CZ Warns Fans Not To Buy His Memecoins

Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has warned crypto investors not to buy the new CZ-themed memecoin launced to capitalised on his popularity, adding that celebrity-linked memecoins like this has not real utility.

The memecoin emerged after images of a 14-foot golden statue of Zhao appeared online earlier this week. The team behind it later issued a BNB Chain token called CZSTATUE, which briefly surged to a $5.1 million market cap before collapsing 86% within hours, according to Nansen data.

In a post on X, Zhao distanced himself from the project while accusing the creator of the memecoin of trying capitalise on his popularity.

“While I appreciate the gesture, the fact that there’s a token tied to this means someone is just trying to make a quick buck off an interaction from me. Don’t buy the meme.”

CZ’s remarks fueled widespread speculation that the meme coin was another opportunistic play on his reputation — echoing the recent wave of celebrity-themed tokens with little to no utility.

Exerts have also found that more than 15% of the token supply was held by newly created cryptocurrency wallet, signalling potential insider actiivty and marked a "red flag" for its tokenomics, according to Nansen.

Memecoin Creators: “It Was Always About The Art, Not Profit”

But instead of pushing fans away from the memecoin, CZ's warning only drew more attention. Following CZ's tweet, the official memecoin's price experienced a second boom after spiking by 30% over the past day. This underscoring how controversy itself has become a trading signal for memecoin speculators.

Shortly CZ's sharp accustions one of the statue’s creators quickly stood out to explain his part of the story. Nick Zee, one of the artists behind the project, told Decrypt that the group had no intent to exploit Zhao or the Binance community for financial gain.

Instead, he said, the project was funded by $50,000 in anonymous donations and was meant as a symbolic tribute to CZ’s contributions to the crypto space. The team also deliberately designed the smart contract address to end in "4444" as a tribute to CZ's popular four-fingered gesture.

During an interview, Zee expressed his disappointment over CZ's accusations, saying

"They're like hyenas. I used to love the space, but I just came to the conclusion that nobody's genuine, nobody's honest. Everyone's here for one thing: to make money off you."

The team said they had planned to gift the statue to CZ or auction it for charity tied to his educational nonprofit. Zhao, however, rejected the gesture outright, writing that he would “never accept the statue” because “only an egomaniac would have a statue of himself in his house.”

Tribute or Tactic?

At face value, the creators’ intentions appear genuine — a mix of admiration, performance art, and crypto culture. But in a market where attention equals liquidity, even sincere projects quickly morph into speculative assets once tokens enter the mix.

So, was the statue team chasing clout or profit? Probably neither — but the memecoin ecosystem around them certainly was. The incident reveals an uncomfortable truth about crypto’s attention economy: in 2025, even good faith can be monetized faster than it can be explained.