Original Author: Alex Liu, Foresight News
On March 20, 2025, the crypto exchange Binance launched the "Vote to List" voting activity, partially delegating the token listing decision-making power to the community. This crypto democratic experiment involving millions of users has attracted widespread industry attention while also sparking in-depth discussions about community governance boundaries, market manipulation risks, and the feasibility of decentralized governance.
From Centralized Review to Community Co-governance
According to Binance's official announcement, the first round of voting will continue until March 27, with users needing to hold at least 0.01 BNB (approximately $6.2) to participate, and each user can cast one vote for up to 5 BNB Smart Chain ecosystem tokens. The initial candidate list includes 9 projects: BANANAS 31 (Banana For Scale), BID (CreatorBid), Broccoli (Broccoli), Broccoli (CZ'S Dog), KOMA (Koma Inu), SIREN (SIREN), mubarak (mubarak), TUT (Tutorial), WHY (why), with the top two vote-getters entering Binance's professional due diligence process.
Regarding vote-buying behavior in Binance's listing vote, Binance co-founder He Yi commented that they will clear cheating through ticket washing to ensure voting fairness.
Notable is the dual balance mechanism in the rule design:
Participation Threshold and Anti-Cheating Measures: The low threshold of 0.01 BNB ensures broad participation, combined with "ticket washing" technology to filter fake accounts, maintaining openness while preventing manipulation
Community Will and Professional Review Connection: Voting results do not directly determine listing, still requiring traditional due diligence processes for compliance and safety
Ecosystem Focus Strategy: Initial limitation to BNB chain tokens strengthens ecosystem cohesion and reduces complex multi-chain project assessment risks
This "democratic screening + professional oversight" hybrid model was evaluated by Cointelegraph analysts as "finding a compromise between decentralization ideals and centralized reality".
Community Game: Enthusiastic Support and Undercurrents
Within 24 hours of the activity's launch, related topics sparked intense discussion on X. Most users welcomed the devolution of participation rights, reflecting market demand for governance openness. However, undercurrents lurk beneath the surface:
Token Arms Race: Multiple project communities promise token airdrops to attract token holders' votes; Extensive Short Selling Discussions: Since only a few tokens will be listed, unselected tokens' prices might drop, with some suggesting shorting all voting tokens for profit. After Binance recently listed multiple contract trading pairs, all candidate tokens in this voting round are now available on Binance contract trading - "not optimistic, can short" is not just talk.
This heated voting atmosphere inevitably recalls the bustling scene of Binance's first token listing vote in 2017. CZ responded to user comments about the "effectiveness of Binance's 2017 token listing voting mechanism", saying, "The voting started well. But later it somewhat divided the community, causing project parties to attack each other. It felt like PvP. Preventing cheating also became increasingly difficult over time. We need to keep changing modes. Occasionally, it's still okay to do this."
Mechanism Evolution: The Iterative Path of Eight Years of Voting History
Reviewing Binance's token listing mechanism development is undoubtedly a history of continuously seeking dynamic balance between centralization and decentralization. From 2017 to 2019 in the startup period, Binance relied entirely on internal teams for project review. While the token listing vote sparked a wave of enthusiasm, it was also accompanied by vote-buying, bribery, and other chaos.
From 2020 to 2024 during the adjustment period, Binance temporarily shelved the voting mechanism, turning to more controllable modes like Launchpad and Launchpool for project listings, and established an Alpha project library for long-term observation. By 2025, Binance reboots the token listing vote with a completely new approach, introducing token holding thresholds and ticket-washing algorithms, restricting voting to pre-screened project pools while retaining professional due diligence's final veto power.
Through token verification and strict rule design, Binance attempts to build a healthier and more sustainable governance ecosystem.
Future Projection: Three Possibilities for the Self-Governance Experiment
Looking ahead, this self-governance experiment might develop along three distinctly different paths. In an ideal scenario, community consensus could help quality projects stand out, and anti-cheating systems could effectively purify the voting environment, forming a replicable governance template.
In an unsatisfactory scenario, market manipulation might cause inferior tokens to drive out good ones; the strategy of shorting all tokens might trigger a mid-to-small token crash.
The realistic middle ground might be: some dark horse projects are screened out, with intermittent vote-buying scandals forcing the platform to continuously optimize rule design.
CoinMarketCap shows current cryptocurrency total exceeds 13 million
Behind the token listing vote is Binance's latest traffic attempt after escaping regulatory constraints. In this vast crypto empire, a super traffic closed loop formed by exchanges + wallets + public chains + community + KOLs is initially taking shape, and what crypto winds it can ultimately stir remains to be seen.
