Changpeng Zhao said BNB Chain did not follow Solana into the early “PUMP” memecoin wave for one main reason: timing under regulatory pressure. In a podcast conversation with ThreadGuy, CZ framed the split as more than a product decision. He said it came down to the legal climate, the risks Binance was already carrying, and the different positions each chain occupied at the time.
Binance could not absorb another flashpoint
CZ said a PUMP-style platform on BNB Chain during the memecoin boom would likely have drawn heavy scrutiny. Binance was already dealing with lawsuits and pressure from the U.S. SEC, which made the idea far harder to justify. His comment was blunt: “If we had something like that, I’d be in deep trouble.”
That remark captures the trade-off Binance faced. Utility tokens were already under close watch, and adding a highly speculative memecoin machine on top of that would have increased legal exposure at a sensitive moment.
Solana’s memecoin surge arrived in a different window
CZ pointed to Solana’s rebound after the collapse of FTX. Solana had been hit hard because of its ties to FTX, then mounted what he described as a strong comeback. In that phase, the U.S. regulatory environment was putting pressure on utility tokens and raising securities questions around them.
Memecoins took a different route. Because they openly claimed to have no utility and no intrinsic value, they avoided some of the pressure attached to utility-based token narratives. That created room for platforms like PUMP to gain traction as traders leaned into faster, riskier activity.
BNB Chain kept its focus on utility and liquidity
While Solana drew attention through memecoin trading, BNB Chain stayed centered on utility and liquidity. The source notes that the BNB ecosystem includes BNB Smart Chain and Layer 2 solutions, with smart contracts and broader use cases remaining the priority. That strategy did not produce the same early memecoin spikes, but it also helped BNB avoid extra regulatory heat during a fragile period.
Memecoin activity is now picking up on BNB Chain
CZ also noted that BNB Chain has recently seen more memecoin activity and even briefly moved ahead of Solana in certain areas. Some tokens reached high valuations and pulled users from other ecosystems. Even so, user behavior still looks different across the two chains.
According to the report, BNB users tend to hold positions longer, while Solana remains more trading-heavy. CZ made clear he does not see this as a simple head-to-head fight. Each blockchain moved according to its own constraints, and both networks are now active through different strategies.