Memecoin Tied to CZ Statue Crashes 99% After Binance Founder Disowns It

A statue of Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao placed near the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C. was tainted after a memecoin dubbed “czstatue” rose by 27,000% in a day before crashing back to nearly 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 dismissing the aim of the statue.

CZ was recently pardoned by U.S. president Donald Trump after he served four months in prison in 2024. Zhao pleaded guilty in November 2023 to 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 this means the creator probably just wanted to make a quick buck off an interaction from me,” CZ wrote. “This is something I don’t appreciate. Don’t buy the meme.

“I would also never 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 speculated that the memecoin creator constructed a “honeypot” contract, meaning traders other than the creator could not sell token, only buy it.