Recently, I’ve been observing an interesting phenomenon: the actions of a founder of a major exchange seem to trigger intense market volatility. His words can cause prices to double overnight or wipe out investments in a single night. This is not an exaggeration; it’s a real occurrence in the crypto market.

First, let’s talk about his recent activities on ASTER. In November last year, he publicly stated that he bought ASTER with personal funds and even posted on-chain transfer screenshots (2.09 million tokens). The market immediately ignited, with ASTER rising from $0.91 to $1.26, a gain of over 30%. But interestingly, some whales immediately shorted $50.62 million worth of ASTER after his purchase, now with an unrealized profit of over $12 million, while his own position is currently at an unrealized loss. This stark contrast clearly illustrates a problem: the market knows that his buys are usually short-term traps. He himself admitted that in 2014, he bought Bitcoin at an average price of $600, which dropped to $200 within a month and continued for 18 months. When he bought BNB in 2017, it also fell 20-30%, lasting several weeks.

But that doesn’t mean he lacks vision. BNB is actually his core asset, accounting for over 98% of his personal holdings, and he has never sold. He bought BNB during the ICO at $0.10, and now BNB has broken the $1,000 mark, ranking fifth in crypto market cap. It’s the long-term performance of BNB that provides credibility for his subsequent calls.

Besides ASTER and BNB, VANA is also worth noting. This is the first project he has participated in as an advisor. VANA launched on Binance in December last year, soaring to a historic high of $35.8 at opening, perfectly riding the Q4 AI hype. But later, data quality issues emerged, causing the price to fall back to around $6. In February this year, investors announced a strategic investment in VANA, and on the same day, he became an advisor and posted that “Crypto is AI money, data is AI food,” which instantly heated up the discussion. VANA surged over 50% in 48 hours. But now, the price has fallen back to $1.72, a 95% drop from the high. He once said he’s an advisor, not a babysitter; he invests in infrastructure, but execution depends on the team. This explains how his advisory role can ignite hype but doesn’t necessarily improve fundamentals.

Interestingly, a whole meme ecosystem has been created around him. He said “BNB meme season is here,” and the SZN token skyrocketed 5,600% in 24 hours. His gesture photo was meme-ified into the number 4, and the community pumped it by 2,000%. He publicly revealed his dog’s name as BROCCOLI, and within two hours, its market cap reached $17.34 million. There’s even a 14-foot-tall CZ statue meme coin, which he joked not to buy, yet it surged 3,000%. There’s also SCI6900, linked to his retweet of the Shanghai index on-chain project, which surged 300% in 24 hours. In March this year, he said he did a test by spending 1 BNB to buy TST and Mubarak, and both tokens instantly soared (TST +50%, Mubarak +6.71%).

These meme coins once enjoyed popularity but have now mostly retraced significantly. In total, their current prices are generally down 80-95% from their highs, with liquidity and attention clearly waning. GIGGLE is a typical example. After he publicly shared the donation address for Giggle Academy in September last year, GIGGLE’s price surged rapidly, about 14 times in stages. He later said GIGGLE was not an official project, and the price plummeted 80%. But then GIGGLE listed on Binance Alpha, and with spot trading opening, each phase saw substantial gains. By November this year, Binance announced that 50% of GIGGLE spot and leverage trading fees would be directly donated to Giggle Academy. The news caused trading volume to spike and the price to double. This shows that in the meme world, Binance remains the ultimate endorsement of traffic and confidence.

Besides his own calls, the backing of investors also plays a crucial role. This year, investors have put over 20 projects into the market, mainly focusing on infrastructure, settlement, stablecoins, and AI applications. For example, SIGN launched on Binance in April, with its price rising from $0.03 to $0.133, a gain of over 3 times, though it now hovers around $0.02. ENA has a circulating market cap of $1.16 billion, ranking 56th in crypto. SafePal was publicly acknowledged as an early investor in September, with SFP rising from $0.40 to $0.70, now back down to $0.33. The Open Campus token EDU performed modestly, up 4.15% in 24 hours.

Ultimately, whether it’s him personally making calls, creating meme hype with the community, or the backing of investors, what’s called “calling the market” is just a spark. The community riding the concept adds fuel, and only when both come together does the hype ignite. This also shows that the market itself needs hot topics to maintain attention and liquidity. A single spark can light up the moment, but it can’t sustain the future. What truly endures are the fundamentals.