BNB ‘Meme Season’ Arrives as Binance and CZ-Inspired Coins Get Hot

Is BNB “meme season” finally here?

As the BNB token claims new all-time highs, speculative and risky assets like meme coins on BNB Chain are seeing a surge in volume and price. And many of the top BNB Chain memes right now are inspired by crypto exchange Binance and its outspoken founder and former CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao

“BNB meme szn!” posted Zhao on X. “I didn’t expect this at all. And people keep asking me to predict the future. Keep building!”

The chain’s meme coin frenzy is being led by 4, a token directly connected to CZ’s likeness and inspired by an image of the former Binance frontman holding up four fingers that has become a widely circulated meme in crypto circles.

The meme refers to Zhao’s “fourth” resolution for the new year in 2023, blocking out fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) and fake news, while focusing on building. Zhao would famously write “4” on X when addressing stories he considered bogus, inaccurate, or unflattering.

The token is up around 25% in the last 24 hours on nearly $79 million in trading volume, and has jumped to a market cap of $243 million less than one week since its launch.

Others meme coins like Paul (PALU), whose character was posted by CZ, and 客服小何, which means Binance Life in Chinese, have provided even steeper gains in the last 24 hours, jumping 2,246% and 415% respectively in that timeframe. The pair have combined for more than $335 million in on-chain trading volumes, according to data gathered by DEXScreener.

Plus, PUP—a meme coin that plays off the original Solana token Dogwifhat—has jumped nearly 200%, while SZN—a token that amplifies the narrative of a BNB Chain bull market—is up 5,600% to a $14 million market cap. 

Those volume numbers significantly surpass those of meme coins on Solana, historically the strongest blockchain network for meme activity, where President Trump’s official meme coin (TRUMP) leads the charge with almost $50 million in trading volume over the last 24 hours, followed by a sizable drop to about $12 million for Doodles (DOOD) and $8 million for CARDS.

As of this writing, 19 of the top 20 trending coins tracked by DEXScreener over the last six hours are on BNB Chain, with the one exception being a Solana meme coin.

According to blockchain data analytics firm Bubblemaps, more than 100,000 on-chain traders have bought into the latest crop of BNB meme coins, with 70% in profit as of early this afternoon—including dozens of traders showing at least $1 million in profits.

BNB and CZ have been entangled in meme coin madness before. In February, CZ announced the name of his adopted dog, Broccoli, which spurred the launch of dozens of Broccoli-themed tokens on BNB.

Within a few hours of launch, the leading token jumped to more than a $400 million market cap on greater than $220 million in volume. Though it’s fallen more than 80% since that briefly held high mark, BROCCOLI is enjoying a resurgence amid the current meme pump, jumping 43% in the last 24 hours to a $48 million market cap.

Historically, though, the Binance co-founder has had a tepid response to meme tokens, calling them “a little weird” in November while asking followers to focus on building “real” blockchain applications.