What is BAN
The past and present of BAN
The birth of BAN stems from a cross-border experiment between art and cryptocurrency. In October 2024, Michael Bouhanna, vice president of Sotheby's, publicly announced his banana artwork (Comedian) (created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan) in the auction on his personal social media, and the community accidentally discovered that his personal wallet address had issued the meme coin BAN with the same name.
Artistic Narrative: BAN uses the absurd artistic image of "bananas on the wall" as its core, attempting to satirize the crypto market's craze for Meme culture. After its white paper was leaked, it was quickly interpreted as a symbol of "art capital on the chain."
Early controversy: Bouhanna initially denied any connection with BAN, but on-chain data shows he profited over $1 million through internal wallets, leading to a 90% market cap drop for BAN. Ultimately, he admitted the project was a personal interest experiment but emphasized it was unrelated to Sotheby's.
How BAN entered the public eye
Explosive period: Celebrity effect and capital manipulation
The popularity of BAN peaked under the influence of Sun Yuchen (Justin Sun) and Elon Musk:
1. Sun Yuchen's 'art investment':
In November 2024, Sun Yuchen purchased the original work (Comedian) for $6.2 million, claiming it connects 'art, memes, and the crypto community', directly pushing BAN's market cap to briefly exceed $230 million.
On-chain data shows that Sun Yuchen allegedly collaborated with market maker GSR Markets to manipulate the market: attracting retail investors with high-leverage contracts while selling spot to profit, causing severe price fluctuations for BAN.
2. Elon Musk's 'Banana Starship':
- Elon Musk retweeted a photo of SpaceX's Starship and a banana ornament with a 'laugh-cry' emoji, triggering a second round of speculation on BAN, with a short-term increase of 20%.
Market performance of BAN
Market performance: High returns coexist with high risks.
The price trend of BAN exhibits typical characteristics of Meme coins:
Wealth myth: Some investors made a profit of $873,000 from just $1,795 (a return rate of 490 times), but some traders suffered losses exceeding 90% due to high leverage liquidation.
Severe fluctuations: From November 2024 to February 2025, BAN experienced multiple daily swings of 50%-70%, especially after Sun Yuchen was exposed for 'double dipping', causing the price to plummet 70% from its peak, and today it created a 200% volatility.
Market cap scale: At its peak, the circulating market cap reached $230 million, but it lacks practical application support and has long-term fallen below $170 million.
Controversy surrounding BAN
Controversy: Sun Yuchen's trading strategy
The extreme fluctuations of BAN are closely related to Sun Yuchen's trading strategies:
1. Accumulation - Pump - Shorting:
- Sun Yuchen's team, after accumulating at low prices, raised the price through celebrity effects, attracting contract trading liquidity while simultaneously opening short positions and selling spot, completing a 'double kill'.
2. Community control:
- Utilizing high negative fee rates to entice retail investors to go long, and then concentrating on dumping to harvest leveraged positions, forming a 'monkey market' (extreme volatility).
3. Art narrative bubble:
Despite claiming 'art empowerment', BAN lacks practical application scenarios and relies on short-term trends to maintain its popularity.
Investment opportunities
Future outlook: Speculative tool or cultural symbol?
The survival logic of BAN still depends on community consensus and capital games:
Opportunities:
As the first token of the 'art + meme' concept, it may attract traffic from the Web2 art community into the crypto space.
The low-cost trading characteristics of the Tron ecosystem (TRC-20 protocol) provide a liquidity foundation for it.
Risks:
Over-reliance on Sun Yuchen's personal influence raises doubts about 'decentralization'.
Global regulatory scrutiny on meme coins is tightening, which may limit their development space.