Article source: BlockBeats
Author: Kaori
Binance Alpha has already formed a value consensus among project parties, profit-seekers, and retail investors across multiple layers. Project parties 'supply' to Alpha, profit-seekers conduct KYC in bulk to embark on a new round of profit-seeking endeavors, while retail investors navigate through points restrictions, lucky tail numbers, and trading wear and tear to profit.
From the very beginning, launching on Alpha has been the best exit window for meme tokens. From the earliest rounds of 'violent money distribution' in Alpha 2.0 to the introduction of the points system to filter users and token issuers queuing to launch on Alpha, Binance has gradually regained flow and pricing power in the on-chain market. Behind all this is Binance's ambition to reorganize the ecosystem through liquidity voice after being outpaced by OKX on the product side.
150 days have passed, and Binance Alpha has evolved from a wallet function into the most authoritative structural mechanism in the entire crypto market.
What has Alpha accomplished in five months?
In 2024, the crypto market welcomed a bull market under the dual stimuli of the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs and the meme frenzy. However, beneath the surface of liquidity recovery lies a deeper issue: the pricing mechanism between the primary and secondary markets gradually faltering. VC project valuations are inflated, the token issuance cycles are prolonged, and user participation thresholds are continuously raised, while the ultimate listing window often becomes the endpoint for project parties and early investors to cash out, leaving retail investors with only a mess.
It was against this backdrop that Binance launched Binance Alpha on December 17, 2024. Initially, it was just an experimental feature in the Binance Web3 wallet for discovering quality projects, but it quickly evolved into a core tool for Binance to reconstruct pricing power in the on-chain market.
Binance co-founder He Yi acknowledged in a Space responding to community disputes that there is a "peak immediately upon opening" issue with Binance listings and candidly admitted that the traditional listing mechanism has become difficult to sustain under current scale and regulatory constraints. Binance has previously attempted mechanisms like voting for listings and Dutch auctions to constrain the price performance of new tokens after listing, but the effects have consistently fallen short.
Thus, listing on Alpha became a strategically alternative solution within Binance's controllable range during that phase.
"Putting these hot projects in the market into Binance Alpha does not guarantee that projects entering the observation zone will be listed on Binance. A project can only generate income and profit when it is beneficial to society and may share the profits with users." He Yi made such a promise in Space.
On December 18, Binance Alpha announced the first batch of project lists. By February 13, Binance Alpha had launched more than 80 tokens across ecosystems like BSC, Solana, and Base, primarily focusing on meme and AI tokens. However, the market did not react as Binance anticipated, reducing the backlash against VC tokens that dropped immediately upon listing. Instead, launching Alpha became the last stop for meme tokens' expectations.
Not until early February 2025 did the BSC ecosystem start from the test currency TST, thereby opening the channel between Alpha and traffic. It was also from that time that Alpha began listing non-meme tokens such as ONDO, MORPHO, AERO, etc.
In March, due to the shutdown of OKX DEX, the Binance wallet launched Binance Alpha 2.0, allowing users to directly use funds within the platform for Alpha token trading. As a result, the trading volume and active users of the Binance wallet surged, capturing 80% of the trading volume in the crypto wallet sector, becoming the steepest segment of the wallet product growth curve.
At the same time, the screening criteria for Alpha users by Binance are also evolving. The initial 'task-based points system' is no longer sufficient to form effective differentiation, and the platform quickly introduced mechanisms such as lucky tail numbers and points consumption to stimulate more frequent interactions. This mechanism balances the continuity and differentiation of user participation while providing project parties with relatively precise target groups for airdrops.
Project parties no longer hesitate.
Since the launch of the Alpha mechanism, the choices for project parties have already changed.
Faced with the high uncertainty of main site listing windows, the cashing pressure from on-chain communities, and the inverted valuations on VC balance sheets, more and more teams are beginning to realize: to gain market attention and liquidity support, relying solely on storytelling, maintaining communities, or waiting for traditional listing processes may be far from sufficient.
Rather than continue to waste time on paths with unpredictable outcomes, it is better to actively adapt to the new paradigm brought by Alpha. In the Alpha system, token flows, airdrop amounts, and trading activity can all be directly reflected as observable data on the platform. And this data may very well be the precondition for officially launching on Binance, with the added benefit of gaining market attention and almost no negative impact.
For this reason, project parties began to rapidly adjust their strategies, no longer hesitating about whether to launch or when to launch, but instead tailoring a "low-cost listing on Binance" execution model specifically for the Alpha mechanism.
Betraying the community has become the norm.
Currently, Binance Alpha has two options for listing tokens: either existing circulating projects or new projects that have not yet circulated, with various detailed indicators to measure these two main lines. This makes Alpha an entry point with clear rules and standards.
At the execution level, the rhythm from Binance Alpha to the main site's spot is extremely restrained, with the number of spots in the past five months far below the pace of Binance's previous spot listings. This limited scarcity design has built a typical Web2-style growth flywheel—spending money to gain traffic, setting thresholds to filter users, continuously optimizing internal rules, ultimately achieving user retention and structural reinforcement of the ecosystem.
To enter this system, project parties usually need to make significant adjustments, including but not limited to deploying or mapping tokens to BSC, redesigning incentive structures, and sacrificing part of the originally planned airdrop amounts for the community. To some extent, Alpha is not just a wallet product; it resembles a lightweight, centralized on-chain token issuance protocol that integrates Binance's data-driven token selection and risk hedging needs.
After the Zora of the Base ecosystem announced its launch on Binance Alpha, someone in the profit-seeking group said, "Don't get your hopes up too high; it might take years of grinding to match what others get from just playing with Alpha." Unexpectedly, this became prophetic. Eligible Binance Alpha users received 4,276 ZORA tokens worth nearly $90. However, many users in the community who had been following and participating in Zora's ecosystem activities since its launch reported that they only received $30 in airdrops, with some even receiving single-digit tokens.
Screenshots of airdrop earnings shared by users of the Zora ecosystem in the community; image source: @zkgoudan
Such situations of bypassing the original community to directly serve Alpha users are not uncommon among projects that have already launched on Alpha.
Taking PRAI as an example, according to feedback from users who participated in its KOL round, "Getting in during the VC and KOL rounds means a loss." On the one hand, the project adopts a token lock-up policy for community users, restricting token circulation; on the other hand, Alpha users do not need to bear the costs of early participation or capital lock-up, and can obtain token airdrops worth nearly $100 merely based on wallet points and interaction records. This obvious incentive disparity breaks the project's original "internal fairness in the ecosystem."
A user who participated in the Sui ecosystem lending protocol Haedal told BlockBeats that the airdrop amounts from Haedal varied greatly, almost ignoring the participation costs of early depositors and leaving significant returns only for Alpha users.
Before the MilkyWay on the Osmosis Celestia liquid staking derivative protocol launched Alpha, community users not only bore the drop in TIA but also received very little share allocated to early users by the project party. They not only had to lock their tokens but also had to complete tasks to unlock them. Those who only held NFTs but did not bind to the points system were not eligible for airdrops, and the window period was very short, with returns far lower than Alpha users.
This practice of deviating from the project's original support group and reallocating resources to Alpha users, although sparking widespread discussion, is a realistic choice for most project parties: under limited resources, prioritizing investment in paths that can bring secondary liquidity and platform exposure is a strategy for maximizing efficiency.
After launching Alpha
The core indicator for listing on Binance Alpha is how many chips can be provided, which aligns with the idea of "embracing the Binance ecosystem and the BNB chain."
According to statistics from crypto KOL AB Kuai.Dong, Puffer launched Alpha seven months after its token issuance. Based on on-chain data, the project allocated approximately 3.16% of its tokens to the BNB chain, with 1.24% directly funneled into the Alpha user airdrop pool, while injecting nearly 500,000 USDC into PancakeSwap for liquidity. Overall, it is estimated that Puffer paid nearly $3 million for this Alpha airdrop.
As AB said, "The cost is not small, but the benefits are also obvious." Through the Alpha function entry, one can directly gain access to Binance CEX trading channels, completing liquidity preheating and market recognition before obtaining futures or main site listings.
A similar path can be seen in the star project Polyhedra in the ZK track, whose token ZKJ entered Alpha without being listed on the main Binance site, becoming the first top 100 market cap token to be included in this mechanism. To support the token price, the project party successively launched staking rewards as high as 150% and points competitions to attract users to increase trading activity and accumulate wallet engagement. Strategically, the project party may want to leverage Alpha's internal indicators to build influence and ultimately push for a Binance listing decision.
ZKJ has recently consistently topped the Alpha trading volume charts; image source: Panda Jackson (@pandajackson42)
This closed loop of on-chain behavior - points rewards - and platform inclusion has restructured the game between Binance and project parties: in the past, 'market capitalization + community' determined whether a project could be listed, but now it is 'on-chain data + Alpha performance' that dominates the listing rhythm.
The strategies for new projects are even more aggressive. After Stakestone launched on Binance Alpha in mid-April, it adopted an extremely proactive market approach, first distributing 5% of tokens through wallet IDO, then airdropping 1.5% to Alpha users and additionally releasing nearly 4% incentives to long-term community users, cumulatively distributing more than 10% of the total amount.
At the same time, project parties directly invest part of the financing funds into the secondary market, guiding the token price to maintain stability during the initial public circulation phase. This series of operations ultimately led to the opening channel for listing on the Binance main site. As industry insiders familiar with the process have said, "After the listing standards changed at Binance, projects no longer need to tell stories but need to showcase data and control."
Retail Psychology
Compared to the project party's meticulous calculations and well-planned strategies, the role of retail investors appears complex and ambiguous.
In traditional new issuance logic, retail investors could rely on information sensitivity and capital agility to seize primary arbitrage opportunities. However, under the points system built by Alpha, the profit paths for retail investors have become institutionalized and transparent, while also becoming highly competitive. What Alpha activates is not the imagination of token price growth, but rather the set of on-chain conversion mechanisms of "Points - Airdrop - Listing Jump Board."
For some users, this mechanism has indeed redefined the concept of fairness. Small to medium users who have long kept their funds in wallets can still have opportunities to gain returns far exceeding costs if they remain active. Since the introduction of the points system in Alpha, statistics from BlockBeats indicate that if ordinary users participate in every Alpha airdrop and wallet new issuance activity, they could gain nearly $1,700 in returns.
However, the high returns come with a highly structured screening system. This seemingly participatory points game actually sets implicit thresholds and imposes substantial requirements on users' behavioral paths, trading frequency, and even participation continuity.
Binance itself does not directly distribute airdrops but provides infrastructure for points distribution, data filtering, and user classification. Airdrops are borne by the project parties, but who receives them and based on what criteria is determined by the mechanisms of Binance Alpha. The core of this institutional design is not "rewards," but rather "screening." Those who can be recognized as "high-value users" will be able to continuously receive airdrops.
Doubts have arisen, with some users pointing out that the trading volume on Alpha deviates from actual user demand, stating, "Without points and airdrops, there is no trading," leading to inflated project data and superficial user retention. "What’s the difference between this incentive method and the ghost chains or pseudo-game airdrops that no one uses after the TGE?"
According to statistics from crypto KOL Guhe, only 22% of users in the sample were able to earn enough points for airdrops through normal trading every day, while the rest needed to repeatedly trade or could not keep up with the points rhythm and gave up participation.
However, it cannot be denied that in the current context of overall market liquidity scarcity and a lack of sustained attention mechanisms for projects, Alpha remains one of the few channels where doing something could yield returns. Under the premise of returns and certainty coexisting, this mechanism still possesses a strong appeal. Within this system, the participation logic of retail investors shifts from value judgment to mechanism gaming, where their returns no longer depend on judgments about the project's future but rather on their understanding of and execution within the Alpha mechanism.
Who are the true beneficiaries of Alpha?
Although retail investors and project parties each have their own games within the Alpha mechanism, returning to the overall framework, what Alpha truly reshapes is the underlying relationship between trading platforms and assets.
In terms of product experience and tool ecology, Binance does not have significant advantages compared to platforms like OKX, but the liquidity entry mechanism built through Alpha still allows it to maintain a strong voice during the asset launch phase.
Even if a project’s initial launch is not on Binance, the traffic filtering and points pathway provided by Alpha can allow many new tokens to complete a round of market preheating and pricing anchoring before they connect to the main site's trading pairs. It changes the starting point for token issuance and extends Binance's influence on the assets side.
Yesterday's launch of the chain game NXPC on Alpha is a good example. After the on-chain liquidity pool opened, the Alpha airdrop was soon distributed to points users, while Binance contracts and spot trading lagged behind by nearly half an hour and several hours, respectively, and there was also a certain price difference on other trading platforms like Bybit and Upbit. The trading windows at different rhythms determined the profits for funds at various stages and reinforced Alpha's pre-launch role in liquidity.
In the past, a project listing on Binance meant that it had completed primary pricing and reached its final destination. Now, Alpha is the starting point for project listings and the source of pricing, moving the cold-start domain that originally belonged to other trading platforms like OKX and Bybit back into the Binance ecosystem. Once a project starts to rise, there is justification for connecting to Binance contracts and spot trading, and the project is naturally willing to 'supply' shares according to the rules, offering token shares and capital injection in exchange for platform exposure and liquidity preconditions, creating a closed loop of traffic feeding back to the platform.
This also means that Binance no longer has to bear the past burden of public opinion that "listing means peak." CZ once expressed the hope of eliminating the premium effects brought by Binance listings and allowing the market to return to fundamentals. Alpha is essentially his fulfillment of this statement, no longer directly treating "being listed on Binance" as authoritative, but establishing a new liquidity screening mechanism through Alpha, leveling the starting line among projects, and then deciding who can continue to move forward based on on-chain data.
Currently, this path seems to be successful. Alpha has evolved from merely being a feature in the Binance wallet into a structurally influential mechanism in the entire crypto market. Its success does not lie in whether the product experience is extreme, but in its ability to pull Binance's primary asset organizational capacity from behind the scenes to on-chain, publicly, and quantitatively.
Compared to OKX's product refinement route in the wallet field, Binance chooses to exchange points for traffic and airdrops for attention. Winson, the head of Binance's wallet business, has publicly stated that Binance's wallet will not replicate any competing product models, but will instead choose differentiated development, saying, "The market does not need two identical wallets." He believes that rather than redoing the product, it is better to reconstruct the scene.
Faced with industry ailments like airdrop manipulation and distorted trading data, Binance does not attempt to eliminate these behaviors but instead builds a mechanism that allows projects to first prove their attractiveness before observing whether a stable user base and real trading depth can be formed. The boundary between manipulation and real behavior is deferred in the Alpha points system and quantified.
However, from another perspective, many still believe that Binance Alpha has merely succeeded in attracting profit-seekers without genuinely drawing real trading volume. Users still do not consider the Binance wallet as their first choice when opting for on-chain behavior.
The past cycle was in some ways 'to VC,' relying on storytelling to raise funds; now it is 'to liquidity,' and Alpha is the anchor point for Binance to regain control of liquidity. In an era where VCs are no longer reliable, communities have already dissipated, and product competition has fallen into homogenization, Binance Alpha may not be the optimal solution for innovation, but it is the most effective way to absorb the bubbles.
