HomeOPINIONWhat’s fueling the criticism around Binance latest listings?

What’s fueling the criticism around Binance latest listings?

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Being the largest crypto exchange in terms of user base, daily turnover, and trading volume, a listing on Binance is what many crypto projects look out for. The foremost cryptocurrency exchange boasts a strong ecosystem of over 200 million registered users worldwide, with not less than 60 million visits every week. As such, it is no surprise that projects listed on the exchange usually see monumental growth in their trading volume and price. 

What A Binance Listing Means To Projects

Listing on Binance not only validates a project’s potential but also exposes it to a broad user base. It adds an extra layer of legitimacy and accessibility to the project, driving up its demand and market activity. With users always reacting bullishly to Binance listing events, it could be what small projects need to transform into crypto hits. 

The level of exposure from such events mostly lead to rapid community growth and more user participation within the ecosystem of the project concerned. Don’t forget that the success of every crypto project depends on the size of its community. With a Binance listing boosting its community reach, this could be a major driver of the project’s overall success.

With that being said, there have been various criticisms regarding Binance’s listing criteria – which, in recent months, have favored low-cap cryptos, most especially the tokens in the meme coin market. In fact, in a recent Twitter post, popular crypto analyst Posty says Binance seems to be indirectly strengthening meme coin communities. He said even if users keep a “moonbag,” the tendency for such a project to be listed is high. 

Binance Listing Low-Cap Meme Coins

Meanwhile, according to on-chain analyst Ai_9684xtpa, Binance has listed more low-cap meme coins than other big CEXs this year. These tokens are either listed on its spot or future market or both. They include NEIRO, TURBO, PNUT, ACT, 1MBABYDOGE, and several others. According to Coingecko, 80% of these tokens saw significant post-listing growth, raising suspicion that the exchange could be engaged in pump-and-dump schemes. NEIRO, for instance, experienced over 7000% pump within a few days of its arrival on the exchange. 

Similarly, PNUT – Peanut the Squirrel – climbed past the $2 billion market cap threshold 48 hours after its Binance listing. Initially, the Solana-based meme coin was languishing around $100 million market valuation. Following its listing, it saw more than 10x growth to hit $2 billion, becoming one of the fastest meme coins to attain such a milestone. Also, ACT – The AI Prophecy – surged from $20 million to $420 million after the announcement of its listing on Binance. The listing also led to an explosion in its trading volume with $290 million recorded on Raydium. 

Criticism

These surprising listing events have put Binance under fire, with the crypto community raising concerns about possible pump-and-dump schemes. Co-founder of the Bitcoin Ordinals explorer – ord.io – Leonidas initiated a petition to challenge Binance’s listing policy. Describing it as a pump-and-dump scheme, Leonidas says Binance’s listing process endangers retail investors and favors insiders. He questioned how the exchange could consider tokens that had previously seen minimal market activity.

Such practices, according to Leonidas, reward unfair launches such as venture capitalists, centralized exchanges, and key opinion leaders. In such situations, these market makers exit their positions after the pump, making substantial profits and leaving the dumps for retail investors. 

Taking this into account, he asked Binance to publicly disclose the terms of its listing fees. Leonidas specifies that Binance needs to tell the public whether any expenses are paid in tokens or not. 

Also weighing into the conversation is Loopify, the founder of a crypto game studio. Loopify claims Binance is loosening its listing policies to discourage users from moving to decentralized exchanges. Initially, Binance, like most big CEXs, had strict listing standards. However, the exchange appears to have relaxed these standards, listing small meme coins with little liquidity. 

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Olaleye Komolafe
Olaleye Komolafe
Olaleye is a professional reporter with vast experience in web3, cryptocurrencies, and NFT journalism. He enjoys writing about the evolving metaverse sphere and the prevalence in the crypto sphere. Notably, some of his contents have been published in numerous international publications. Away from the crypto world, Olaleye is a political scientist and a lover of football

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