin Surges 20x in One Day, How Did Believe Create a $200M Market Cap Shiba Inu After Going to Zero?|100x Retrospective》

LAUNCHCOIN broke through a $200 million market cap today, with the long-lost liquidity and such a high market cap "Memecoin" almost bringing half of the on-chain crypto community CT into the fray. The community is crazily discussing this token, with half of it being FOMO and the other half being FUD. This token, originally issued by Believe founder Ben Pasternak under his personal identity, transformed into a new platform token after a renaming. From once going to zero to a $200 million market cap, what happened in between?


On-chain Data


May 14 On-chain Fund Flow


Within 24 hours, GOONC's market cap soared to 70 million, could GOONC be the next billion-dollar dog on the Believe platform?

Bitcoin has broken $100,000, Ethereum has surpassed 2500, and is Solana's hot streak about to make a comeback?


The current market is in a state of macro euphoria, with GOONC riding the wave today, skyrocketing 10x in just a few hours, reaching a market cap of tens of millions of dollars, trading volume soaring past 50 million, and rumors swirling that the developer may be from OpenAI (unconfirmed but intriguing enough).


The "gooning" Culture in Forums


A ludicrous and absurd Solana meme that some actually buy into.


GOONC is a meme coin that has sprouted from the "gooning" subculture, offering no technological innovation or practical use, its sole function being speculation.


It takes inspiration from an NSFW term "gooning," which refers to a person being deeply immersed in certain content (you know what), eventually entering a nearly religious-like trance.


In Reddit (such as r/GOONED, r/GoonCaves) and some counterculture media outlets (such as MEL Magazine in 2020), "gooning" has gradually transitioned from an adult label to a meme-addicted, digital content and virtual self-indulgence synonym, arguably the epitome of Degen spirit.


GOONC is playing around with this concept, packaging the addictive nature, uselessness, and irony of gooning into a tradable financial product. The project team has made it clear: "We do not solve blockchain problems, we only trade absurdity." Blunt but oddly genuine.


GOONC launched on May 13, 2025, using the meme coin launch platform Believe App's LaunchCoin module on Solana. This tool is highly Degen: zero technical barriers, a few clicks to create a coin, perfect for projects like GOONC that can come up with ideas out of the blue.



The mastermind behind GOONC is also quite something and is the most talked-about, with KOL @basedalexandoor on X platform (alias "Pata van Goon") personally involved. His profile even caught the attention of Marc Andreessen, co-founder of a16z, making onlookers unable to resist speculating if GOONC has a hint of OpenAI lineage.



While this 'OpenAI Endorsement' is currently just community speculation, it is definitely a good card to play to fuel hype. Saying "we are pure speculation" on one hand, while tagging a few "AI + a16z" on the other.


From Wasteland to Moon in One Night


GOONC took off as soon as it launched. After its launch on May 13, 2025, its market capitalization skyrocketed to $22 million within 4 hours, with a trading volume exceeding $25.6 million in 24 hours. According to platform data, the first day of trading saw an astonishing +41,100% surge, soaring from $0.0000001 to $0.02, becoming a "missed-the-boat" situation.


GOONC quickly formed an active trading community post-launch, with a lot of discussion and trading signals appearing on X platform (such as the 292x return signal provided by DeBot). Liquidity pools on exchanges like Raydium and Meteora grew rapidly, supporting high trading volumes and price increases.


The real climax occurred between May 13 and May 14, with the market cap rising to $5.5 million in the morning and directly surpassing $55 million in the afternoon. By the 14th, it briefly approached a $70 million market cap, with the trading volume soaring to $59 million. Some community members even posted screenshots claiming an increase of +85,000%, creating a new myth out of the ruins.


As of 1:30 pm on May 14, the price stabilized around $0.039, with a total market cap and FDV both around $39.6 million, and a 24-hour trading volume of $5.43 million. Active platforms include XT.COM, LBank, Meteora, and others.


Although there was a slight pullback from the peak ($0.07), the coin's popularity remains strong. For a coin that relies purely on "irony + community + X post" to thrive, this performance is already at a stellar level.



Currently, the background of the token's development team is not transparent, increasing the potential risk of a rug pull. Rugcheck.xyz warns that the creator of the GOONC contract may have permission to modify the contract (e.g., change fees or mint additional tokens), posing certain security risks.


Community members speculate that the meteoric rise of GOONC may be the "last hurrah".


Popular coins

Latest Crypto News

Read more