A fabricated story about a surfing accident involving Changpeng Zhao (CZ) triggered a brief meme coin frenzy on Solana and BNB Chain, with one token seeing over $114,000 in trading volume on May 24.
The incident highlights the reflexive and often volatile nature of the meme coin market, where social media rumors can be monetized into speculative assets within hours. "I am not against memes, but meme coins are getting 'a little' weird now," the Binance founder noted in a post on X, addressing the hoax.
The false report, which originated in Chinese-language WeChat groups, claimed CZ was swept out to sea by a strong rip current near Jumeirah beach in Dubai. Within hours, traders deployed multiple knockoff tokens on platforms like pump.fun and PancakeSwap. GeckoTerminal data showed several SEAZ pools on Solana with market caps between $2,400 and $4,600 on less than $6,000 of liquidity. One Solana SEAZ pool recorded approximately $114,000 in volume on just $5,683 of liquidity, while a BNB Chain version reached an $8,300 market cap.
This event demonstrates the high-risk, low-liquidity environment typical of meme coin launches, where rapid price movements are common. Most of the CZ-related tokens dropped between 10% and 40% within hours of their launch, mirroring patterns seen in previous speculative frenzies that often result in significant losses for later investors.
The detailed, fabricated post claimed local rescue teams were conducting a large-scale search operation for the Binance founder. Opportunistic traders immediately capitalized on the misinformation, creating tokens with tickers like SEAZ and RIPCZ to attract speculative interest. This pattern is not new; CZ has previously been the subject of fake news, including a rumor about an Interpol red notice that briefly impacted the price of BNB.
In his response, CZ denied the rumor and clarified that he kite surfs, not surfs, even inviting followers to join him at Surf Abu Dhabi. His comments underscore a recurring theme of his criticism toward traders who chase tokens based on his name or related news.
The incident occurred as underlying platforms continue to evolve. Pump.fun, a key venue for the SEAZ token launch on Solana, recently expanded its service to include USDC trading pairs, aiming to strengthen stablecoin settlement for new tokens. Meanwhile, the broader Solana ecosystem has shown significant activity, with its applications generating $342.2 million in revenue during Q1 2026, according to WebSearch results. However, Solana's DeFi total value locked fell 22% in the same period, reflecting a broader market downturn.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
