Author: Yangz, Techub News
Meme makes and breaks. CZ's plan to support the BNB Chain through Memecoin seems to have been buried by his own hands.
Reposting STAR10 Invites Trouble
After the Argentine president's release of Libra and the market's concerns about the "celebrity coin" sickle scam, the former Brazilian football star Ronaldinho (Ronaldinho) announced on Monday morning that he would launch the token STAR10 on the BNB Chain and publish the CA address. However, considering Ronaldinho's tarnished reputation in recent years and the painful lessons of the previous "celebrity coins", the Memecoin enthusiasts did not trade extensively as they usually do, taking advantage of the fact that the other side of the ocean is still on the weekend. Dex Screener data shows that although the token's market value rose to around $200 million after Ronaldinho's tweet, it then began to decline, possibly due to the exposure of some internal addresses grabbing profits, and the market was lukewarm.
It was thought that this "celebrity coin" would quietly become a thing of the past in the current volatile market, but unexpectedly, CZ's retweet in the afternoon brought the coin back into the public eye. CZ stated that "the STAR10 token is exclusively issued on the BNB Chain. Those on other chains are fake coins, beware of fraud." In addition, he personally "has been a fan of Ronaldinho since 2005." Of course, CZ also repeatedly emphasized that this tweet is not an endorsement of the token, and that BNB Chain (and any of its affiliates) has no business relationship with Ronaldinho, and reminded users to be aware of the volatility of Memecoin.
Although CZ tried to clarify that "it's not an endorsement," the market value of STAR10 still quickly rose to $350 million after the tweet was reposted. Many investors found that Ronaldinho had interacted with CZ twice before issuing the coin. On February 26, Ronaldinho posted a Twitter video announcing that he would personally sign and give away jerseys to his "friend" CZ. On March 2, Ronaldinho retweeted CZ's "Keep Building" tweet and said "On it."
Just as many investors thought this was the "new wealth code" and were preparing to trade, the event took a critical turn. X user @R10coin_ (the account is currently frozen) revealed that STAR10 is a "plate" coin from Shenzhen, and is a token that Ronaldinho promoted after selling the X account to a coin-issuing team in Shenzhen for $5 million. In addition, the blockchain security company GoPlus Security also issued a security alert, stating that STAR10 has serious security risks, and "the token owner has not given up ownership and can arbitrarily destroy any holder's tokens."
Affected by the explosive news, the price of STAR10 fell again. As of the writing, STAR10 has fallen back from a high of $0.39 to $0.07. As for Ronaldinho's X account, in addition to announcing that he will "listen to community feedback" and give up the ownership of the STAR10 token, and extend the lock-up period to 255 years, it is still operating normally at the moment, not only announcing the launch of a Telegram community, but also carrying out activities such as "giving away signed jerseys for joining the group," and the comments below are full of praise such as "my idol, because of you I fell in love with football."
In contrast to Ronaldinho's X account, although CZ has made great efforts to distance himself from the endorsement, the community users do not buy this "disclaimer." Many investors even jokingly suggest that CZ should learn the story of "no silver in three hundred taels here."
Cultural Differences or Indifference to the People from the High Altar
Seeing the public opinion continue to ferment, CZ also tried to regain his image. He first retweeted GoPlus Security's tweet and reminded users of the risks, and then attributed the controversy to "cultural differences," saying "in English, the more explicit you say, the better. Sometimes there can even be legal liability if you don't say it clearly enough. In Chinese, it's best to just touch on it. If you say it too bluntly, others often understand the opposite meaning." CZ said that his communication mode is to translate English into Chinese, and asked everyone to only understand the literal meaning and not think too much.
However, this statement did not have the expected calming effect, but rather exacerbated the opposition. Many investors questioned how CZ, who studied in China before the age of 12 and then lived in Shanghai for a few years, could not understand Chinese. Of course, there are also views that CZ is doing this because "the ambiguity of Chinese is greater, and the clear reference of English is why he does this. Given his wealth and regulatory pressure, it is understandable that he does not want to be too closely associated with meme to avoid regulatory suspicion." In addition, KOL Crypto Wei Tuo also pointed out from his own experience that "the language barrier does exist."
Putting aside personal experiences and language use habits, the reason why CZ's image as a Chinese leader in the cryptocurrency industry is again questioned may be that even ordinary investors know that STAR10 is very likely to be a fraud project, but CZ still chose to "retweet" it. In addition, CZ's recent Twitter statements have repeatedly gone wrong, making many investors lament that CZ is "high up in the temple, but not concerned about the people."
From endorsing Certik last December as "absolutely trustworthy," to the recent TST and his own pet dog "Broccoli" drama, as well as mistaking BNB listed on HashKey Global as Hong Kong-approved BNB and admitting "first time using DEX," CZ's recent words and deeds have been self-damaging to the industry's image. As for the retweet of STAR10, KOL @Sea_Bitcoin pointed out that CZ was just trying to use Memecoin to drive traffic to the BNB Chain, but he "didn't understand it and couldn't play it," leading to a short-term utilitarian mindset and distorted actions. @Ice_Frog666666 guessed that CZ's cognition may be closer to the mindset of a Web2 500 corporate executive, used to completely separating factual statements and value judgments. What CZ doesn't understand is that in the Memecoin market, "the decision-making logic of retail investors is highly simplified, and any of his words and deeds will be extracted into the binary attributes of negative/positive news, and the objectivity of his statements will be completely dissolved in this binary propagation context." However, many KOLs have also put forward different views. @niqislucky believes that CZ "must understand that 'mentioning = attention = liquidity,' so pretending to be ignorant must have a purpose." @vvickym2 also said that CZ "is just pretending to be confused. You can never wake up someone who is pretending to sleep."
Regarding CZ's repeated mistakes, many practitioners have also offered their own suggestions. Wu Blockchain founder Colin suggested that he "be cautious in mentioning specific project names, or before mentioning specific projects, the team should first do a fact check, or even ask Grok on Twitter what the negative news about the project is." @DeFi8362 also suggested "not to list specific projects...just talk about overall development. Just like celebrities, when they appear on camera (tweet), they tear off the logos of products they don't endorse." And zjj.eth, the former Jia Jun, believes that one should not have too high expectations of CZ, bluntly saying "the more bullshit he puts out, the more he will be demystified, a person who just used dex, you can't have too high expectations."
Summary
CZ's frequent mistakes in his words and actions have once again placed his image as a Chinese leader in the Crypto industry in the eye of the public storm. Whether it is the eager action of using Memecoin to drive traffic to the BNB Chain, or the inappropriate wording, it makes one wonder whether he truly understands the needs of the market and users. As many investors have said, CZ seems to be gradually drifting away from the original intention of the crypto community and trapped in a state of disconnection from the masses.
In addition, this incident also once again reflects the impact of public figures' words and actions on the Crypto market. Crypto is now not only a competition of technology and innovation, but also a battlefield of traffic and public opinion. Every statement made by public figures such as Musk, Trump, and CZ may become a trigger point for market fluctuations. Although this "celebrity effect" can bring short-term heat, to me it is more of a repulsive emotion. Take last week's call by Eric Trump, son of former President Trump, to "buy the dip!" during the market downturn, for example. For novice investors, such statements can be both guidance and misinformation. While celebrity comments can attract attention, their ultimate impact is often temporary.
Wu Blockchain said that the Bit market has been in a Bull market for a long time, and DeFi and Hash have become the focus of attention. MEME tokens such as BNB, TRON, and Chia have also performed well. ETH, HT, BAL, OP, and AR have all seen significant gains. The meme market is still active, and RON and ONG are also worth watching.
