In a dramatic turn of events, a speculative memecoin dubbed “4” exploded in value after Binance’s co‑founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) made a casual reference to it. One early participant reportedly deployed about $3,000 and watched that position balloon into nearly $2 million in mere hours. The story underscores how social media influence, razor‑thin liquidity, and reflexive trading behavior can conspire to generate outsized, but highly fragile, gains.
The saga began when the official BNB Chain X (formerly Twitter) account was hijacked and used to post phishing links. The ordeal triggered a meme tsunami: rumors circulated that the attacker had spirited away just about “$4,000,” and that number quickly became a running joke in the BNB Chain community. Shortly thereafter a token named 4 launched on the chain as a tongue‑in-cheek tribute to the meme.
CZ then made mention of the episode to his millions of followers, transforming a niche joke into a de facto trade signal for the memecoin. That amplification drew instant attention.
Scanners picked up the new contract address; bots and retail traders cascaded into the recently deployed liquidity pool. Because the pool was extremely shallow, each filled buy order ratcheted the next one higher, creating a feedback loop of rising price and urgency.
From meme to market frenzy
The wallet labeled “0x872” is now infamous: it is said to have staked around $3,000 in BNB into token 4 at the earliest stage.
As momentum built, its position swelled to nearly $2 million on paper. The wallet held onto over 98% of its tokens initially, exposing itself to massive downside if any meaningful sell order hit the fragile pool.
In hindsight, the episode is an object lesson in both opportunity and risk. With such thin liquidity, even modest sell pressure can reverse the entire move. The token “4” may have produced a jaw-dropping mark-to-market return in the short run, but profits remain theoretical unless one can exit without collapsing the market. This case also illustrates how perception and social cues—not fundamentals—can ignite sudden pumps in modern crypto markets.