What Is The BROCCOLI Memecoin: How It Affected BNB

Less than a month after the hype and crypto market volatility caused by the launch of the TRUMP and MELANIA tokens, the community is facing a new wave of “memecoin mania”.  Ex-head of cryptocurrency exchange Binance Chanpeng Zhao (CZ) caught the attention of the community and significantly raised activity on the BNB Chain network with the memecoin BROCCOLI.

The Story Behind The Emergence of BROCCOLI And What CZ’s Dog Has To Do With It

On February 12, 2025, Changpeng Zhao published a post on X in which he asked the audience several questions about the launch and trading of memecoins. 

CZ then responded that he understood how it worked and would even consider interacting with some memecoins on the BNB Chain network.

On Feb. 13, Zhao announced that he would soon share a photo of his dog, thus spurring a number of memecoins with tickers like CZDOG on Base, BNB Chain and Solana. Some of them even managed to reach a market capitalization of several million dollars at the peak.

Three hours after the announcement, CZ revealed the name of his dog, Broccoli, and also told its story. In the post, he emphasized that he is not going to launch the memecoin on his own, but is ready to interact with some tokens in the BNB Chain network. In addition, he noted that the BNB Foundation can provide support to the creators of the most popular projects, although he did not specify what kind of measures we are talking about.

This publication actually became the starting signal for the meme community, triggering a real memecoin boom. Dozens of contracts with BROCOLI tickers appeared in different networks (mainly BNB Chain), and traders started speculating on the new tokens.

And unlike TRUMP, there was no “official” or “correct” token – each of the projects tried to gain community attention and liquidity by competing with dozens of competitors;

As a result, after a few days, most BROCCOLI memecoins lost more than 90% of their value. However, some like this and this managed to maintain their trading volumes and capitalization.

The latter token was even listed on MEXC, first in the Meme+ Trading Zone and then in the Innovation Zone. Later, BitMart announced the launch of BitMart trading, and then BROCCOLI appeared in Bybit’s futures platform as well. At one point, the asset’s market capitalization exceeded $400 million.

Amid speculation and a growing number of fraudulent tokens, CZ declared that he was not involved in any of the projects. Some users accused him of intentionally creating hype to increase activity on BNB Chain. 

Zhao responded by pointing out that he misunderstood how memecoin is launched, assuming that the process is controlled by the community. He admitted that he really wanted to attract users to BNB Chain, but did not intend to participate in token launches.

CZ also expressed his opinion on memecoins in BNB Chain about the competition of meme assets in other ecoxystems, bringing up BROCCOLI, which had reached a capitalization of $200 million at the time. Zhao later deleted his tweets, but X users saved them.

On February 14, 2025, the BROCCOLI story ended with CZ’s last tweet, in which he said he was now afraid to post anything on social media because his words were constantly being misinterpreted.

The Beginning of the Meme Season on BNB Chain?

The BROCOLI case, according to some users, can serve as a clear signal of the beginning of the meme season in the BNB Chain ecosystem. Especially if we take into account that a few days before, the TST token caught the attention of the community. Initially, the asset was intended to create a training video, but in the end, the “test” asset managed to get into Binance’s listing, reaching a peak capitalization of $460 million.

The community picked up on the momentum, starting to actively buy TST.

As for the hype around BROCCOLI, following the CZ publications, trading activity in BNB Chain rose to record levels, surpassing Solana, which is considered the most active memecoin ecosystem. And on February 13, BNB Chain’s fees exceeded Solana’s fees by more than 60%.

In addition, on February 14, the BNB Chain the BNB Chain team announced a $4.4 million grant to provide market liquidity and support for the memecoin sector. Any token launched on this network can compete for the grant if it meets the following criteria:

• market capitalization ≥ $1 million;
• 10% of the total supply is blocked to provide liquidity;
• 10 largest holders own less than 10% of the total supply.

During the evaluation, market capitalization, value growth and trading volumes are taken into account, the weight of which is estimated at 30%, 20% and 50% respectively. In case of a tie, the token with a larger trading volume wins.Whether a full-fledged meme season will start in the BNB network is still difficult to say. It will take time to understand the long-term effect of the financial support and excitement around BROCCOLI and TEST. One thing is certain – CZ has made a strong start, albeit accompanied by discontent from a part of the community.

How much you could earn on BROCCOLI

Since the official CZ token never appeared, there were dozens or even hundreds of versions of BROCCOLI in various networks. As mentioned above, most of them collapsed a few hours or days after the start of trading, but some of them still brought huge profits to remote traders;

For example, in the chat Telegram channel, a message with a smart contract for a token that reached a market capitalization of $100 million at its peak was published when it was worth $7600. The total return for the fastest users could be 13000x.

Why BNB is growing

BNB is a native token of the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) network used to pay transaction fees. In addition, the asset is used to participate in tokensales and lunchepads of the centralized exchange Binance. BSC is part of the BNB Chain ecosystem, which includes a number of other products.

Amid the hype surrounding BROCCOLI, BNB’s price rose 15% at the moment and the number of transactions on the BNB Smart Chain increased by 50% compared to the average through Feb. 13, 2025.

However, apart from the direct link between the growth in the number of transactions and the demand for BNB, there are other factors that have influenced the token quotes:

• Binance’s lawyers requested a dismissal of the SEC’s lawsuit, bolstering the exchange’s position amid a possible regulatory U-turn in the U.S;
• in January 2025, passed a tokensale from Creator Bid for Binance Web3 Wallet users;
• a Launchpool of the BIO token was held at the end of 2024.

In addition, Simple Earn users could participate in token giveaways from Berachain and Solayer for BNB staking, and participated in IDO MyShell via Binance Web3 Wallet.

All of these events in one way or another require users to buy and hold BNB, which drives demand and can influence the price performance of the token. Further measures to increase network activity in the BNB Chain and on Binance may also have a positive impact on the asset. 

Conclusions

The BROCCOLI story and the hype surrounding it clearly demonstrates how memecoins can influence the crypto market. Changpeng Zhao’s tweets have led users of the  BNB Chain ecosystem to actively engage in the creation and trading of memecoins, increasing network activity. 

However, this situation also highlights the risks associated with investing in memecoins. Most BROCCOLI tokens lost more than 90% of their value in just a few hours, indicating a high level of speculation, volatility, and high competition for users’ attention and capital.

In addition, we are probably now seeing the start of meme season in BNB Chain, which has not actually participated in the “memecoin mania” before. And that means more new tokens and potential money-making opportunities.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Memecoin BROCCOLI – scam or not?

Changpeng Zhao did not release an official memcoin, and most of BROCCOLI’s tokens dropped in value in a matter of days. Some of them might indeed have been scam initially, but others just followed the market dynamics.

How much was the maximum value of BROCCOLI token?

The token, which was listed on exchanges, reached a price of $0.25 per coin in the moment.

How and how much could one earn on the BROCCOLI memcoin?

Some people could take a profit of 13000 times their investment. The smart contract message was published when the market capitalization of the coin was $7600.