A statue of Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao placed near the US Capitol in Washington DC was defaced after a Memecoin called “Czstatue” Rose 27,000% in one day before crashing back to almost zero.
The token, which rose as high as 17.5 cents, racked up $1.2 billion in trading volume before the crash after Zhao tweeted “Don’t buy the meme” while removing the statue’s purpose.
CZ was recently pardoned by US president Donald Trump after he served Four months in prison in 2024. Zhao pleaded guilty in November 2023 on charges of violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
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“While I want to appreciate the gesture, the fact that there is a meme coin associated with it means the creator probably just wanted to make a quick bud out of me,” CZ wrote. “This is something I don’t appreciate. Don’t buy into the meme.
“Nor will I accept a statue of myself. What kind of egomaniac would have a statue of himself in his house?”
There are still 1,177 holders of the near-worthless token, suggesting that a large number of retail investors were left holding the bag. Some have speculated that the creator of Memecoin set up a “honeypot” contract, which means that traders other than the creator cannot sell the token, only buy it.
