When a foreigner starts learning Chinese in order to trade cryptocurrencies…

Over the past two weeks, the crypto community has been filled with discussions about a term called “Binance Life”. It started as a joke or meme, but now it has become a real project that was created by the Chinese community and has successfully gained recognition worldwide. The idea for this project originated from a joke among the community members, but it was brought to the attention of CZ after his response. In just a few days, from a meme to a real currency, Binance Life has shown the world the creativity and unity of the Chinese community.

Binance Life has finally become the first Chinese currency to be listed on Binance’s perpetual contracts.

This led to discussions about OKX’s CEO Star, followed by the popularity of Chinese-turned currency names like Tron and Solana. Recently, the founder of Limitless revealed some “listing terms,” which sparked conflicts between two blockchain platforms. Finally, Jesse said, “Let’s start Binance Life mode on Base.”

What this represents might not be just a currency name, but rather a deeper cultural shift behind it. This is the first time that memes are represented in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean instead of English. What kind of meme culture does this represent?

This time, we got in touch with 0xBarrry, a Polish trader who operates a community of hundreds of people. What do they think when they see these memes being played in Chinese?

A conspiracy community meets another Chinese cryptocurrency.

This trend seems both mysterious and exciting to ordinary traders.

波兰交易员、WOK Labs 发起人 Barry 回忆道：「第一次看到某个中文标记的币市值突破 2000 万美元时就震惊了，一方面意识到这种阴谋币还大有可为。等它冲上 6000 万美元、甚至 1 亿美元时，欧洲群里已经一片哗然，很多人急着往 Bsc 链充值，只因为价格涨了，却搞不清楚原因。」

这种市场情绪并非个案，Defillama 链上数据显示，10 月 8 日 Bsc 链的交易量猛增至 60.5 亿美元，一度达到了 2021 年 BSC 上一轮机制币山寨行情的盛况，只不过这一次是由中文 Meme 带领的。

当日有超过 10 万名新交易者参与了这一轮 memecoins 狂潮，其中近 70% 获得了盈利，而这确确实实的吸引到了不少「外国人」来参与 BSC 的链上活动，而活跃的地址也比上个月同期增加了近 100 万个。

西方投资者在价格飙升时才匆忙涌入，不少人事后才「查中文」才恍然大悟。文化和传统交易习惯的差异也让欧美玩家第一次吃了亏。

「以往欧洲的 meme 投资往往跟随美式网络文化，自嘲与反叛的幽默，而突然占领风头的中文 meme 令很多西方人迷失了方向。」Barry 说。

However, due to his early collaboration with Chinese teams in establishing WOK Labs, Barry had a good understanding of how Chinese communities function. He was aware of factors such as interpersonal relationships and emotional connections, which allowed him to spread Chinese-language narratives among European communities, thereby explaining the differences to more Western traders.

Additionally, there are clear differences in the way communities participate in Memecoins. Europeans tend to engage more with conspiracy-themed meme projects, relying heavily on the Ethereum ecosystem. These projects are often led by well-known influencers or teams who hold a significant amount of control over the project. Such communities tend to be established more slowly, but influential influencers or teams who hold a large number of shares also face significant pressure from selling off their assets. This is why it’s difficult to establish long-term structures in Europe.

In contrast, Chinese communities are easier to establish. They focus more on storytelling and emotional appeal (or leading coins). Project creators and meme communities gather together in WeChat groups to create emotional connections, thereby promoting long-term engagement. In theory, this approach can lead to more sustainable community development.

Especially during this cycle, it’s quite easy for Chinese investors. They simply need to buy popular IPs or the opinions of influential people, and then “print money” as they see fit. One individual who only focused on buying Chinese coins managed to participate in 65 different Chinese meme coins within just 7 days. He started with investments of $100–300 per coin, then increased his holdings in those coins that showed strong momentum. Over the course of a week, he made a net profit of about $87,000. This kind of

This high-frequency “net-spreading” approach reflects, to some extent, the tendency of most individual investors in Chinese communities to engage in rapid speculation on new markets. At the same time, players from Europe and America are gradually abandoning small-cap Memecoins worth around $500,000. Instead, they are turning to investments with greater certainty, starting at $5 million. Agents who act as bridges between China, Korea, Japan, and European markets, like Barry, are becoming more active, helping Asian projects gain trust in Western markets and assisting European teams to enter the Asian market. He believes that these cultural differences brought about by personal experiences may be ripe for new cross-sector collaborations. From Dogecoin to Chinese Meme coins, the trend has evolved from mere humor to something more ideological. From a broader perspective, the Memecoin movement is rooted in the collision of different cultural elements. The origin of Western Memecoins was Doge, created by two programmers in 2013 as a joke. Initially, Doge was seen as a humorous critique of the serious nature of Bitcoin, but due to celebrity influence (such as Elon Musk) and enduring community enthusiasm, its market value reached a peak of $88.8 billion in May 2021. Pepe coin also had a similar history. Born out of the 4chan community, it became extremely popular shortly after its launch in early 2023, with its market value reaching over $1 billion. The Pepe project relies entirely on online cultural popularity. It had no pre-sale, no team allocation, and no roadmap. The team also stated that the coin had “no intrinsic value, serving only for entertainment.”而这种价值观也主导了之后大量的 Solana Memecoins，像是 Fartcoin、Uselesscoin 这样的虚无主义，或者 Neet 这类体现了西方互联网文化中对「反映真实世界价值的颠覆」与黑色幽默的喜爱，亦或者 tiktok 上火热 67 等 Meme，Solana 上的 Meme 用图像梗和反叛精神捕获投资者的想象，也让其主导了很长时间的注意力经济的 memecoins 时代。与此同时也让中文主导的地区缺乏对这些代币的「文化价值判定」而导致偏差。

而中文 memecoins 则呈现不同特征，它们往往植根于共鸣与身份投射。比如「卑微小何」和「客服小何」一类代币，以底层打工人自嘲的幽默调侃社会现实。「修仙」系列则映射中国网民对逃离现实的梦幻幻想，「币安人生」则直接承载了在加密市场一夜暴富的梦想，当然他们的共同特色也是与官方沾上关系。

这是一种思维体系下的文化差异，对华人来说这叫把「路走宽了」，而对大部分欧美玩家来说，这类名字意味着他们的上限就被控制在「体系」是否愿意拉盘而已了。

但是以「币安人生」为代表的中文 memecoins 的爆发，实际上直接得益于这一情绪共鸣，其口号将币安人生和此前火热的「苹果人生」做类比，这种创新叙事明显不同于狗狗币的讽刺，更多诉诸忠诚和情怀。

而当这类印象被足够多的人了解，这个 Ticker 就被绑定在体系里了，当其被拉出来嘲讽时官方就「不得不拉盘」，这也许是很多在洗盘后还能拿得住这个币的人的想法。

而这一轮 meme 热潮并非完全由散户自发催生，同时也是 Binance 生态精心培育的结果。从何一一句玩笑、CZ 回复，到一连串 Fourmeme 官方互动，以及 Binance 推出的 MemeRush 平台，分步骤、分阶段的放出利好，分时间段的将高市值 Memecoins 的出圈、中期流动性、后期的延续性维持，将原本无序的 memecoin 发行纳入了官方体系，使狂欢更具组织性，而保持将市场的注意力长时间的聚焦在 Bsc 链。

将狂热从单一项目扩散到了整个 BSC 生态，进一步推动了大众对「下一单或许能成为千万富翁」的 Degen 心理。这种「上行阶梯式」的预期，也是为什么在这轮行情刚开始时，当多个热门项目出现时，我们不会感觉到明显的盘子之间的流动性虹吸效应的原因。

这是在官方和社区的共同作用下，成为显著的阶梯式财富效应。而这一路径验证了中文 meme 币背后所存在的结构化上市预期，以及市场的共识高至这一水平放在几个月前可能是我们想都不敢想的。

In contrast, Western meme coins are more often the result of random decisions made by communities or driven by conspiracy theories. However, in the case of Bsc, this phenomenon has been transformed into a clear-cut “wealth creation campaign” thanks to the efforts of its founders, the platform’s ecosystem, and the community itself.

There are also ongoing debates over listing fees and attempts to ease tensions between China and the West.

This situation has also led to intense public relations battles between different trading platforms. On October 11, 2025, Jesse posted a tweet calling for people to boycott centralized trading platforms that charge 2% to 9% in fees for listing new coins.

Three days later, on October 14, CJ Hetherington, the founder of Limitless Labs, a prediction market project funded by Coinbase, revealed on X that he had encountered difficulties when trying to list his project on Binance. He said that the project would need to pledge 2 million BNBs and pay high fees, including 8% of the tokens being distributed as rewards, along with $250,000 in deposits.

He compared Binance and Coinbase, suggesting that Coinbase focused more on the value of the project itself, while Binance operated more like a “listing fee model”. Binance quickly denied these claims, stating that they were “entirely false and defamatory”. They emphasized that Binance never charges any fees for listing new coins and threatened legal action against CJ for revealing confidential information.

Later, Binance issued a more moderate statement, admitting that their initial response was too harsh, but reiterated that they do not charge any fees for listing new coins.

During this period of intense debate, Coinbase also responded quickly. Jesse Pollak, the head of Base’s blockchain team, stated on social media that “there should be no fees for listing projects on our platform.” However, at that moment, public opinion began to shift. Coinbase officially announced that it would support BNB, a token issued by its direct competitor. This was the first time a company from a direct competitor’s mainnet had been acknowledged as a supported token. Binance’s founder, CZ, welcomed this decision and encouraged Coinbase to list more projects based on the BSC chain. CJ, who was involved in the “exposure” clause, also started to show support for Coinbase. Jesse Pollak’s attitude changed completely: he posted a demo video of the Base App on social media, using “Binance Life” as an example of a suitable token. He even joked in Chinese, “Turn on Binance Life mode on the Base App.” He also replied to CZ’s tweet, saying, “Binance Life + Base Life = the best combination.” These actions were seen by the industry as a sign of rapprochement between Chinese and Western crypto communities, and it also helped to bring new attention to the Base chain. When the trading volume and popularity in the Asian market reach a certain level, Western traders are forced to get closer to Chinese communities. Competition in the trading platform industry is thus intertwined with cultural narratives.Main European and American media outlets have paid great attention to this incident. Many Western investors also commented in the forums, saying, “The price of these coins has risen so high that we simply don’t understand what’s going on.” Most people only rushed to buy shares after the price had already increased significantly. Even those who have a deep understanding of the Chinese language, like Barry, often face difficulties when dealing with Memecoins—they can understand the concept behind them, but they don’t know how to apply it in practice. It seems that for overseas investors, Chinese elements have become an obstacle to entering the market.

This trend also highlights the idea that “language is a source of opportunity”. For those in the cryptocurrency industry, the cultural and emotional information behind different languages represents valuable resources. This is the first time that European and American investors need to understand Chinese culture in order to participate in this market.

However, Barry believes that “I think this Chinese-based meme craze is coming to an end. The longer this cycle lasts, the more severe the psychological distress it will cause traders. We can see that these Memecoins are starting to shift to smaller-cap stocks and faster-moving markets.”

不过与此同时他也说，「英文和中文已经是 meme 市场里最主要的组成部分了，而且这种情况不会很快就改变。中国拥有更大的市场，而且更容易收到情绪驱动。而欧洲市场往往会更加滞后，我认为英文的 Ticker 可能会回归，但会变得更加与亚洲文化融合的状态，由于这轮中文 Memes 承载出的灵感，他们会变得更加中国化的幽默、象征意义和美学。」

未来，要想捕捉下一波 memecoin 良机，仅靠机遇已经不够，还需要深入解读不同地域社区的语言与文化。AI 当前可能可以帮助跨语传播，比如通过自动生成汉语梗图、翻译社交动态等方式加速信息扩散，但 AI 毕竟难以替代对文化语境的深层理解。

我们也许会看到一个更加多极化的加密世界，Base、Solana 等越来越多的出现了中文 Ticker 的「金狗」，西方和东方社区之间既有融合互鉴的新趋势，也可能出现各自为政的分区生态，而这些文化差异的夹缝中也许就存在着新的机会。