Binance life, Solana pumps to fame! Global Degen crazily learning Chinese, Meme discourse power reversal.

The Chinese meme wave ignited by CZ and He Yi has rapidly spread, causing Degen around the world to learn Chinese. The Binance Life was born from a comment by CZ, with a peak market capitalization of 500 million USD. Although it faced skepticism after a big dump, it soon welcomed a second wave of recovery. Solara was born from the official Chinese name collection event by Solana, coinciding with the official listing of Binance Life on the Base chain and the listing of Perptual Futures on Binance, as the three chains compete to reignite the enthusiasm.

Origin of the Outbreak: CZ's Statement Ignites the Chinese Meme Wave

This wave can be traced back to early October when Binance founder CZ inadvertently commented on a post made by a community member on the X platform with a short phrase “Binance Life” during an interaction with the community. Subsequently, the meme coin of the same name, “Binance Life,” was deployed on the Binance blockchain and quickly surged, attracting the attention of the community. This speed from community interaction to token birth showcases the high speculative nature and responsiveness of the meme coin market.

Immediately afterwards, CZ posted again during the Mid-Autumn Festival, soliciting the most creative memes from the community, which once again sparked the community's attention on Binance's public chain meme coins. Following this, Binance co-founder He Yi took advantage of this wave of traffic and actively interacted with the community, driving the explosion of Binance's public chain meme coins. With the support of BNB Alpha's listing area, the Chinese meme coins led by Binance Life quickly swept through the crypto community.

Tokens like “客服小何”, “修仙”, and “哈基米” with strong Chinese meme characteristics have rapidly gained popularity on the Binance public chain, with market capitalization once soaring to tens of millions, even over a hundred million dollars, attracting many investors to rush into the Binance public chain for gold mining, referred to by the market as the “BNB meme season”. The names of these tokens originate from Chinese internet culture; “客服小何” refers to He Yi's approachable image in the community, “修仙” represents the culture of Chinese web novels, and “哈基米” comes from popular memes in the Chinese community.

Binance's market capitalization reached a peak of 500 million USD, a remarkable figure in the meme coin sector, approaching the early market capitalization levels of some established meme coins like PEPE. This explosive growth has attracted the attention of global investors, and many foreign investors who do not understand Chinese have started to research the meanings of these Chinese memes, trying to ride this wave.

1011 big dump FUD surges: both referee and player in controversy

However, good times do not last. After the big dump in the cryptocurrency market on October 11, the community first questioned Binance's role in this downturn, with a series of doubts and criticisms emerging, such as “Binance's outage preventing investors from placing orders,” “Assets on Binance decoupling causing users to passively face liquidation,” and “Binance's lack of transparency during the big dump.”

These criticisms further escalated to critiques of Binance “promoting and leading the meme coin craze on the Binance Smart Chain”. Many believe that Binance and its founder personally engaging in the promotion of the meme coin craze is akin to “being both the referee and the player”. CZ and He Yi, through community interactions, “indirectly endorse” specific coins, being both the heads of the exchange and acting like market manipulators, which brings significant speculative risks to retail investors.

As a result, meme coins on the Binance public chain generally experienced a fall, with the market capitalization of Binance Life dropping from a peak of 500 million USD to 83 million USD, a decline of 83%. Many investors began to question whether this was just a repeat of history, with the speculative bubble of meme coins bursting, leaving behind the blood and tears of retail investors who mindlessly jumped in due to FOMO.

Second Wave of Recovery: Solana Takes the Stage in Three Chains Competition

However, as the cryptocurrency market has shown signs of rebounding recently, the craze for Chinese meme coins has not lost its momentum; instead, it has迎來了第二波高潮, formally leading to a positive response from public chains outside of the Binance public chain. Firstly, on October 16, while the FUD surrounding Binance was still resonating in the crypto community, CZ hinted again during his interaction with the community that he would continue to pay attention to memes, thereby driving the meme coins on the Binance public chain to warm up, with tokens like Binance Life seeing price rebounds one after another.

Next comes the addition of Base chain. On October 20, the official X account of Base announced the official launch of Binance Life, allowing the token to be directly exchanged within the Base ecosystem. At the same time, Base founder Jesse Pollak also posted a Chinese tweet on the same day, supporting “Chinese meme developers” and encouraging more Chinese projects to land on Base. This is the first time a mainstream Western blockchain platform has clearly expressed support for Chinese meme culture.

On the same day, Binance also increased its efforts by listing Perptual Futures trading on Binance Life, offering up to 50x leverage, further amplifying market liquidity. The listing of Perptual Futures means that professional traders can engage in two-way trading, which is often a sign of a token entering the mainstream market.

Additionally, as the previous meme coin sanctuary Solana, starting from October 14, the Solana official and founder Anatoly Yakovenko launched a “Chinese Name Collection” event, and finally confirmed the official Chinese name for Solana as “索拉拉” (combining the transliteration of “Solana” with the “pump” meme) late at night on October 20, which immediately gave birth to a batch of meme coins with the same name “$索拉拉”.

The choice of the name “索拉拉” is very thoughtful. “索拉納” is a common transliteration of Solana, while “拉拉” implies a double meaning of “拉盤” (price increase). This naming approach, which merges technology branding with speculative culture, perfectly embodies the essence of meme coin culture.

Three Chain Platform Timeline:

October 16: CZ hints at continued attention to memes, Binance's public chain meme coins are warming up.

October 20: Base officially launches Binance Life, Jesse Pollak posts a Chinese tweet in support.

October 20: Binance lists Binance Life Perpetual Futures, with a maximum leverage of 50x.

October 20: Solana officially confirms the Chinese name “索拉拉”, giving rise to the meme coin of the same name.

Global Degen Madness in Chinese: The Historic Shift of Discourse Power

The biggest cultural phenomenon of this wave is that the crypto community has sparked a trend of “learning Chinese.” The Chinese crypto community points out that previously investing in English meme coins required a lot of time to study Western meme culture and metaphors, making the threshold very high. Usually, after understanding the meaning of the tokens, entering the market only serves as exit liquidity for Western investors. And now, it's the turn of foreign “Degens” (meme coin speculators) to frantically cram Chinese, just to understand jokes like “发财” and “梭哈,” and seize early bird opportunities.

On platform X, not only meme coin investors have started posting in Chinese and creating memes in Chinese, even official accounts like Solana and Base are continuously posting in Chinese, and even launched “Chinese courses” teaching posts. Relevant statistics indicate that among global meme coin holders, the download volume of tools for learning Chinese has surged by 50% this month, seemingly suggesting a resurgence of Asian culture in the Web3 world.

The significance of this cultural phenomenon goes far beyond mere speculative behavior. For a long time, the discourse in the cryptocurrency market has primarily been dominated by the English-speaking world. Whether it is project naming, community discussions, or market narratives, English has been the dominant language. The Chinese community often finds itself in a passive position, needing to understand Western culture in order to participate in the market. However, the explosion of Chinese meme coins has, for the first time, required Western investors to understand Chinese culture in order to seize opportunities, marking a historic shift in the balance of discourse.

Future Outlook: Is the Craze Not Over or Will the Bubble Burst

Currently, the community remains optimistic about Chinese meme coins, with many believing that this craze “is not over yet.” Many anticipate that CEX exchanges will successively list Chinese meme coin spot products, providing support and injecting liquidity. If Binance Life or Solana can land on the mainstream exchange spot market, it will be the final confirmation of this trend.

However, there are also opposing views, arguing that meme coins always lack practical value. As the crypto market shows more interest in this craze, major projects, especially foreign ones, are increasingly aligning with this trend, which could indicate that this wave of enthusiasm is nearing its peak. Once the market crashes, the meme coin market may also see bloodshed once again.

Looking back at the short 20 days from early October to now, the wave of Chinese meme coins driven by Binance raises the question of whether it represents a shift in the discourse of the meme coin world from English to Chinese or if it is merely a fleeting moment in the market's euphoria. However, one thing is for sure: when Chinese first appeared in trading pairs on exchanges, it undoubtedly marked a significant moment in the history of the crypto market.