Written by: Golem ( @web3_golem )
The Meme Market witnessed another legendary "large MC memecoin" today.
At 11:10 AM on January 21st, the White House posted on the X platform mentioning "victory, expulsion operations, and memes." One minute later, a meme coin with the same name, memes, quickly appeared on the Solana chain; 20 minutes later, a version on the BSC chain followed suit. A meme race between the two chains officially began.
From an empirical standpoint, the Solana version should have been superior—not only because of its active ecosystem, but also because it aligns with the consensus of "first is first." However, the results were unexpected: the memes on the BSC chain surpassed Solana in market capitalization. According to GMGN data, the BSC version's market capitalization peaked at $28 million, with 7,300 holding addresses; while the Solana version peaked at only $3.6 million, with 3,900 holding addresses.
The new features of GMGN also provide insight into where players' attention lies: three hours after the token's creation, the number of concurrent online users on the Solana version remained below 1,000, while the number on the BSC version once approached 3,000.
Despite some questioning whether the BSC version's market capitalization was manipulated by "market manipulators to reap profits," the real market attention doesn't lie—this time, BSC has indeed won.
Previously, the community often joked that BSC's meme model was a "Shandong-style approach in the crypto," suggesting that only projects associated with figures like CZ and He Yi had a future, which raised concerns about the sustainability of the ecosystem. However, BSC's victory in this meme race has not only triggered a wave of miss the pump"missed opportunities" but has also prompted the community to rethink the evolution of its meme model. As GMGN founder Haze stated, "The BSC 3.0 era has arrived." (Odaily note: Haze holds 1.93% of BSC chain memes, ranking second in holdings. )
CZ He Yi publicly stated that she does not support "nitpicking memes".
In a previous Odaily editorial discussion , I expressed my thoughts on the BSC Meme model, arguing that CZ and He Yi had essentially been "hijacked" by the community. The current BSC Meme model, relying on a "royal decree" for a cold start, deceiving for sustained interaction, and finally "giving" rewards upon listing on Binance Alpha, is actually a consensus within the BSC community. Although this model originated from CZ's unintentional move in early 2025, they didn't actually like it. However, as things stand, He Yi CZ nor He Yi can reverse the situation.
When I first published this viewpoint, it was merely a conjecture, but CZ He Yi's recent public statement has proven it to be true. On January 13th, CZ posted that although he likes Meme Coin, if players blindly follow the trend and buy Meme Coins "deducted" from his tweets, they are almost destined to lose money.
To prevent people from blindly chasing after these "memes based on specific words," CZ has become more cautious in his tweets. Yesterday, CZ retweeted a plush toy created based on his image, which would normally be a common occurrence, but CZ still specifically noted: "If you create or buy meme coins based on my tweets, please note that I may not mention the same words again for a long time, or even ever again. I do not recommend doing so." He even added an icon at the end of the post, demonstrating CZ's concern for the community.
Compared to CZ's euphemism, He Yi's attitude towards the community's "nitpicking memes" was more direct. In the early hours of January 21st, under a user's post, He Yi not only stated that he would severely punish all internal corruption and bribery within Binance, but also assertively declared that he didn't need to rely on memes about Binance Alpha listing its tokens to gain pleasure. He also advised the community to focus on genuine development and not to mistake "nitpicking and flattery" for genuine self-congratulation. He Yi also stated that he doesn't like eating fish, and that players shouldn't criticize Binance Alpha for not listing its supported tokens.
Following public statements from CZ and He Yi opposing "meme-based content," Binance's official announcements regarding memes have become more cautious. On January 21st, Binance's Chinese-language account posted about launching a new meme product feature, but to avoid giving the community an opportunity to promote meme coins, the account heavily blurred the text. While somewhat ironic, this reflects the overall cautious attitude of Binance, whether it's regarding meme coins that use CZ and He Yi names or those that use Binance's official name.
Is BSC Meme finally going to be different?
Laymen see the spectacle, experts see the underlying principles. He Yi's remarks not only felt incredibly real, but seasoned meme enthusiasts have already realized that the previous BSC-based meme model is collapsing from the top down. The BSC chain memes that successfully outperformed on the morning of January 21st might just be an appetizer. Ironically, memes also originated from the art of wordplay, only this time it's the White House.
Furthermore, He Yi retweeted the tweet after it was posted by the White House (it has since been deleted). This retweet, which is unrelated to both Binance and He Yi, seemed somewhat out of place on her timeline, and the community was unclear about He Yi reason for retweeting it. The fact that BSC's Memes, launched 20 minutes later, outperformed Solana's Memes raises questions about the extent to which He Yi's retweet contributed to this performance.
Finally, we may still have to ask that same old question: Will BSC really be different this time?
