Cultural differences or a high position without concern for the people? CZ caught in a whirlpool of public opinion

Written by Yangz, Techub News

Meme is both a success and a failure. CZ's plan to use Memecoin to support BNB Chain may have been ruined by his own hands.

 Reposting STAR10 draws fire

After the Argentine president released Libra and triggered market concerns about the "Celebrity Coin" sickle scam, former Brazilian football superstar Ronaldinho (Ronaldinho) announced the launch of the token STAR10 on BNB Chain and announced the CA address in the early hours of Monday morning. However, considering Ronaldinho's bad reputation in recent years and the painful lessons of the previous rounds of "Celebrity Coin", Memecoin enthusiasts did not trade as usual, taking advantage of the weekend on the other side of the ocean. Dex Screener data shows that although the market value of the token rose to about $200 million after Ronaldinho’s tweet, it began to fall back later due to multiple reports about some internal addresses profiting from front-running transactions, and the market was tepid.

It was thought that this "celebrity coin" would quietly become a thing of the past in the recent turbulent market conditions, but unexpectedly, a retweet from CZ in the afternoon brought the coin back to the public eye. CZ said, "STAR10 tokens are only issued exclusively on BNB Chain. All other chains are fake coins, please be wary of scams." In addition, he "has been a fan of Ronaldinho since 2005." Of course, CZ also repeatedly emphasized that this tweet is not an endorsement of the token, and there is no business relationship between BNB Chain (and any of its affiliates) and Ronaldinho, and reminded users to pay attention to the volatility of Memecoin.

Although CZ tried his best to clarify that it was "not an endorsement", the market value of STAR10 still quickly rose to US$350 million after the tweet was forwarded. Many investors found that Ronaldinho had interacted with CZ twice before the coin was issued. On February 26, Ronaldinho posted a Twitter video announcing that he would give his autographed jersey to his "friend" CZ. On March 2, Ronaldinho forwarded CZ's "Keep Building" tweet and said "On it".

Just when many investors thought this was the "new wealth code" and were ready to start trading, the event ushered in a critical turning point. X user @R10coin_ (currently frozen) broke the news that STAR10 is actually a Shenzhen "plate" coin, which is promoted by Xiao Luo after selling X account to a Shenzhen coin issuing team for $5 million. In addition, blockchain security company GoPlus Security also issued a security reminder, saying that STAR10 has serious security risks, "The token owner has not given up ownership and can destroy the token of any holder at will."

Affected by the above explosive news, the price of STAR10 fell again. As of writing, STAR10 has fallen from a high of $0.39 to $0.07. Ronaldinho's X account, in addition to announcing that it would "listen to community feedback" and give up ownership of STAR10 tokens, and extend the lock-up period to 255 years, seems to be still operating normally. It not only announced the launch of the Telegram community, but also launched an activity of "joining the group to get a signed jersey", and the comments below are also full of praise such as "my idol, because of you, I fell in love with football".

Unlike Ronaldinho's X account, although CZ tried his best to clear himself of the suspicion of endorsement, community users did not buy into this "disclaimer". Many investors even jokingly suggested that CZ should learn from the allusion of "there is no silver here".

 Cultural differences or being in a high position but not worrying about the people

Seeing the public opinion fermenting, CZ also tried to save his image. He first retweeted GoPlus Security's tweet and reminded users to pay attention to the risks. Then he attributed the controversy to "cultural differences", saying, "In English, the clearer you are, the better. Sometimes there will be legal liability if you don't explain it. In Chinese, it's best to stop at the point. If you are too straightforward, people will often understand the opposite." CZ said that his communication mode is to translate from English to Chinese, and asked everyone to understand the literal meaning only and not think too much.

However, this statement did not have the expected easing effect, but instead intensified the opposition. Many investors have questioned how CZ, who studied in China before the age of 12 and lived in Shanghai for several years, could not speak Chinese. Of course, there are also views that CZ did this because "Chinese is ambiguous and English has clear references. His own wealth and regulatory pressure are there, so it is understandable that he does not want to be too involved with memes to avoid regulatory suspicion." In addition, KOL Crypto Wei Chu also pointed out from his own experience that "the bilingual gap exists."

Putting aside personal experience and language usage habits, the reason why CZ's image as a Chinese leader in the cryptocurrency industry is questioned again may be that even ordinary investors know that STAR10 is very likely to be a scam project, so why did CZ "retweet" it? In addition, CZ's repeated mistakes in his Twitter comments recently have made many investors lament that CZ is "high in the temple, but not worried about his people."

From endorsing Certik as "absolutely trustworthy" in December last year, to the recent TST and the farce of his own pet dog "Broccoli", as well as mistaking BNB on HashKey Global as Hong Kong-approved BNB and exclaiming that it was "the first time using DEX", CZ's recent words and deeds have damaged his image in the industry. As for forwarding STAR10, KOL @Sea_Bitcoin pointed out that CZ just wanted to use Memecoin to attract traffic to BNB Chain, but he "didn't understand and couldn't play", which led to a strong short-term utilitarianism and deformed actions. @Ice_Frog666666 speculated that CZ's cognition may be closer to the thinking of senior executives of Web2 500 companies, and he is used to completely separating factual statements from value judgments. What CZ doesn't understand is that in the Memecoin market, "the decision-making logic of retail investors is highly simplified, and any of his words and deeds will be refined into the binary attributes of bad/good, and the objectivity of his words will be completely eliminated in the context of the dissemination of this binary attribute." However, many KOLs have also put forward different views. @niqislucky believes that CZ "cannot fail to understand the matter of 'mention = attention = liquidity', and there must be a purpose for pretending to be stupid." @vvickym2 also said that CZ "is just pretending to be confused when he knows the truth. You can never wake up a person who pretends to be asleep."

For CZ's recent situation of repeated mistakes, many practitioners have also given their own suggestions. Wu said founder Colin suggested that he "be cautious when mentioning specific project names, or before mentioning a specific project, ask the team to do a fact check first, or even use grok to ask Twitter what negative things about the project are." @DeFi8362 also suggested "don't list specific projects... just talk about overall development. Just like a celebrity, when they are on camera (tweeting), if they don't endorse a product, they just tear off the product logo." Zeng Jiajun zjj.eth believes that one should not have too high expectations for CZ, and bluntly said, "Posting more of this bullshit will dispel his charm. You can't have too high expectations for someone who just uses dex."

Conclusion

CZ's frequent mistakes in words and deeds have once again put his image as a Chinese leader in Crypto at the forefront of public opinion. Whether it is the eager action of using Memecoin to divert traffic to BNB Chain or the inappropriate expression of words, people can't help but question whether he really understands the needs of the market and users. As many investors have said, CZ seems to have gradually deviated from the original intention of the crypto community and fell into the dilemma of being out of touch with the masses.

In addition, this incident once again reflects the impact of the words and deeds of public figures on the Crypto market. Today's Crypto is not only a competition field for technology and innovation, but also a game field for traffic and public opinion. Every statement made by public figures such as Musk, Trump, and CZ may become a trigger point for market fluctuations. Although this "celebrity effect" can bring short-term heat, as far as the author is concerned, it is more of a resistance. Take the "buy the dip!" call issued by Eric Trump, the second son of Trump, when the market fell last week as an example. For novices who lack market experience, this kind of speech can be both guiding and misleading. Although celebrity remarks can attract attention, the impact they bring is often short-lived in the end.