Changpeng Zhao, former CEO of the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance, denied he would launch his own dog-themed memecoin on Thursday, ending online speculation that had started earlier in the week after he mentioned having a pet dog.
Following days of anticipation from fans, Zhao, commonly known as “CZ,” clarified that he just wanted to share a photo of his dog Broccoli and will not introduce a memecoin. “I am just posting my dog’s picture and name,” Zhao wrote on X on Thursday. “I am NOT issuing a meme coin myself.”
In the same post, he said that he will leave it up to the community to launch a memecoin for his dog, teasing that he would likely interact with the more popular ones that use Binance’s BNB blockchain.
Since yesterday, people have debuted dozens of memecoins in honor of Broccoli. The most popular one, $BROCCOLI, has attracted a $140 million market cap—and is trading at 14 cents—since launching 24 hours ago, according to crypto data platform CoinGecko.
Zhao sparked speculation about a dog-themed memecoin after responding to a post on Wednesday that asked if the former Binance CEO had a pet. “Yes, not a Shiba Inu, but a Belgian Malinois,” he wrote on X, referring to the Shiba Inu-themed crypto Dogecoin.
Chatter erupted across X among fans asking for Zhao to share a photo and reveal the name of the dog, seemingly in order to brand a memecoin. But they were forced to wait as Zhao delayed responding until Thursday, concerned about how the memecoin frenzy would play out. “How does this work? I share my dog’s name and picture, and then people create memecoins? How do you know which one is “official”? or does that even matter,” he wrote on X.
But memecoins emerged anyway as fans speculated on the dog’s name, sending tokens like $CLEO, $BROWNIE and $PERRY to multi-million dollar market caps on Binance’s BNB chain.
Zhao finally posted a photo of the dog and revealed its name on Thursday. “If you had asked me before last night, I would never have imagined that Broccoli would be part of the blockchain ecosystem. But here we are,” he wrote on X. “There is never a dull day in crypto.”
Since the launch of President Trump’s memecoin last month, celebrity memecoins have made a resurgence. Last week, rapper Kanye West was similarly forced to douse rumors about premiering his own memecoin, after expressing interest in crypto on X. And, Dave Portnoy, president of media company Barstool Sports, invested “100s of thousands” of dollars in a memecoin founded on his likeness.