CZ retires public wallet after trading frenzy

Binance co-founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has stopped using a closely watched public cryptocurrency wallet after ordinary token-cleaning transactions triggered heavy speculation, sharp meme-coin price swings and opportunistic trading.

Zhao said the wallet had become overwhelmed by unsolicited meme coins sent by token creators and traders, making it difficult even to locate his BNB holdings while he was testing Trust Wallet. Attempts to remove unwanted tokens by sending them to burn addresses only intensified scrutiny because traders interpreted each transaction as a possible signal about the assets involved.

The episode escalated on August 16 when activity involving Marscoin, a little-known meme token, attracted traders monitoring Zhao’s on-chain movements. One tracked trader spent about 16 BNB, worth roughly $9,645 at the time, to acquire 84.61 million Marscoin tokens shortly after Zhao burned 4,444 tokens. The trader recovered the initial investment by selling half the position and later disposed of the remainder for about 465 BNB, producing proceeds valued near $282,000.

Marscoin’s market value surged dramatically as traders reacted to the wallet movement, briefly reaching about $30 million before reversing sharply. Another trader who entered after the price had accelerated spent about $133,000 in USDT on 6.15 million tokens. That position was later sold for roughly $22,400 after the token fell by more than 90%, generating a loss of about $110,700 within approximately two hours.

Zhao rejected attempts to attach investment meaning to his transactions. He explained that the transparent nature of blockchains had made practically every interaction with the address open to interpretation. Burning unwanted tokens encouraged more people to send meme coins to the wallet, creating a cycle in which efforts to clean it generated additional clutter and speculation.

His solution was to remove assets he intentionally held and cease using the address. Zhao transferred about 1,440 BNB, valued at approximately $872,000 when moved, and 182,620 币安人生 tokens worth about $93,000 to Giggle Academy, the education initiative he founded. The combined transfer was valued at roughly $965,000.

Zhao described the abandoned wallet as effectively becoming a burn address because he does not plan to conduct further transactions from it. Technically, however, abandoning a wallet is different from sending cryptocurrency to a protocol-defined burn address whose assets cannot be retrieved. The description therefore depends on Zhao maintaining his stated intention never to use the address again.

The affair highlights an unusual consequence of blockchain transparency. Publicly identifiable wallets belonging to prominent figures can become trading signals even when their owners make transactions with no investment purpose. Anyone can also send tokens to such an address without permission, meaning the appearance of an asset in a prominent person’s wallet provides no evidence that the recipient bought, endorsed or approved it.

Zhao has encountered the problem repeatedly since his wallet became widely known. Meme-coin developers have sent tokens to the address in efforts to obtain visibility, while traders have monitored outgoing transfers for clues about his views. He has previously burned unsolicited tokens and warned that those actions should not be interpreted as support for the projects behind them.

The behaviour reflects a broader feature of meme-coin markets, where thin liquidity, social-media attention and associations with influential cryptocurrency personalities can generate extreme price changes with little connection to underlying economic fundamentals. Research into meme-token markets has found heightened exposure to liquidity risks and manipulation, particularly where apparent market activity masks concentrated holdings or closely connected addresses.

Giggle Academy, which Zhao established in 2024 after stepping away from Binance’s day-to-day leadership, offers free digital learning resources including storybooks, language courses and literacy materials. Its platform says it serves learners across more than 160 countries and is designed to keep core educational material free.

The wallet episode also illustrates the growing sophistication of traders who automatically or manually follow identifiable blockchain addresses. Academic analysis of decentralised markets has found that persistent wallet identities can carry information capable of predicting short-horizon price movements, demonstrating why high-profile addresses increasingly attract specialised monitoring.