Changpeng Zhao (CZ) detailed the accidental rise of Chinese memecoins on BNB Chain and explained why Aster’s hidden orders provide a structural advantage over Hyperliquid.
During his Oct. 10 interview with CounterParty TV, the former Binance CEO attributed BNB’s recent meme explosion to an unplanned Mid-Autumn Festival post and outlined his investment thesis, favoring privacy-focused perpetual DEXs over transparent alternatives.
BNB Chain’s Chinese ticker surge started when Zhao posted “Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, post your best memes” during the traditional holiday.
The community responded with moon-themed content and Chinese-language tickers, including Zhao Chang’e, a wordplay on Zhao’s name that referenced a female deity from Chinese mythology.
He stated:
“It wasn’t planned. It just slowly evolved into that. Everything I tweet, they turn into a meme. At some point I said, screw that. I’m just going to tweet freely.”
Five BNB Chain memes have reached market capitalizations of $100 million to $500 million in recent weeks, attracting Solana traders. Zhao characterized BNB traders as more holder-focused due to the chain’s utility background, contrasting with Solana’s faster-paced meme culture.
Zhao said:
“They tend to be more holders. They don’t go up and down the next day.”
BNB vs Solana: open vs exclusive
Zhao pushed back on the perception that BNB operates as a closed vertical from launch pad to Binance listing, arguing that the ecosystem remains more open than Solana’s infrastructure.
He said:
“Binance lists tokens from every blockchain, even meme coins from every blockchain. Trust Wallet supports BNB Chain, Solana, and many other blockchains. Phantom doesn’t support BNB Chain. Radium only operates on Solana. Their ecosystems are actually much more exclusive than ours.”
Zhao explained that Solana’s meme focus partly resulted from SEC lawsuits targeting utility tokens during the former President Joe Biden administration.
Projects launching tokens with real use cases faced securities violations, pushing builders toward meme coins that claim no utility:
“If you launch a real project with a utility token, you’re going to get a lawsuit from SEC. Meme coins, we just declared there’s no value, there’s no utilities, just for fun.”
Aster’s privacy edge over Hyperliquid
Zhao’s Aster investment stems from 20 years of trading experience, showing that professional traders require order privacy. He argued that Hyperliquid’s transparent on-chain order book creates a fatal flaw that Wall Street participants cannot accept.
According to Binance’s former CEO:
“Every single trader on Wall Street I talked to do not want other people to see their orders in real time. “If you know exactly how another person is going to trade, there’s always one way to trade against them for them to lose money.”
Zhao posted about the privacy issue in June, triggering 30 project pitches that day. Aster implemented hidden orders, prompting Binance Labs to invest alongside other privacy DEX projects.
The absence of privacy leaves traders vulnerable to individuals who can reverse-engineer their trading algorithms and exploit them. Zhao acknowledged that Hyperliquid could add privacy features, but noted that exchanges compete on multiple dimensions beyond single functionalities.
Besides the need for privacy, Zhao highlighted that how an exchange protects users and deals with mistakes is what matters.
Lastly, Zhao also predicted that perp DEXs will rival centralized exchange volumes within one cycle. New users are onboarded through centralized platforms with familiar interfaces, then migrate to DEXs for a broader selection and earlier access to tokens.
According to his timeframe:
“In 20, 30, 50 years out, everything will be on-chain. But in the interim, if there’s a big rush of traditional users, CEX will get better. Afterwards it will slowly slip into DEXes.”
