Fake CZ surfing rumor fuels meme-coin surge on Solana, BNB

A fabricated WeChat post on Sunday claimed Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was swept out to sea near Jumeirah beach in Dubai. The message described a sudden rip current and a large rescue operation involving speedboats, drones and helicopters. Within hours, traders created low‑cap meme tokens using tickers such as SEAZ and RIPCZ on Solana and the BNB Chain.

Onchain market data showed several SEAZ pools on Solana trading at fractions of a cent, with market capitalizations commonly between about $2,400 and $4,600 and liquidity under $6,000. A BNB Chain SEAZ token traded near an $8,300 market cap on roughly $9,500 of liquidity. One Solana SEAZ pool printed about $114,000 in trading volume on only roughly $5,683 of liquidity, reflecting very thin order books. Many of the newly minted tokens fell between 10% and 40% within hours of launch.

Traders used quick minting sites and decentralized exchanges to list pools on Solana and on PancakeSwap V2 for BNB Chain. Some pools appeared and began trading within hours of the WeChat post’s circulation in Chinese‑language groups.

Changpeng Zhao denied the report on social media, writing that he kite surfs rather than traditional surfing and that Dubai is not a surfing destination. He added, “I don’t surf (kite surfing is a diff sport),” and invited followers to try Surf Abu Dhabi. He has previously criticized traders who chase tokens tied to his name.

The quick creation and trading of these meme tokens followed the social post. Low liquidity pools produced large volume figures relative to available capital and coincided with abrupt price swings for the tokens involved.