Former Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao is mulling over the crypto community’s offer to turn his dog into a meme coin.
On Feb. 13, CZ replied to a series of posts on X by crypto traders asking for the name and photo of his pet dog, which he revealed is a Belgian Malinois breed. He then began to question how the meme coin transformation process worked and how people can identify which meme coin is official.
“Got the answers now. Pretty interesting how things work. Will mull it over for a day or so, as usual for big decisions,” said CZ in a follow-up post, after he received several explanations from other traders on the social media app.
Got the answers now. Pretty interesting how things work. Will mull it over for a day or so, as usual for big decisions😂. Respect his privacy, or dox the dog for the cause? Oh well, might even interact with a couple of the memes on BNB Chain. 🤣
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) February 12, 2025
He jokingly told his followers that he would take the time to consider his dog’s “privacy” in case the meme coin traders decide to turn on his pet and “dox the dog for the cause.”
CZ added that he has decided to interact with some of the meme coins launched on the BNB Chain (BNB).
The crypto community has been known to launch several meme coins based on the pets of crypto industry leaders. One example is the meme coin transformation of Len Sassaman’s cats Sasha and Odin, as many suspected the late cryptographer to be Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto leading up to the HBO documentary that vowed to expose Satoshi’s identity.
An old Elon Musk post featuring a picture of a Shiba Inu and a caption stating he would name it “Floki” led to the creation of the FLOKI (FLOKI) meme coin bearing the image Musk posted.
Did CZ have a change of heart for meme coins?
One X user responded to CZ’s sudden fascination with meme coins by bringing up a post he made in November 2024, when he said that meme coins were “a little” weird. He also said that the crypto community would be better off developing “real applications” using blockchain, rather than endorsing meme coins.
Responding to the user’s post, the former Binance CEO clarified that he was “referring to the crazy live streams back then.”
He was alluding to the controversy of meme coin launchpad pump.fun’s livestreams being misused to promote disturbing content that violated the platform’s safety guidelines. The backlash from the community became so widespread that the platform announced it would be suspending its livestream pool.
Throughout 2024, meme coins have grown into a major phenomenon in the crypto sphere, to the point where even the current President of the United States has launched his own official meme coin. The overall market cap for meme coins has amounted to nearly $78 billion, having gone up by 2.7%.
