VECStake Live - 99.9% of Memecoins Will Go to Zero, Binance Co-CEO Warns

 April 20, 2026 | VECS News

Binance Co-CEO He Yi delivered a blunt and sobering assessment of the memecoin market during a BNB Chain community event in Hong Kong, stating that 99.9% of memecoins will eventually go to zero. Her remarks directly addressed the growing speculative frenzy surrounding meme-based tokens on the BNB Chain, warning investors not to assume that any project launched on the chain automatically guarantees returns . He Yi emphasized that Binance's mission is to protect users, but that protection does not extend to guaranteeing profitability for every investment made on the BNB Chain .

The Binance executive specifically addressed a troubling trend she observed among retail investors who obsessively analyze her social media posts and those of "Big Brother" searching for hidden signals about which memecoins might get listed on Binance. He Yi dismissed this practice as self-deception, stating that she is not a narcissistic person who posts daily to create hype . She clarified that certain coins gain popularity on Binance Alpha not because she tweeted about them, but because they already possessed inherent community interest, creating what she described as a "false cycle" of misplaced attribution .

He Yi's warning reflects a broader industry recognition that memecoin speculation has reached unsustainable levels. The market has seen explosive growth in token creation, with platforms like Pump.fun enabling anyone to create a token in 60 seconds at virtually no cost. Data reveals that a staggering 98.6% of projects launched on Pump.fun are rug pulls or scams, yet the platform still generated $935.6 million in revenue while users reportedly lost between $4 billion and $5.5 billion . The platform now faces a $500 million lawsuit alleging that insiders operated a system enabling privileged participants to front-run new tokens and artificially inflate values through the bonding curves designed to create fairness .

The statistical reality of memecoin failure rates is even more brutal than most investors realize. Industry analyst Zeneca, citing multiple data sources, notes that while CoinMarketCap tracks over 37 million cross-chain tokens and Dune Analytics tracks approximately 74.5 million, more than 99.99% of all tokens have effectively failed . Of the 74.5 million tokens tracked by Dune, only about 500 have a market capitalization exceeding $10 million, representing a mere 0.0007% success rate. This means the crypto market is not a winner-takes-all market but rather a market where almost everyone fails, with only a few exceptions surviving .

The fundamental reason for this explosion in token numbers is simple: issuance costs have been compressed to near zero. In September 2025 alone, over 650,000 tokens were created on Pump.fun, yet only 0.63% successfully "graduated" to achieve meaningful market capitalization . The platform alone contributed over 80% of token issuance on Solana by mid-2025, with Solana itself accounting for over 60% of total token creation industry-wide. This flood of supply has dramatically outpaced demand, with capital becoming increasingly concentrated in a handful of established assets rather than flowing broadly across new projects .

For cryptocurrency investors, He Yi's warning carries profound implications for portfolio strategy and risk management. The power-law distribution of crypto markets means that token creation does not equal value creation. Bitcoin alone accounts for approximately 56% of total market capitalization, while Ethereum and stablecoins together reach 79%. The top ten assets account for about 90% of total market value, leaving the remaining tens of millions of tokens to share less than 10% of available liquidity . This structural reality suggests that investors who chase memecoin speculation are effectively competing for a tiny sliver of market liquidity while bearing the vast majority of downside risk.

The concentration of value extends beyond simple market cap statistics. Among TGE (Token Generation Event) projects launched in 2025, 84.7% are currently priced below their initial valuation, with a median decline of 71% . Even the most well-resourced VC-backed projects generally experience significant declines after high-FDV (Fully Diluted Valuation) issuances, with over 85% of buyers incurring losses. Airdropped tokens are often sold off within hours of distribution, creator tokens and AI Agent narrative tokens have generally fallen over 80% from their peaks, and GameFi projects have gone from billion-dollar valuations to zero with alarming regularity .

The BNB Chain itself has not been immune to these dynamics, with numerous projects suffering catastrophic failures. In a recent example, the Watch-2-Earn project MetFX on BNB Chain suffered an apparent rug pull when the deployer converted 10,000 MFX tokens to approximately 402 BNB (worth about $131,000), causing the MFX price to crash by 97% . This pattern of exploitation has become distressingly common, yet new investors continue to pour money into similar projects, often driven by fear of missing out and the mistaken belief that association with Binance or its executives provides any form of implicit guarantee.

Global Expert Reactions

He Yi, Co-CEO of Binance: "99.9% of memecoins will go to zero. Most projects will fail, and investors must be clear about what they are doing and not be misled by others. You cannot assume that any memecoin derived from 'He Yi's words' will definitely be listed on Binance; otherwise, it would go against the principle of 'protecting users,' and this understanding is misguided" .

Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, Co-Founder of Binance: In a separate January 2026 warning, CZ affirmed that he is not anti-memecoin but that people are "guaranteed to lose money" if they "ape" into every coin created based on his random tweets. CZ noted that his February 2025 photo of his dog Broccoli triggered a flood of namesake tokens, with one of them, named CZ's Dog (BROCCOLI), plunging over 85% since launch .

Chris Solarz, Chief Investment Officer at Amitis Capital (formerly managing $8B AUM at Cliffwater): Solarz estimates that 99.99% of the approximately 40 million tokens in existence will go to zero, with fewer than 100 tokens worth serious consideration. He warns that top tokens face massive unlocking and selling walls, with the crypto market needing new capital simply to maintain current prices. Solarz describes this as a "sword hanging over the market's head" .

Zeneca, Crypto Industry Analyst: "The crypto market is not a winner-takes-all market, but rather a market where almost everyone fails, with only a few surviving. Token creation does not equal value creation; the real filter is liquidity, not existence. More tokens do not mean more opportunities, but rather more noise and a lower win rate" .

Motley Fool Analyst Dominic Basulto: In a January 2026 prediction, Basulto argued that Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are "fundamentally worthless" with "beyond atrocious" metrics. He noted that Dogecoin was trading at an 82% discount to its all-time high from May 2021, stating that "if Elon Musk can't save Dogecoin, nobody can." Basulto predicts these meme coins could plunge 50% or more in 2026 .

Dominic Basulto, Contributing Crypto Analyst at The Motley Fool: "Don't believe the hype when it comes to meme coins. They're fundamentally worthless, and their massive market caps are really just a result of their very high circulating coin supplies. I'd rather own just about any cryptocurrency than Dogecoin or Shiba Inu" .

For cryptocurrency investors navigating this treacherous landscape, the message from industry leaders is remarkably consistent. The era of blind memecoin speculation is ending, replaced by a market that increasingly rewards fundamental value, sustainable tokenomics, and genuine utility. As He Yi concluded in Hong Kong, investors must stop deceiving themselves and recognize that the overwhelming statistical probability is that any given memecoin will go to zero. The handful that survive may generate spectacular returns, but these are the exceptions that prove the rule, not the foundation for a sound investment strategy. The wise approach, as CZ suggested, may be to focus on building and supporting the underlying blockchain ecosystem rather than chasing the latest social media-fueled token frenzy .