The NEIRO/Neiro dispute has come to an end, and the Meme coin has moved away from the "grassroots team development period".
Author: Wenser, Odaily Star Daily
The "uppercase and lowercase dispute" of the Meme coin Neiro once again put Binance in the spotlight.
However, this time, the response from Binance co-founder He Yi was unusually calm and restrained, which may also indicate that the listing strategy for the Meme coin project on Binance will be more cautious in the future. In the recent article "He Yi's response to the listing controversy: considering the community's voice, several relatively dispersed and low market value MEME tokens have been listed" published, we can clearly see that the community's voice still has a significant impact on Binance's decision-making. At the same time, the internal organization of Binance is not as "grassroots" as previously imagined by the outside world.
However, the simultaneous listing of the new Shiba Inu coin Neiro and NEIRO on Binance is indeed a rare "grand occasion" in the Meme coin race, and can also be seen as a "turning point in the Meme coin race" to some extent. Odaily Star Daily will briefly review and analyze the relevant events in this article.
Event retrospective: Uppercase NEIRO contract was launched first, followed by the lowercase Neiro spot contract
If the initial "Neiro token uppercase and lowercase dispute" was still at the stage of confrontation between the "conspiracy group" and the "decentralized community," then the "joining" of Binance, which has the title of "the world's largest exchange," undoubtedly added fuel to the fire to this dispute.
Uppercase NEIRO contract launched first: Did the conspiracy group defeat the crypto community?
On September 6, Binance announced that "Binance Futures will launch the NEIROETH 1-75x USDT perpetual contract." As soon as the news came out, the market quickly reacted—NEIRO's price quickly broke through $0.16, with a 24-hour increase of up to 139.25%, and briefly surpassed $0.2 in the following days.
Binance official announcement related information
It is worth mentioning that at that time, the NEIRO token was criticized by many users of X platform, claiming that the "conspiracy group" behind it had previously distributed tokens to multiple addresses and gradually sold them off, followed by a prolonged washout for 2 months; and before the launch of the Binance contract, NEIRO also experienced a slight increase, leading some to question the existence of "insider trading."
Although NEIRO's trading volume on exchanges such as Bybit reached hundreds of millions of dollars, the fact that the project team held up to 78% of the "internal holdings" still made the crypto players who joined due to the relatively fair participation threshold of Meme coins sneer at it. There were also some voices in the market and community that criticized Binance's listing behavior and expressed disappointment.
But soon, things took a turn.
Lowercase Neiro spot contract followed closely: Can the community's enthusiasm spread like wildfire?
On September 16, 10 days after the announcement of the "launch of the uppercase NEIRO contract on Binance," Binance once again announced that "Binance will list First Neiro on Ethereum (NEIRO), Turbo (TURBO), and Baby Doge Coin (1 MBABYDOGE) and add seed tags for them."
Because the token ID in the official announcement was also for the uppercase NEIRO, many people mistakenly thought it was the NEIRO project that had already completed the contract launch, and did not pay too much attention to it. However, the contract address showed that the project was actually the lowercase Neiro project, with a market value of only around $20 million at the time.
Moreover, it was not only the uppercase and lowercase Neiro that was confusing, but Binance's "one-click three coins" operation also left many users puzzled—despite the fact that TURBO and BABYDOGE can indeed be classified as "established Meme coin projects" based on their trading volume, project operation, and market recognition, the dense "spot listings," all of which are Meme coins, are as rare as the previous "BOME listing on Binance in 3 days."
At 4:30 pm on that day, Binance once again announced that "Binance Futures will launch NEIROUSDT and 1 MBABYDOGEUSDT 1-75x USDT perpetual contracts." Not only that, the Binance official announcement also specifically reminded: "Please note that this contract is for 'First NeiroFirst Neiro On Ethereum' (NEIRO), with the address 0x812ba41e071c7b7fa4ebcfb62df5f45f6fa853ee. It is a different token from the NEIROETHUSDT contract that was launched on September 6, 2024 (address: 0xee2a03aa6dacf51c18679c516ad5283d8e7c2637)."
Many people at this point were suddenly awakened: "It is indeed the lowercase Neiro token spot and contract that have been listed on Binance with the support of many members of the Chinese community." The market value of Neiro's project also quickly rose in just a few hours, from $20 million to over $120 million; in contrast, the price of the uppercase NEIRO token quickly fell, dropping below $0.1 in just a few hours, reaching a low of around $0.072, with a maximum daily decline of over 50%, and currently maintaining around $0.076.
Many people exclaimed: in the end, the crypto community defeated the "conspiracy group."
Binance announcement information interface
After Neiro successfully achieved both spot and contract listings on Binance, Binance subsequently released two more announcements, "Binance will list NEIRO, TURBO, and BABYDOGE on mining, flash exchange, and leverage trading" and "Binance's pledge borrowing adds NEIRO, POL, TURBO and other assets available for borrowing," showing much stronger support for the lowercase Neiro project than the uppercase NEIRO project.
Although some people criticized Binance for once again lowering the "listing standards," in the current market situation, which is both volatile and increasingly liquidity-constrained, considering the main demands of exchanges, Meme coin projects with significant market attention, active trading volume, and stable operation are indeed within the "range," which is understandable.
Community voices: Some people take action when they hear the wind, some go all in, and some short both ends
The voices and reactions of the crypto community regarding the simultaneous listing of the uppercase NEIRO/Neiro tokens on Binance are also quite interesting.
When the NEIRO contract was launched, some people "wished they could be part of the conspiracy group," some engaged in short-term trading and successfully profited; some excessively believed in the "Binance effect" and unfortunately got trapped in chasing highs. After the Neiro spot and contract were launched, the "diamond hands" finally received corresponding rewards, all of them were jubilant; there were also lucky ones who ambushed in advance, with floating profits of hundreds of thousands of dollars; of course, there were also those who sold their Neiro holdings to buy NEIRO tokens, only to miss out on Neiro and could only lament.
Lucky or insider? A whale opened a position with over 20 WETH on Neiro, with a floating profit of $355,000
On September 16, according to the on-chain analyst Ai Yi's monitoring, an address that happened to open a position of 1.3 billion Neiro on September 15 made a profit of 694% in one day. The lucky person, 0x4bb, had previously withdrawn 21.667 WETH from a CEX, bought 1.3 billion Neiro tokens at an average price of $0.00003924, and has held them until now, with a floating profit of $355,000.
"Diamond hands" KOL: Laser Cat, Philanthropist
According to the Chinese crypto KOL and Tinfun NFT founder "Laser Cat," he posted on X platform stating that he made nearly $2 million in profits from the token price increase due to the listing of Neiro on Binance. Previously, he also retweeted a tweet from the on-chain monitoring account Onchain Lens tracking his personal address's purchase of Neiro tokens.
In addition, another Chinese crypto KOL, "Crypto Philanthropist," also reaped significant gains this time. Previously, he expressed a preference for the community-supported Neiro project. He summarized in a post, "I bought Neiro for $50,000 early on, at a cost of around $17 million in market value. When the $50,000 increased to $100,000, I sold $50,000 to break even, and the remaining $50,000 holding is all profit. Recently, I checked and the profit is now worth around $400,000 (about 9 times profit), and I just took out half of the profit; there is still $200,000 in profit remaining."
"Victim" of market news: Lost about $250,000 in just a few days
Of course, not everyone could "enjoy the fruits" of this feast, and some ended up "paying the bill" for it. Crypto KOL "San Francisco is not Paris" posted on X platform, stating that he lost about $250,000 due to participating in the trading of the uppercase and lowercase NEIRO/Neiro tokens.
Early SHIB sellers enter, Neiro continues
Although the dispute between the uppercase and lowercase NEIRO/Neiro token projects has temporarily come to an end, the development of the Neiro project continues.
According to Spot On Chain monitoring, an early buyer of SHIB exchanged 1,003 ETH ($2.31 million) for 2.86 billion Neiro on September 18.
It is worth mentioning that although this whale made $145 million from SHIB from 2021 to 2022, two of the recent three transactions (including NEIROETH and the second SHIB transaction) resulted in a loss of $13.48 million.
As of the time of writing, the NEIRO token price is stable at around $0.073, with a market value of approximately $73.7 million; the Neiro token price once approached $0.0009, but has now fallen to around $0.0008, with a market value of approximately $337 million.
Binance's shift: Multiple considerations, community focus, second half of the Meme coin race is coming
Finally, we will briefly analyze the event of the dispute between the uppercase and lowercase NEIRO/Neiro tokens, and from the perspective of the industry leader Binance's attitude and shift in operations, we can glimpse the future direction of the Meme coin race from the beginning of this year to the present. In some aspects, the second half of the Meme coin race may already be here.
Binance's shift: From "you can short" to "considering hotspots" to "acknowledging shortcomings"
In March of this year, with the approval of the Bitcoin spot ETF, the market sentiment was high, and the price of Bitcoin reached a new high, with the price of Ethereum approaching $4,000. In addition, the Solana Meme coin craze led by BOME completely ignited the entire market, and the market entered a phase of high liquidity and high trading activity, known as the "bull market sentiment phase."
Taking advantage of this opportunity, as a leading exchange with over 200 million users and a cryptocurrency trendsetter, Binance initiated a somewhat "crazy" wave of listings—listing over a dozen high market value projects in a short span of a few months. At that time, "high FDV, low circulation" "VC coins" also became the focus of market discussion.
In addition, at a time when the U.S. SEC was conducting a highly tense investigation into Binance, Binance ultimately reached a settlement of up to $4 billion with the SEC, and founder CZ eventually left the market temporarily with a 3-month imprisonment and a phased result of retiring to the front line of Binance management.
At that time, many people were very dissatisfied with Binance's "crazy market sucking" practices. In response to this, He Yi, the co-founder of Binance, bluntly stated, "For projects you don't like, you can short them," showing the dominance of the market leader and the ruthless style of market survival of the fittest.
He Yi's previous tweet
Fast forward to September, with the information about the Fed's interest rate cut still being kept under wraps, and the market showing signs of exhaustion after experiencing waves of volatility, He Yi, as one of the "decision-makers" at Binance, may have also realized the different impacts brought about by changes in the market environment. At the same time, he also pays more attention to "community feedback," and his statements are no longer as sharp and direct as before, but rather more like a heartfelt communication with community members.
Just in the past two days, He Yi spoke in a Telegram group, saying, "Binance doesn't intend to command the meme, the problem is that there are no hotspots right now. To summarize, there are roughly three types:
- Small games on Telegram, lots of rug pulls.
- Large-scale infrastructure projects and other token launches, all high-valuation VC coins.
- The market is left with memecoins with heat, and the previous contract indeed followed the trend and listed the big Neiro. The community feedback is that meme coins are becoming like tokens for market makers, so we spent some time looking for projects with relatively low market value and diversified holdings to try out.
- For other types of projects, we are also keeping an eye on them. If you think there are coins that you think are worth waiting for, feel free to recommend them.
But Binance is a trading platform and will provide a variety of tokens that the market needs as much as possible. However, investment carries risks, and we hope that everyone will DYOR as much as possible before buying and selling."
On the one hand, this statement indirectly explains the recent listing of TON ecosystem tokens such as DOGS, HAMSTER, and CATI; on the other hand, it also reveals Binance's goodwill and sincerity towards the community: considering hotspots while listening to community opinions and suggestions.
Furthermore, He Yi's latest post is extremely sincere and humble, stating, "Everything I have gained today is a product of the times, the rapid economic development brought about by globalization, the flat information brought about by the rise of the Internet, and the opportunities for the blockchain industry from scratch, not because I am exceptionally talented, but because in the early days of the industry, 'there were no heroes, so the sons became famous.' This means: 'I may not be right.'"
Second half of the Meme coin race is coming: Active trading, market attention, and sustained topicality are all essential
In addition, the dispute between the uppercase and lowercase NEIRO/Neiro tokens may also signify that after experiencing the Solana Meme coin craze led by BOME and the PVP Meme coin craze led by pump.fun, as well as the celebrity Meme coin craze led by MOTHER and DADDY, and the "new Shiba Inu Neiro" leading the Meme coin craze, the Meme coin race has entered the second half.
On the one hand, the "here today, gone tomorrow" wave of Meme coins will become fewer and fewer, and Meme coin projects are beginning to focus on "topicality," "breaking the circle," and short-term "wealth creation effects"; on the other hand, Meme coins are no longer as attractive to outsiders as they used to be. In the increasingly liquidity-constrained environment, the "ultimate destination" for Meme coin projects may enter the "To VC," "To Exchange" entrepreneurial stage.
Just as we mentioned in the previous article "Evolution of the Crypto Venture Capital Cycle (Part 1): Remaking a New World," the current Meme coins and future Meme coin projects may have to face the situation of "Meme coins are also VC coins."
The latest news shows that according to The Data Nerd's monitoring, Wintermute has accumulated NEIRO tokens worth approximately $3.4 million since September 10. As of now, the address holds a total of tokens worth approximately $4.55 million, accounting for about 6.2% of the total supply. (Note: Some people speculate that Wintermute may be a market maker for the NEIRO project, but this information has not been verified.)
After all, whether a successful Meme coin can stand out from the thousands of projects, in addition to its "original narrative," it also requires "powerful market makers," "a cohesive community," and "project teams or volunteers who advocate for it." In other words, a Meme coin without combat power has already lost from the beginning, lost badly, and lost completely.
This may also be an important reason for the gradual cooling of the Meme coin race, despite the emergence of one-click token issuance platforms on various ecosystems and platforms after experiencing high-intensity PVP.
Conclusion: Meme coins are moving away from the "grassroots development phase"
Finally, please allow me to make a temporary conclusion: the era when a few people could start a Meme coin project and eventually achieve a market value of tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars with the help of the market and the community may be difficult to reappear. Meme coins have moved away from the previous "grassroots development phase."
As we mentioned in our article "After the Meme Summit, the Base Meme Coin Ecosystem Officially Enters the Second Half" in June of this year, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Meme coins to succeed on their own in the Base ecosystem. The market performance of representative Meme projects in the Base ecosystem, such as DEGEN, and the "NFT artist's second entrepreneurial venture" MFERCOIN, which imitated the rise of BOME, also indirectly confirms our judgment.
Now, this viewpoint applies to the entire crypto industry—perhaps it is time for Meme coins to be joined by the "regular army."
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