CZ's pet dog Broccoli ignites on-chain PVP battles, DEV and insider players make a fortune, MEME social experiment sparks controversy

Author: Nancy, PANews

After a day-long riddle drama about CZ (the founder of Binance) and his pet, the answer was finally revealed early today (February 14). This was followed by an on-chain PVP battle themed around Broccoli, marking a large-scale stress test for the BNB Chain.

A Feast for DEV and Insider Players, Community Becomes a Sacrifice for Liquidity Exit

After TST was mentioned by CZ and saw a surge, CZ's movements became the focus of MEME players. On the morning of February 13, CZ tweeted expressing curiosity about the operational mechanism of MEME coins, asking if simply sharing a pet's name and photo would lead to the creation of related tokens, and questioning how to distinguish the "official" version. After understanding the relevant mechanisms, CZ stated, "The way things work is interesting. As with any major decision, I need to think for about a day. Is it respecting his privacy, or should I disclose the dog's information for everyone? Well, I might interact with a few MEME coins on the BNB Chain."

When someone suggested using random dog photos, CZ responded, "No, that would be deceptive. If you’re going to do it, do it right. It’s just sharing a photo and name of a dog."

Subsequently, the entire network began guessing the name of CZ's pet dog and started to ambush related MEME coins in an attempt to "reserve their seats" early, with some token market values being pushed up by thousands or even hundreds of millions of dollars. That evening, CZ teased that he would release a photo of the dog in about three hours (around 8 PM Dubai time), tantalizing MEME players. After several hours of waiting, CZ finally revealed the photo of his pet dog Broccoli and their story in the early hours of February 14, stating, "I just posted a photo and name of my dog. I will not personally issue a Meme coin. It depends on whether the community does so. The BNB Foundation may provide rewards for top MEMEs on the BNB Chain, offering LP support or other incentives. Details are still under discussion. More content will be released soon."

Immediately, thousands of MEME coins named after Broccoli surged on the BNB Chain, with countless players rushing into this broccoli-themed PVP battle. However, the BNB Chain could not withstand this wave of stress testing, resulting in a congested network, lagging front-end, and numerous traps… MEME players complained about the poor experience. According to the page, BscScan has suspended block data updates for about 12 hours.

Meanwhile, as CZ did not disclose the CA (contract address), a large number of tokens with the same name emerged, leaving investors dazzled. Even the official Bounce Brand renamed its pre-deployed MEME coin to join the frenzy. The MEME experiment triggered by Broccoli also became a feast for DEV (developers) and insider players, with numerous PiXiu and insider trades intertwined, leaving investors as victims of liquidity exit.

"Rug pulls are happening everywhere; they pushed the market cap of a token to $400 million—enough to make people believe this is 'the real project'—and fabricated all the data: holders, trading volume, even created a huge liquidity pool. Then, once retail investors FOMO in and start buying… they begin to sell, with some tokens' market cap collapsing from $400 million to $30 million in minutes, while insiders walk away with over $43 million, ultimately leaving investors holding worthless tokens," noted Web3 researcher Pi. According to on-chain data analyst Yu Jin, one creator of Broccoli on BNBChain made a profit of $6.72 million from just 1 BNB, achieving a 9517x return in 24 minutes.

However, the "CZ's Dog" section in the Binance Web3 wallet shows that as of the publication, the highest market cap among various Broccoli coins is just over $100 million. Despite high market participation and hundreds of millions of dollars flowing in, this capital remains relatively dispersed and has not formed a leading project with a high degree of consensus.

MEME Social Experiment Sparks Controversy, CZ Responds That He Will Continue to Learn and Build

While Broccoli has garnered significant market attention, CZ's MEME social experiment has also sparked controversy in the market.

"This aggressive behavior will not last," tweeted Solana co-founder Toly.

Sonic Labs co-founder Andre Cronje suggested that if CZ really decides to participate in such projects, it would be better to directly launch an official smart contract and share it, rather than letting the community create it themselves, as this could lead to many people publishing dozens or even hundreds of contracts, thereby scamming community members. To avoid indirectly causing losses to the community, it would be best for him to launch a fair version himself.

Crypto researcher CM pointed out that not releasing the CA and relying on community-driven efforts is not impossible, but the issue is that social experiments should be based on a relatively fair environment, or at least allow most people to have some gaming experience. The BNB Chain lacks the kind of environment where everyone can grow the cake together like in Solana's early days; instead, it quickly divides the hard-won cake. This change requires some leadership and organization, which is difficult to achieve solely through community spontaneity. Personally, I prefer building applications but do not reject the MEME path; what I dislike is the reduced cost of wrongdoing and the lack of a sustainable environment that brings a sense of security.

"There is an interesting term in psychology called 'plausible deniability,' which describes CZ's state tonight. I try to put myself in CZ's shoes; he might think: I just posted a few pictures of my beloved dog, like billions of dog lovers around the world, I did nothing wrong. In fact, I am helping my chain, doing a fun social experiment. I am dedicated, I am avant-garde. But he selectively downplays the fact that his identity has a huge impact on the community. He is fully capable of predicting everything that would happen tonight. Letting thousands of dogs compete is not even a zero-sum game but a negative-sum game, where countless PiXiu, traps, insiders, and small conspiracy groups profit immensely, while most people end up with negative returns. Although posting a picture of a beloved dog poses no problem for an ordinary person sharing on social media, for a CEO of a crypto exchange, it is absolutely wrong to think of oneself as 'innocent,'" stated Nothing Research partner 0xTodd.

CZ also responded to the community's controversy, stating, "Isn't MEME completely community-driven? I do not want to participate in issuing/operating a MEME coin because I have no experience. I didn't expect this would become a stress test. However, seeing the breadth of the stress test (creating a large number of new MEME coins) and the depth of the stress test (a contract address having a lot of trading activity) is quite interesting. I think everyone was prepared for the latter. There is still a long way to go in terms of scalability. Progress is never smooth. We are constantly learning and continuing to build."