The Rise of “Middle East Meme Fever” on Binance Chain

Last weekend (March 15-16), led by Mubarak, MEME tokens helped revive the sentiment on the BNB Chain, with previously inactive members switching to the Middle East time zone to join in the festivities.

In this wave of MEME speculation, Binance founder CZ and He Yi became the driving forces, personally engaging in meme creation and sharing, propelling this trend to new heights.

MGX Investment Boosts Interest, CZ Ignites Middle East MEME Narrative

Recently, Binance announced a significant investment of up to $2 billion from the UAE sovereign fund MGX. This major news not only attracted widespread attention both within and outside the industry but also became the strongest narrative for speculation on BNB Chain.

On March 13, the same day Binance publicly announced the MGX investment, the official account posted a tweet on X featuring an image of a “wealthy editor” wearing a traditional Middle Eastern headscarf. This humorous post attracted interactions from CZ and He Yi.

CZ retweeted the post with the caption “Mubarak,” a term derived from Arabic meaning “blessing” or “to confer grace.” This culturally resonant term was quickly seized upon by the market, leading to the emergence of numerous MEME tokens named Mubarak within the community. Among these, CZ subsequently retweeted a related post from a member of the “0x5c…46f6” community, which acted like a “royal endorsement,” swiftly creating a consensus among market leaders and significantly boosting interest in Mubarak.

As the excitement continued, CZ dropped another bombshell on Binance Square—he posted, “Going to meet a friend this weekend,” along with a humorous MEME image themed around Mubarak, which began to circulate rapidly in the community.

On March 15, Binance Alpha quickly launched Mubarak. The next day, CZ also spent 1 BNB each to purchase 9,161 TST tokens and 20,155 Mubarak tokens, and he seemed to respond on Binance Square by stating, “Doing some testing this weekend.”

This series of actions brought Mubarak’s speculation to a climax. On March 16, CZ tweeted about “considering a new avatar, soliciting interesting suggestions from the community,” mentioning that his current profile picture had been in use for 11 years. Coupled with his frequent mentions of Mubarak recently, this statement undoubtedly added more imaginative space for the MEME token, with some speculating that the new avatar might be related to the wealthy image of Mubarak. Additionally, supported by the community, Mubarak also secured $4.4 million in permanent liquidity pool support from Binance.

In contrast to the on-chain PVP turmoil caused by CZ revealing his pet dog’s name “Broccoli,” Mubarak’s operations flowed seamlessly. “A piece of cloth on my head, I’m the richest in the Middle East,” from the cultural label of Mashallah to the teasing of the Middle Eastern version of CZ, followed by the launch on Binance Alpha and CZ personally buying in, each interaction propelled Mubarak to achieve viral distribution. It can be said that Mubarak’s rise to fame is a combination of celebrity effect, cultural narrative, and MEME attributes, precisely capturing the hot window of Binance’s expansion into the Middle East.

GMGN data shows that Mubarak’s market cap peaked at nearly $150 million. However, according to analysis from Ai Yi, Mubarak currently faces issues with insufficient liquidity depth, which could make it difficult for large holders to sell their positions without significantly impacting the price.

Mubarak’s current market cap is approximately $134 million, with a 24-hour trading volume of $88.1 million, but the liquidity pool depth is only $4.48 million, accounting for just 5% of the daily trading volume. For example, the top address currently holds 13 million tokens worth about $1.618 million; attempting to sell all at market price would result in over $500,000 in slippage losses, as the current liquidity pool depth of BNB cannot support such a large transaction.

In addition to Mubarak, multiple MEME tokens with Middle Eastern narratives are being heavily speculated in the market. For instance, a few days ago, CZ retweeted an old post from several years ago saying “Inshallah,” and shared a photo with MGX board member Tahnoon, captioning it “Mashallah,” which temporarily boosted the popularity of the similarly named MEME token, but it sharply declined after the tweet was unpinned.

Interactive Marketing Ignites Community Sentiment, Limited Room for MEME Speculation

The explosive trading of Mubarak has ignited sentiment on the BNB Chain, with Binance’s movements becoming material for market speculation, and its interactive marketing has spurred waves of community enthusiasm.

For example, on March 13, He Yi commented on a tweet regarding Binance’s organizational chart, asking, “Who is that person in the upper right corner? I’ve never seen him before?” This remark instantly ignited community passion.

Many members quickly followed suit, editing their avatars into the organizational chart, creating a wave of memes. Binance’s official X account also joined in, not only replacing the character in the image with “BNB Holder” but also humorously changing it to “Palou”—a name derived from the popular game “Palou: The Beast,” which the Chinese community often humorously refers to as “the hardworking cow and horse.” This self-deprecating brand marketing and community interaction spread like a virus in the crypto circle, giving rise to the “Web3 Palou” meme label, and further evolved into the similarly named MEME token Palu, which drove market enthusiasm to continue rising.

Moreover, the trending “answer me” and “look in my eyes” video memes on Douyin have also been creatively adapted by the crypto community, with numerous videos featuring CZ and He Yi as protagonists. These humorous videos not only went viral within the community but also gained retweets and likes from CZ and He Yi themselves, with the Binance official account joining the interaction, further amplifying their impact. The resulting MEME token $Answer naturally became another market hotspot.

However, overall, the current speculative space for most MEME tokens on the BNB Chain appears limited. According to GMGN data, the highest trading volume MEME token on the BNB Chain in the past 24 hours was Mubarak, approaching $100 million, while only three projects reached the ten million dollar level, with most others hovering below one million or even hundreds of thousands, indicating a concentration of market enthusiasm and a lack of long-tail effects.

To attract more users, Binance Wallet has also launched a six-month zero-fee trading promotion. On March 17, Binance announced that starting from March 17, 2025, at 16:00, it would introduce a zero-fee trading activity applicable to all trading pairs in Binance Wallet. The promotion will last until September 17, 2025, at 16:00.

During the promotion period, all transactions completed through the exchange and cross-chain bridge features in Binance Wallet or through Binance Alpha’s quick purchase feature will be exempt from trading fees, but users will still need to pay network gas fees. Additionally, transactions conducted through third-party dApps are not included in the promotion.

In summary, in the ecological construction of the BNB Chain, the “bidirectional approach” between Binance and the community has become a highlight of its marketing strategy, not only bringing it closer to users but also injecting more vitality and topicality into the ecosystem through the light-hearted and humorous approach of MEME.

This article is collaboratively reprinted from: PANews.