Written by: Luke, Mars Finance
What is Binance Alpha?
Binance, as one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has always been at the forefront of the market, continuously adjusting its strategies to adapt to the rapidly changing industry environment. Recently, Binance launched Binance Alpha, a brand new token listing mechanism that undoubtedly reflects a deep insight and response to the current situation in the crypto market. Its main purpose is to filter and promote potential tokens that have not yet been widely circulated, providing a stage for these projects while also offering more investment opportunities for platform users.
Binance Alpha is essentially an innovative mechanism proposed by Binance to address the doubts about listing tokens. Unlike its traditional listing process, the Alpha market allows users to participate in 'voting' and trading of new tokens in a more open and speculative manner. This not only enhances liquidity on the Binance platform itself but also attracts more investors to participate in the price discovery process of tokens through a 'crowdfunding' approach. Each period, Binance releases several potential tokens for users to trade, and the growth in trading volume is directly related to the price fluctuations of these tokens—the platform uses trading volume to filter projects with the most potential and push them into the mainstream market.
This mechanism has a high sense of participation, just like a large horse racing track, where users are like gamblers betting on Binance Alpha, guessing which coins will become future stars. This 'speculation and betting' operation immediately attracted a large number of active users to the platform, especially against the backdrop of a sluggish market, which resulted in a surge in trading volume in the short term.
Alpha? Drama!
Today at noon, a Space titled 'Binance Wallet Rebirth: National Review Conference' was held on Binance Alpha. He introduced future innovative plans to everyone. In the Space, she mentioned establishing a Telegram group related to Binance Alpha so that community members could report potential 'Rug Pull' projects in a timely manner. This move is clearly aimed at bringing more community interaction and transparency to the Binance wallet. However, the host immediately interjected, saying, 'Actually, this group already exists.' Shortly after, Binance's official Twitter posted a group link in the comments, seemingly the 'official platform' related to Binance Alpha.
At this time, thousands of investors quickly flocked into the group chat. However, who would have thought that this simple link would turn into a 'Waterloo' in the next few minutes? In this Telegram group, the official announcement of the first batch of projects launched on Binance Alpha included: $MONKY, $HAPPY, $RIF, $ZRC, $ELIZA.
Once the information was released, the market reacted quickly and violently: the token prices of these 5 projects soared, especially ELIZA, which skyrocketed several times within minutes. This seemingly lucky opportunity quickly attracted a large number of short-term speculators, and almost everyone felt they had seized an excellent trading opportunity.
The holders of the mentioned projects cheered, 'Great, it's Binance, we are saved.' But just then, Binance officials released a statement denying that the Telegram group was an official release. At this moment, the previously skyrocketing token prices quickly suffered a heavy blow, and all project prices began to plummet, especially ELIZA, which dropped sharply from its high point just minutes earlier. The original 'lucky investors' began to incur losses, and market sentiment instantly shifted from excitement to panic. Investors' confidence rapidly collapsed, and Binance clearly became the fuse for this chaos.
At this point, the truth of the event surfaced. Binance officials stated that the mistakenly released Telegram group link was indeed officially released by Binance Wallet, but it was sent incorrectly. Subsequently, a new Telegram group link was provided, which was quickly discussed heatedly by investors, forming a new 'rights protection front'.
In this group, users expressed their dissatisfaction and anger towards the official operations, criticizing the Binance wallet for its rashness and irresponsibility. Some even described the situation as a 'shoddy platform', ruthlessly attacking the capabilities of the Binance team.
What was supposed to be a market highlight launch event quickly turned into a public relations disaster regarding trust and transparency, leaving Binance Wallet and Binance Alpha under scrutiny.
There are many victims of this blunder, but the funniest one is undoubtedly the person below:
This unfortunate guy, after the news was released and false information spread, sold 1.76 million $arc (about 170,000 USD) to buy 1.42 million $ELIZA at a cost of $0.01376.
Later, he realized that ai16zeliza was the lowercase $eliza and cut loss all tokens for $eliza at $0.09567, losing 59,600 USD. Finally, after the official announcement of the blunder, $eliza also dropped immediately, and he once again painfully cut loss, losing 43,000 USD (cost price $0.01693, selling price $0.01157), with an overall loss of 52.5%.
This 'official misrelease' farce, although it ended with a simple explanation of 'the link was sent incorrectly', has effects that are far from over. With the launch of Binance Alpha, the influence of 'the wolf is coming' seems to continue.
The first batch of Binance Alpha projects varied in their price increases.
The first batch of projects on Binance Alpha includes: KOMA, Cheems, APX, ai16z, AIXBT
KOMA
Koma Inu (KOMA) is a dog-themed MEME coin inspired by Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB), dedicated to becoming the 'loyal guardian of BNB'. The KOMA project team is experienced and has successfully incubated several crypto projects with market values exceeding $100 million, laying a solid foundation for the development of KOMA. The project aims to unite community consensus and promote the continuous growth and evolution of the BNB ecosystem.
Cheems
Cheems is a meme project built around the classic internet meme 'Cheems'. This small and cute Shiba Inu is hailed as the 'King of Memes', embodying the humor and emotions of global internet culture. It has successfully penetrated from Web 2.0 into the crypto world, becoming a model of community-driven projects. The Cheems project not only attracts a large fan base with its strong IP endorsement but also aims to create a truly community-centric and fully decentralized cultural symbol in the meme ecosystem.
The development journey of Cheems is full of drama and comebacks. Since its first issuance on ZKSync in 2023, it has become one of the most popular meme projects in the ecosystem due to its rising popularity. Despite facing setbacks such as contract FUD and near-zero valuations, Cheems did not sink but instead leveraged the resilience of its team and community support to replace contracts and complete migration, even achieving exclusive cooperation with ZKSync's mainstream Dapp Syncswap. In 2024, Cheems successfully migrated to BNB Chain and quickly attracted more users, with community activity continuing to rise.
APX
APX (apollox.finance) is a multi-chain decentralized derivatives DEX. APX received investment from Binance Labs in 2022 and supports BNB Chain, Arbitrum, opBNB, zksync, Manta Network, and Base chains. As of now, APX's TVL has exceeded 350 million USD.
The main advantages of APX in attracting users are:
Classic perpetual contracts can achieve up to 250 times leverage, while in Degen mode, they can offer up to 1001 times leverage.
Low slippage, as low as 0.01% slippage, with 0 slippage in V2 Degen mode.
High trading performance, used by over 30 partners including pancakeswap.
Position isolation; if one position is liquidated, it will not affect other positions.
ai16z
ai16z is a decentralized AI trading fund based on the Solana blockchain. As an 'AI investment DAO', the core of ai16z is to use AI agents to acquire market information, analyze community consensus, and automatically conduct token trading both on-chain and off-chain. This new model aims to combine AI trading strategies with decentralized governance through tokenization, providing investors with transparent and more trustworthy investment opportunities. Moreover, the project is backed by a16z founder Marc Andreessen, who posted on his official Twitter, sharing the concept image of ai16z and its official Twitter link.
AIXBT
aixbt is a project created on the AI agent creation platform Virtuals Protocol, focusing on discussions and token analysis in cryptocurrencies.
Ironically, the trend of Binance's own projects turned from positive to negative, fluctuating wildly, while other AI Agent projects on other chains steadily absorbed this wave of positive sentiment and experienced steady upward trends.
Overview of the second batch of projects
At 8 PM, the second batch of projects for Binance Alpha was also announced, including:
BNBChain: CKP;
Ethereum: GEAR, SD, SYRUP;
Solana: FARTCOIN
CKP
Cakepie is launched by Magpie, aimed specifically at supporting the long-term development of PancakeSwap. The main goal of Cakepie is to accumulate CAKE tokens and lock them as veCAKE to obtain enhanced returns and governance power within the platform.
Cakepie provides CAKE holders with an opportunity to earn enhanced CAKE rewards as passive income. It also offers a cost-effective voting power for PancakeSwap voters and allows liquidity providers to enjoy higher annual percentage rates (APR%) without having to lock any CAKE tokens as veCAKE.
GEAR
Gearbox is a leverage protocol on Ethereum that achieves leveraged lending and composability by introducing Credit Accounts, enhancing the capital efficiency in the DeFi world. Users can obtain leveraged lending funds on this protocol and access mainstream DeFi protocols. Credit Accounts are independent smart contracts with specific whitelist operations and assets, ensuring a higher degree of safety for user funds and borrowed funds.
SD
Stader Labs focuses on providing convenient staking solutions and maximizing users' staking returns. The platform leads the future direction of staking through its full suite of DeFi products, including a simplified one-click staking solution that allows users to easily invest in multiple validators. Stader has developed a liquid staking solution that allows users to pool assets without having to meet all staking requirements while minting tokens representing staked assets, whose value grows as staking rewards increase. In July this year, Coinbase announced that it would include Stader (SD) in its token listing roadmap.
SYRUP
SYRUP is a lending platform launched by Maple Finance, and $SYRUP is key to transforming the institutional lending market. Users can convert existing MPL tokens into staked SYRUP at a ratio of 1 MPL: 100 SYRUP, thereby immediately participating in the governance and growth of Maple Finance. Staking SYRUP will provide participants with reward opportunities related to the performance of the ecosystem.
FARTCOIN
Fartcoin belongs to the AI meme concept. During a user interaction event held by Truth Terminal, the platform asked the public about the topics they wanted to focus on, and its first reaction was to continue generating endless fart jokes in the tweet. This absurd yet light-hearted humor quickly attracted a lot of attention, and even Tesla added fart sound effects to its software, further promoting the spread of this cultural phenomenon. In this context, Fartcoin was born. It is not only referred to as the 'best $GOAT beta' but also an experiment on the future potential of AI technology. Fartcoin pushes fart jokes onto the blockchain with a cynical attitude, combining technology and entertainment with a relaxed, humorous, and ironic cultural stance, becoming a unique representative in modern internet culture.
Future Outlook
The launch of Binance Alpha reflects Binance's concerns about its market position. On one hand, OKX's web3 wallet shone brightly during the previous Bitcoin ecosystem boom, attracting many users, while Binance's own wallet has received lukewarm responses. On the other hand, the recent transparent listing strategy of HyperLiquid and public discussions have also put significant pressure on Binance. Therefore, saying Binance Alpha was commissioned at a time of defeat is not an exaggeration.
In the past few years, Binance's token listing strategy has revolved around two main lines: one is to select high-risk but potentially lucrative VC tokens (tokens with venture capital background), and the other is to list low-market-cap tokens that are already traded on other platforms. However, the effectiveness of the first path has not been ideal, as many VC tokens often show a downward trend after a high opening, and market speculation sentiment gradually cools. On the other hand, Binance has still not found a truly stable breakthrough in the selection and launch process of these types of tokens.
Thus, Binance chose the second path: listing low-market-cap tokens that already have a certain circulation. Project teams and communities indirectly drove a surge in trading volume for these tokens on the Binance platform by competing for listing opportunities in the Binance Alpha market. For instance, MEME launched on the Solana chain and CAT launched on the BNB chain are typical representatives of this strategy. By introducing these tokens, Binance hopes to create more trading pairs and attract more users to participate in trading.
However, this strategy also brings some significant challenges. On one hand, Binance faces the game between VC tokens and low-market-cap tokens. While the selection of low-market-cap tokens may attract more attention and participation, due to the relatively weak liquidity and uptake ability of the market, these tokens often fall into a weak market cycle once they encounter price declines after being hyped. On the other hand, while the introduction of high-market-cap tokens can attract a large number of investors for a time, the overall market has not returned to the liquidity levels of peak periods, resulting in significant price volatility for these tokens, often leading to 'high open, low close' situations, making it difficult for investors to maintain sustained confidence.
The launch of Binance Alpha undoubtedly increased the platform's activity in the short term, but its sustainability remains questionable. As the market weakens, this frequent token filtering and trading push may lead to investor fatigue. Additionally, Binance's strategy may compel project teams to pay more attention to 'volume manipulation' and community mobilization. To gain Binance's favor, project teams will have to adopt a series of aggressive measures to increase trading volume, including volume manipulation, community voting, hosting events, etc., which may also lead to a vicious cycle in the market ecosystem. Some low-quality projects or 'air coins' may ride the wave of hype under this mechanism, while truly promising projects could be drowned out in the noise.
In summary, Binance Alpha is a bold attempt, but whether its effects will be 'trend-setting' or 'ephemeral' remains to be seen. In this game, Binance is not only betting against the market but also racing against time, trying to bring new vitality to the crypto industry. However, any game may lead to unexpected outcomes.