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Binance founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has denied rumors that he was secretly supporting meme coins built on BNB Chain, explaining that the latest transactions from his public address were simply part of a routine technical cleanup.
The crypto community began speculating after on-chain researchers detected a series of large transfers. About a day ago, 400 million units of third-party tokens worth $1.6 million were sent from CZ's known wallet to a burn address (0x000...).
Theories about market manipulation quickly began circulating, but CZ promptly stated on X that he was simply getting rid of digital garbage. Because creators of third-party projects had been sending spam tokens to his address for years in an attempt to secure free publicity, the wallet interface had stopped displaying the balance correctly.
The $6 million echo of Shiba Inu (SHIB)
This mechanism is a classic marketing trick with deep roots, aimed exclusively at well-known public wallets belonging to industry leaders. It became widely known in 2021, when the creators of Shiba Inu (SHIB) sent half of the token's total supply to Vitalik Buterin without his consent in an attempt to artificially lend the project legitimacy through his famous name.
The Ethereum co-founder later burned 90% of the tokens and urged developers not to do this again. However, in CZ's case, the same story continues to repeat itself.
On-chain data from Arkham clearly shows that the Binance founder's wallet has been targeted with spam for years and that he regularly carries out similar cleanups. Around eight months ago, CZ destroyed batches of tokens worth $43,490, $142,500, and $305,870 in three separate transactions.
A year ago, the wallet underwent an even more aggressive cleanup. Four large transfers sent assets worth $358,220, $1.95 million, $546,900, and $1.1 million into a "black hole." In total, Zhao has manually destroyed more than $6.24 million worth of third-party spam tokens over the past year.
"Sending it to my address might as well send it straight into a black hole — it reduces one step of operation, making it more direct and effective," Zhao stressed.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
