CZ’s new book is now available, titled “Binance Life,” and a token of the same name has started a violent upward trend, hitting the current price high, up 15-fold from the low at the end of March.
This is a 15-fold increase in the cryptocurrency sector, which is at the bottom of the tech asset industry, amid dismal trading volumes, sharply shrinking wealth effects, and Bitcoin’s peak being halved—in short, the crypto space is at its lowest.
“Binance Life” Candlestick Chart
The 15-fold surge has brought a wealth effect far greater than just the “Binance Life” token. On Binance, altcoins have seen a long-absent 24-hour doubling pump, and familiar capital rotations are beginning to emerge, such as with inscriptions, Chinese memes, or Polkadot ecosystem tokens. The pump of “Binance Life” has slightly revived the crypto space, which had fallen to rock bottom.
This has happened again on Binance.
Because such artificial bulls in a bear market have occurred twice before when most needed.
On January 28, 2019, BTT opened for subscription on Binance Launchpad, with the window lasting 18 minutes. The $7.12 million allocation sold out in 18 minutes. The issue price was $0.00012, and it surged over 10-fold from the issue price within 8 days.
That was a time in a super bear market when everyone was directionless. Binance Launchpad addressed a straightforward problem: providing ordinary investors with an entry point to acquire early tokens. This had never happened before. If you bought, you were ahead of others. The scarcity was real, and FOMO naturally arose.
In March 2022, BTC had fallen 34% from its all-time high of $68,700 to $37,800. Before most people could decide whether to exit or wait, STEPN’s governance token GMT completed its subscription on Binance Launchpad at an issue price of $0.01.
On April 24, GMT was quoted at $4.1144, up 411-fold from the issue price, with a peak circulating market cap of $2.46 billion. Google Trends data showed that the global search interest for “STEPN” reached a perfect score of 100 that week, almost synchronizing with the price peak. By June, daily active users hit 1 million. Copycat projects soon emerged, with at least 17 Move-to-earn projects following suit.
Compared to BTT, GMT’s narrative was elevated by one level. BTT sold scarcity. GMT sold a story supported by behavioral logic—walking to earn, explainable, and spreadable. It precisely captured two collective sentiments of the post-pandemic era: the desire for outdoor activities and the fantasy of crypto earnings. A Binance-backed platform + a viral product narrative = the conditions to ignite a bear market.
Four years later, when a catalyst was most needed to shake the numb nerves of crypto players, “Binance Life” emerged. Coinciding with the release of Changpeng Zhao’s new book, a week-long online reading campaign kicked off, old stories were revisited, public attention remained high, and it brought a meme token to an all-time high.
BTT needed a trading protocol, GMT needed a pair of sneakers and a mobile app. All “Binance Life” needed was a phrase, a meme, and a book title.
In terms of process, “Binance Life” wasn’t as organic as the previous instances. IEOs that had delivery riders skipping orders at 8 PM to grab new token allocations are surely still remembered by old-timers, and walking-to-earn directly redefined Web3 trends. This time, hardly any newcomers were seen in the market, but with the out-of-circle buzz of the new book, the wild token on Binance brought long-missed altcoin volatility. In terms of results, it seemed even more satisfying than the previous two.
This is certainly not a macro bull market; money hasn’t yet flowed into Bitcoin, let alone altcoins. But even a brief artificial bull now feels somewhat moving.
