 
 
Recently pardoned Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has distanced himself from a new memecoin tied to a golden statue of him placed near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C, cautioning crypto investors against the financial risks of trading celebrity-linked tokens with no real blockchain utility.
The memecoin, CZSTATUE — which was launched on the BNB Chain earlier this week, surged by 27,000% in a day before plummeting back to almost zero.
“Don’t Buy The Meme”
CZSTATUE emerged shortly after a fan page built a golden statue of ex-Binance CEO Zhao, sharing pictures and offering to send it to him.
The meme coin spiked to a $6.8 million market capitalization on Wednesday, racking up $1.2 billion worth of trading volume, according to crypto data provider DEXTools. However, the upsurge was short-lived as Zhao warned users in a Wednesday post not to buy the memecoin, as he suspected its creators were only looking to “make a quick buck off an interaction” with the founder.
“While I want to appreciate the gesture, the fact that there is a meme coin associated with this means the creator probably just wanted to make a quick buck off an interaction from me,” CZ postulated. “This is something I don’t appreciate. Don’t buy the meme.”
 
The crypto OG clarified that he would “never accept the statue,” indicating that only an “egomaniac would have a statue of himself in his house.”
Last week, CZ won a pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump after serving a four-month prison sentence. Zhao had pleaded guilty to a criminal charge related to anti-money laundering violations in 2023, as part of a record-breaking $4.3 billion settlement between him, Binance, and U.S. regulators.
The pardon proved controversial, given that Binance, of which Zhao remains the majority shareholder, was reportedly a significant investor in Trump’s crypto project, World Liberty Financial.