Key Takeaways
- Coinbase has announced it will list BNB.
- The American exchange has long resisted listing the token created by rivals Binance.
- The listing follows a social media squabble that pitted team Binance against team Coinbase.
Coinbase has announced plans to list BNB, following days of simmering tensions that pitted Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) against prominent Coinbase allies.
The beef started on Tuesday, Oct. 14, when Limitless co-founder CJ Hetherington called Binance out for what he perceives as an unfair listing process.
Binance Listing Process in the Spotlight
In an X post on Tuesday, Hetherington exposed what he claimed were Binance’s requirements for a listing on its Alpha token launchpad, including various token commitments and a $2 million BNB “security deposit.”
He contrasted this with Coinbase, which he said only required him to “build something meaningful on Base.”
The post sparked widespread debate.
Binance supporters pointed out that many centralized exchanges ask for some form of payment when they list new tokens.
They also pointed out that a Binance listing is much more valuable to most crypto projects as the exchange significantly outguns Coinbase on trading volume.
Social Media Beef Escalates
Things escalated when Coinbase executive Jesse Pollak got involved. The head of Base shared Hetherington’s post with the caption “it should cost 0% to be listed on an exchange.”
By the next day, the social media spat had caught the attention of CZ, who accused Hetherington of posting doctored images to manipulate the narrative.
Without explicitly naming Hetherington or Pollak, the Binance founder issued a statement justifying the exchange’s listing process.
He said Binance asks for tokens to fund airdrops to users and insists on security deposits “to make scams and failed projects more expensive to pull of.”
“If you are a project complaining about listing airdrops […] Don’t pay it. If your project is strong, exchanges will race to list your coin,” CZ argued.
Coinbase Lifts BNB Embargo
Amid tensions between the two camps, Coinbase’s announcement that it will list BNB looks like a peace offering.
For years, the exchange resisted listing the token, which was created by Binance in 2017.
But as BNB rose up the ranks to become the third largest market cap cryptocurrency, its absence on Coinbase became conspicuous.
Responding to the news, CZ suggested Coinbase might previously have blocked BNB for competitive reasons, but he doesn’t seem to hold a grudge. “It’s just business,” he said.
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James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
