Giggle Academy, a free on- chain learning platform backed by Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ), raised $880,000 in the first two hours of donations opening.
The bulk of the donations came from the newly launched GIGGLE Token , which started out as a fun meme coin experiment but quickly became a major educational initiative.
Giggle Academy Turns Meme Coin Momentum Into $880,000
The boom started when Rune, a popular trader and user on X (Twitter), suggested that meme coins could serve charitable purposes.
“Hey CZ, does Giggle accept donations from tokens? One use of meme coins is charity,” Rune wrote on X (Twitter).
The trader pointed to previous examples, like Vitalik Buterin donating Shiba Inu and WaterCoin funding MrBeast's clean water project.
According to Rune, the response was immediate. Within hours, $880,000 had been raised, with $56,000 of that coming directly from GIGGLE transaction fees, which at times reached $1,000 per minute.
Unlike previous meme -based charity efforts, GIGGLE takes a structured approach. The Token , which trades on the BNB Chain , sends donations in BNB rather than its own Token .
According to Rune, this is a healthy way to donate, as it avoids clogging the donation process with liquidation or unstable assets.
Binance Founder Changpeng Zhao Sets Expectations
Changpeng Zhao , meanwhile, set expectations, explaining that Giggle Academy will convert/sell the meme coins they receive into major altcoins before spending them. In this context, he warned GIGGLE Token holders of upcoming selling pressure.
“We appreciate the donations, but please don't complain about selling pressure later,” he noted .
Giggle Academy is an educational initiative that CZ promoted before his arrest, and is a project he pledged to develop after his release .
Its mission is to provide free, high-quality education entirely funded by donations from the community. The project says donations will be used for “Building Community & Incentivizing Creators, Growing the Ecosystem, Promoting Products & Scaling Impact.”
Furthermore, 100% of donations will be managed on- chain and accompanied by public reports to ensure accountability.
The market also took notice. The GIGGLE Token was up more than 400% on the PancakeSwap DEX before correcting, although it was still up 164% overall.
GIGGLE Price Performance. Source: DEXScreenerVolatility reflects the speculative nature of meme assets, but in this case, the speculation is driving something tangible.
However, with Giggle Academy being a free (no revenue) educational platform, it becomes difficult to incentivize contributors.
Based on this, CZ notes that GIGGLE donations could fill this gap, potentially expanding coverage.
