History Repeats: Landmines during the OKX period, with a second explosion on Binance Alpha.
On June 15, 2025, ZKJ experienced a single-day crash of 83.7% on Binance Alpha, with a market capitalization evaporating by over $1.76 billion, and nearly 10,000 investors losing their principal. This is not the first time ZKJ has harvested.
Black History During the OKX Period: In 2023, this token was originally named ZK, operated by a domestic team. After going online on OKX, it was pumped to $3 through false liquidity, then the team sold over 60% of their holdings, leading to a 90% price drop, marked by the community as 'classic shitcoin.'
Shell Rebirth: In 2024, it was renamed ZKJ to ride the Ethereum ZK concept boom, claiming to be a 'Layer2 scaling solution,' while the actual codebase had not been substantially updated in nearly a year, with only 13 commits on GitHub (as shown in the June 2025 audit report).
Precision Strike of Binance Alpha: After launching on Binance Alpha in May, the ZKJ/KOGE trading wash trading volume accounted for 60% of the platform, attracting over $20 million in liquidity, essentially a 'high-APY bait pool' colluded by the project party and market makers.
Personal Bold Assertion: ZKJ is essentially a third harvest by the same group of operators, from OKX to Binance Alpha, with the scythe always aimed at liquidity miners who 'want to save a little.'
Crash Insider: Textbook-level sell-offs by three major addresses.
On-chain Data Restoration of the Harvesting Chain:
Address A (0x1A2...): Withdrawed 3.76 million KOGE + 532,000 ZKJ liquidity at 20:28 → Exchanged 3.796 million KOGE for ZKJ → Sold 1.573 million ZKJ for 3.05 million USDT, triggering the first round of ladder decline.
Address B (0x078...): Withdrawed 2.07 million KOGE + 1.38 million ZKJ liquidity at 20:30 → Concentrated selling of 1 million ZKJ broke the support level, causing KOGE's price to crash.
Address C (0x6aD...): After receiving the transferred 772,000 ZKJ from Address B, sold out, completely undermining market confidence.
Core Logic:
Contract Arbitrage: ZKJ opened perpetual contracts on all platforms like Bybit, with shorting fees as high as 0.3% per hour, simultaneously shorting spot to achieve 'spot loss + contract profit' arbitrage.
Liquidity Trap: LP set a very narrow price range of 0.1% to boost APY, and a selling pressure of $3.76 million could break the pool, triggering a death spiral.
Time Window: Choose the period of declining trading volume on Binance Alpha (15% drop in trading volume in the three days prior to the event) to act, maximizing the panic transmission efficiency.
Platform Mechanism Vulnerability: Points wash trading becomes an accomplice.
The Three Original Sins of Binance Alpha Catalyzing Disaster:
False Prosperity: Token wash trading counted towards points, with ZKJ/KOGE's daily wash trading volume exceeding $1.2 billion, while the real liquidity was less than $20 million.
APY Scam: Claiming LP annualized returns of over 1000%, while the actual wear and tear costs (0.01% fee) mask the risk of impermanent loss, with over 80% of LPs ultimately losing money.
Regulatory Gap: The project party's treasury address 0x8f3...a1B2 transferred 12 million USDT to Coinbase three days before the crash, and Binance's risk control system did not trigger an alarm.
Blood and Tears Lessons:
Beware of the 'Stablecoin Illusion': Before the crash, ZKJ's market capitalization stabilized at $2 billion, but 90% was wash trading funds, with only $230 million in real circulation.
Stay Away from High FDV Projects: ZKJ's fully diluted valuation (FDV) reached $2 billion, with a circulation ratio of 11.5%, making the bubble prone to bursting.
Understand the Team's Implicit Message: The KOGE team posted 'no commitment to lock-up' 48 hours before the crash, which was essentially a warning of running away.
Survival Guide: How to avoid the next ZKJ?
On-chain Monitoring: Track the project party's treasury address with Etherscan. If there is a large transfer of stablecoins (e.g., over 5 million USDT in a single day), withdraw immediately.
Mechanism Disassembly: Check the LP pool price range. If it is narrower than 1% and the TVL exceeds 10 million USDT, it is likely a 'time bomb.'
Platform Selection: Prioritize participating in liquidity pools driven by real demand such as Uniswap V3 and Curve, and stay away from incentive-based trading platforms.
Data Hedging: Compare data from CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap. If the trading volume discrepancy exceeds 30%, it is deemed to be false trading volume.
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