How are those who followed CZ's trades doing now?

Author: zhou, ChainCatcher

Retail investors fear being dumped on, but fear missing out even more. CZ stands at the intersection of these two emotions; a single sentence from him can double someone's wealth overnight or wipe it out just as quickly. Violent price swings are commonplace among assets related to CZ; it seems that once connected to him, price action detaches from fundamentals and instead responds to sentiment.

There are not many coins that CZ has openly endorsed and bought, but each time he does, it stirs the market. On November 2, CZ posted that he had used personal funds to buy ASTER on Binance, attaching an on-chain transfer screenshot (2.09 million tokens). The market was instantly ignited, and ASTER surged from $0.91 to $1.26 (UTC+8), a gain of over 30%.

According to on-chain analyst Yu Jin, a whale shorted ASTER worth $50.62 million at $1.2 (UTC+8) after CZ bought in. As ASTER’s price has since fallen, this short position is now over $12 million in profit; meanwhile, CZ’s previous entry price was about $0.913, currently at a floating loss.

This is not the first time CZ has “ignited” ASTER. During the ASTER TGE in September, he reposted a call to buy, and ASTER soared from $0.02 all the way to $2.42 (UTC+8), a nearly 7000% increase, becoming the market’s focal point.

On October 30, ASTER taught the market a lesson: a KOL claimed that a CZ-related wallet dumped 35 million ASTER, causing the price to quickly drop by 16.8% and over $4 million in on-chain liquidations. Two hours later, Lookonchain and EmberCN clarified that it was an internal transfer within a Binance hot wallet, and CZ also refuted the “fake news,” allowing the price to recover lost ground.

It can be said that almost every major fluctuation of ASTER is inseparable from CZ. He stated that every time he buys a coin, he gets trapped in the short term 100% of the time: in 2014, he bought BTC at an average price of $600, which dropped to $200 within a month and stayed there for 18 months; in 2017, he bought BNB, which also fell 20-30% and stayed down for weeks. This time, after ASTER dropped, he added to his position, but nothing is certain yet. He also reminded everyone to be aware of risks and said he would no longer disclose his trades to avoid impacting the market.

Previously, CZ also said that BNB accounts for over 98% of his personal holdings and that he has never sold any. He held BNB at $0.1 during the BNB ICO, and eight years later, BNB’s price has long surpassed the thousand-dollar mark, with its market cap gradually overtaking SOL, currently ranking fifth in crypto.

As CZ’s core asset, BNB has been repeatedly endorsed: in August 2020, he publicly called BNB holders the smartest; in June 2023, he encouraged holders to stay strong in the face of the SEC lawsuit; on November 2, 2025, he stated he hadn’t sold in eight years. It is precisely BNB’s long-term performance that has provided credibility for his subsequent calls.

Besides BNB and ASTER, VANA is also worth mentioning, as it is the first project he participated in as an advisor (without explicitly buying in).

Reportedly, Vana is an AI identity generation application, and the VANA token was listed on Binance as early as December 2024, immediately soaring to a historical high of $35.8 (UTC+8) at launch. As the only Data DAO listed on Binance, it perfectly rode the Q4 AI boom. However, after the Data Liquidity Pool (DLP) opened in January 2025, data quality issues emerged, and the token price fell to around $6 (UTC+8).

On February 24, YZi Labs announced a strategic investment in Vana, and CZ became an advisor the same day, posting “Crypto is AI money, data is AI food,” which instantly sent the topic trending, and the VANA token surged over 50% in 48 hours. However, after the hype faded, the project showed no improvement, and the token price fell back to $2.8 (UTC+8), a 92% drop from its peak. CZ once said he is an advisor, not a babysitter; he invests in infrastructure, but implementation depends on the team. This proves that while CZ’s advisor title can ignite market sentiment, it cannot ignite the fundamentals.

CZ Ignites, Community Fuels: The Traffic Code of Meme Frenzy

As a public figure, when CZ publicly mentions certain coins, it naturally attracts a large number of investors to follow suit, even though he often tries to distance himself from certain meme coins. However, the copy-trading effect created by the market is hard to avoid. Especially after many projects launched on Binance Alpha, combined with the FOMO effect, a single sentence can stir up huge waves.

Take the SZN coin for example: on October 7, CZ posted that the BNB meme season had arrived, and the price soared 5600% in 24 hours. The 4 coin originated from CZ’s hand gesture photo; CZ often used the number 4 in posts to respond to fake news, and the community turned it into a meme, with the price surging up to 2000%. BROCCOLI came from CZ publicly naming his dog, reaching a market cap of $52 million in 2 hours. CZSTATUE is a meme coin of a 14-foot golden CZ statue; CZ joked not to buy it, but it still surged 3000%. PALU is a cartoon avatar derivative liked by CZ, with its market cap once exceeding $100 million. MAXI is a response to CZSTATUE; after CZ criticized it, it still rose over 1500%. SCI6900 is a project CZ retweeted about the Shanghai Index on-chain, rising 300% in 24 hours. In March 2025, CZ claimed to have spent 1 BNB each to buy TST and Mubarak for testing, and both coins instantly took off (TST 50%+, Mubarak 300%+).

In addition, the recently popular Chinese meme coin “Binance Life” originated from He Yi’s reply to a netizen: “Wish you enjoy Binance Life.” Base founder @jessepollak posted a video “Activating Binance Life Mode on Base App,” and CZ immediately retweeted, saying “Binance Life” is the first Chinese platform to launch on Base App, originating from the BNB Chain. This back-and-forth interaction pushed its market cap past $500 million in a short time, with the community touting it as the “Chinese Meme Renaissance.” Looking back, these coins were once in the spotlight, but most have since given back much of their gains, with current prices generally down 80%–95% from their highs, and both liquidity and attention have cooled significantly.

GIGGLE is another typical example. On September 21, 2025, CZ publicly posted the BNB donation address for Giggle Academy on X, after which the GIGGLE token issued on Four.meme quickly surged, rising about 14 times. CZ then posted that GIGGLE was not an official project, after which GIGGLE’s price plummeted 80%.

However, in October, when GIGGLE first appeared on Binance Alpha and later launched on Binance spot, the price saw significant increases both times. On November 3, Binance announced that starting in December, 50% of GIGGLE spot and margin trading fees would be directly donated to Giggle Academy; Giggle Academy responded that after receiving the donation, it would additionally burn 50%. Following this news, as the overall crypto market corrected in early November, GIGGLE’s trading volume surged and its price doubled.

From Binance Alpha to spot listing, and then to an official announcement, each stage brought multiplied gains. Although GIGGLE was not officially issued by Giggle Academy, the community still capitalized on the momentum, pushing the topic and sentiment to the forefront. This shows that in the meme world, Binance remains the ultimate endorsement of traffic and confidence.

YZi Labs Investment Endorsement

In addition to CZ’s own calls, YZi Labs’ investment endorsements can also attract market attention. According to public information, YZi Labs has invested in more than 20 projects this year, focusing on infrastructure, settlement and stablecoins, and AI applications, while also covering RWA and programmable bitcoin. Among the projects that have already issued tokens are SIGN, VANA, EDU (Open Campus), and ENA (Ethena).

SIGN is an airdrop protocol led by YZi Labs with a $16 million investment in January 2025, and an additional $25.5 million in October. On April 25, Binance announced SIGN would be listed on the HODLer Airdrops page; in the first two days after listing, the price rose from $0.03 to $0.133 (UTC+8), more than tripling, but then fell back and now hovers around $0.08 (UTC+8).

On September 19, YZi Labs announced an increased stake in Ethena Labs, but ENA’s price barely reacted. However, USDe TVL peaked at $14.15 billion that month, and after the crash on October 11, USDe lost its peg, with TVL now down to $9.5 billion. According to coingecko, ENA’s current market cap is about $2.3 billion, ranking 56th in crypto market cap.

On September 24, CZ publicly admitted on social media that he had invested early in SafePal; that day, SFP’s price rose from $0.4 to about $0.7 (UTC+8), a gain of over 70%, but has since fallen back to $0.3 (UTC+8).

On October 20, YZi Labs participated in Open Campus’s $5 million strategic funding round. Since the education sector is not a market hotspot, the EDU token’s performance has been lackluster.

It is worth noting that YZi Labs usually announces its investments only after a token is listed on an exchange, which naturally amplifies the event-driven price and volume spikes. However, from Vana’s cold start to SIGN/EDU’s lack of sustained momentum, it is clear that the market does not always buy into YZi Labs’ investment endorsements.

Conclusion

Ultimately, whether it’s CZ personally entering the market, collaborating with the community to create a meme atmosphere, or YZi Labs providing investment endorsements, so-called “calls” are just a spark, while the community’s hype is the fuel—only when the two meet does the market catch fire. This also shows that the market itself needs hot topics to maintain attention and liquidity. But a spark can only light up the present; it cannot sustain the future. What truly remains is the fundamentals.