Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, the founder and former CEO of Binance, inadvertently set off a new memecoin craze by revealing his dog's name in an X post on February 13, 2025. The Belgian Malinois, named "Broccoli," quickly became the inspiration for hundreds of new memecoins across various blockchain platforms.
Broccoli's Story
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) February 13, 2025
A year and a half ago, I casually chatted with a friend who owned a (real) zoo in Dubai. Curious, I asked what dog breed is adapted to the Dubai summer heat. I had no plans to get a dog.
Later that evening, my doorbell rang, and a young Belgian Malinois showed… pic.twitter.com/vSLiHiS4fC
The Broccoli Memecoin Boom
Following CZ's post, a wave of Broccoli-themed tokens flooded popular memecoin launchpads. On Solana's Pump.fun, at least 480 Broccoli coins were created, while Binance Smart Chain's Four. Meme saw the emergence of around 300 variants. Some of these memecoins experienced significant trading activity, with one particular Solana-based Broccoli memecoin reaching a staggering $1.5 billion market capitalization on the same day.
PancakeSwap, a decentralized exchange built on Binance Smart Chain, recorded a remarkable $3 billion in trading volume over 24 hours, surpassing competitors like Uniswap and Raydium. The surge in memecoin trading coincides with BNB Chain's roadmap for 2025, which emphasizes continued support for the meme ecosystem and related tools. This interest in memecoins likely contributed to the recent increase in the BNB token price, which peaked at $724.70 on February 13.
For those asking for a CA (contract address) from me, no, I am NOT issuing a meme coin. I am just posting a photo of my dog and his name, as some of your requested.
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) February 13, 2025
I also took advice from this thread yesterday. Let the best meme coin in the community win. 🙏🙏🙏 https://t.co/dTe1izCwJW
Despite CZ articulating that he had no direct involvement in launching any Broccoli-related token, traders scrambled to identify an “official” version. The interest culminated in a series of pump-and-dump cycles that wiped out millions of dollars in market capitalization.
“If you haven’t bridged to BNB chain here’s what you ‘missed’: Broccoli #1: $400M to $30M in 1 hour, Broccoli #2: $100M to $14M in 5 hours, Broccoli #3: $60M to $5M in 2 hours,” DeFi Mochi wrote on X.
The fallout from the Broccoli token craze has led to a wave of criticism directed at Changpeng Zhao. Crypto experts and retail investors have expressed concerns over his role in fostering speculative behavior.
Meanwhile, others have accused CZ of manipulating market sentiment for financial gain, raising concerns about Binance’s future compared to the infamous FTX collapse.
A blockchain investigator at CWEmbassy noted that CZ's influence indirectly contributed to the meme coin speculation.
“CZ knows what he is doing!!! He doesn’t need to put a CA to a meme to endorse it. His meme was created long ago: BNB,” they wrote.
Despite the backlash, one trader capitalized on the hype, earning nearly $28 million by sniping multiple Broccoli-related meme coins, according to Lookonchain.
HODL Team
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