As the founder and largest shareholder of Binance, CZ's every word and action can potentially impact market sentiment and trends. Recently, CZ has been constantly "endorsing" the BNB Chain on Twitter, listing meme coins on Binance's BSC, emphasizing the technical advantages and ecosystem potential of the BNB Chain, and outlining the 2025 development blueprint, which has attracted widespread market attention. Driven by CZ, the BNB Chain ecosystem tokens have seen a general rise, hitting new highs for the year.

Every time CZ speaks, it's like a "depth charge" that ripples through the crypto market. From the bold statement that "the BNB Chain has been confined for too long, it's time to break free," to the change in attitude towards meme coins, CZ's return has undoubtedly injected a strong stimulus into the BNB Chain. But is this ecosystem boom triggered by the "CZ effect" a fleeting phenomenon, or the starting point for the BNB Chain to regain its peak?

CZ's Return, BNB Chain's Popularity Returns

To trace the origins of this round of BNB Chain hype, we have to mention TST. TST, Test Token, was initially just a token used in a video demonstrating how to issue memes on the Four platform, but the video inadvertently exposed the contract address of TST, allowing everyone to quickly spot an opportunity. Soon, TST transformed from an obscure test coin into the focus of speculation, and its market attention skyrocketed. When CZ issued a statement on social media clarifying that TST was not an official Binance-supported project, it should have been a cooling-off moment, but instead it became a catalyst for TST to explode again, further boosting its reputation in the community. On February 6, its market cap was only $500,000, but CZ's response to the TST token caused its market cap to briefly exceed $50 million. Then, on February 9, Binance announced the listing of TST, and its market cap soared, breaking $500 million, a surge of over 100 times in just 3 days.

With the active promotion of TST to drive the BNB Chain, on February 11, CZ tweeted that "the BNB Chain has been confined for too long, it's time to break free," and on the 12th, he released the target areas for the BNB Chain's 2025 build, triggering strong market expectations for ecosystem upgrades. On the 11th, BNB broke through $640, with a 24-hour gain of 5.75%, and today's high reached $725, with the market heat significantly rebounding.

After the listing of TST on Binance, the BNB Chain ecosystem tokens began to rise across the board, occupying the top positions on the major exchanges' gain lists. Here are some of the hot projects worth noting.

Cake

PancakeSwap is one of the most popular AMM protocols on the BNB Chain, and is also widely used DEX in the entire DeFi industry, with CAKE being the native token of the PancakeSwap platform. PancakeSwap has low transaction fees (0.2% transaction fee) and rich features (such as farm, lottery, NFT market, etc.), with consistently leading trading volume and user activity. At noon on the 13th, Cake's market cap reached a high of $7 billion, and as of the time of writing, the 24h gain has reached 38%.

Bake

BakerySwap is a decentralized automated market maker with liquidity mining on the Binance Smart Chain, and BAKE is the native BEP-20 governance token of the platform. BakerySwap is an iteration of Uniswap, similar to Uniswap but faster and cheaper. In addition, BakerySwap also has a powerful NFT supermarket, including digital art NFTs, gamified NFTs, and the latest featured artist series. The Bake token suddenly surged on the evening of the 12th, with its market cap rising from around $110 million to a high of $232.48 million in 2 hours, a gain of over 100%.

THE

Thena is a decentralized trading and liquidity protocol on the BNB Chain, and is the first project launched by Binance after CZ's release. Benefiting from the technical support of the BNB Chain, Thena's advantages lie in its low fees and high performance, and the platform also supports liquidity pools for multiple token pairs, attracting users to participate through dynamic yield adjustment strategies. The THE token also surged rapidly on the evening of the 12th, with its market cap reaching a high of $256.67 million, a 24-hour gain of up to 115%.

BNX

BNX is the token of BinaryX, a Web3 gaming platform that combines decentralized finance (DeFi) with gaming, allowing players to earn cryptocurrencies through a play-to-earn mechanism. Its potential stems from the growing popularity of NFT games, combined with a strong community and innovative gameplay, allowing users to generate real-world income while enjoying an immersive gaming experience. BNX has shown a relatively strong upward trend since the evening of the 8th, achieving around a 4-fold increase in 4 days, with its market cap once exceeding $700 million at its peak.

CZ Effect Continues to Gain Momentum, Triggering a "Fake Dog" Meme Frenzy Overnight

In the early hours of February 13, Twitter user @theveeman asked CZ in the comments if he had a pet dog, and CZ replied that he kept a "Belgian Malinois" rather than a Shiba Inu.

This reply quickly sparked a frenzy of speculation in the community, with a large number of users asking about the dog's name and photos, eager to create related meme coins. After multiple interactions with the comment section, CZ posted that "I now know the answer. The way things work is very interesting, and I'll consider it for about a day, just like I normally do for major decisions. Should I respect its privacy, or reveal this dog for the sake of business? I might even interact with a few memes on the BNB Chain."

To uncover the real information about the dog, the netizens launched a "carpet search." Some found that Binance's official account had posted about three dogs and a cat in 2020, which were the pets of Binance members, and speculated that one of them might be CZ's. Others even created a dog named Perry wearing Binance clothes, hinting that it was closely related to Binance and most likely CZ's dog... Until now, there are still countless self-proclaimed "CZ's dog" meme coins being issued, some of which have briefly surpassed a market cap of $1 million.

If CZ really wants to launch a meme based on his pet dog, he may be able to replicate the explosive growth of $TRUMP, further attracting capital inflows to the BNB Chain. The uproarious "fake dog" incident reflects the core driving force of meme coins: celebrity effect + community consensus. Even without official endorsement, users can still drive token price increases through the hype of "legitimate narratives."