Original｜Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
After a night passed, many Binance Alpha players found that "the sky has fallen"—the two major tokens used for Alpha points interaction, KOGE and ZKJ, experienced a flash crash. As of the time of writing, the price of ZKJ is reported at $0.32, with a 24-hour decline of 83.7%; previously, its highest price in 24 hours reached $1.98, and the lowest price once fell to $0.25. The price of KOGE is reported at $27.75, with a 24-hour decline of 55.78%; previously, its highest price in 24 hours reached $62.81, and the lowest price once fell to $8.48.
In the latest news, Binance officially announced that it has "noticed significant price fluctuations in ZKJ and KOGE recently. Preliminary investigations show that this is mainly due to large holders withdrawing on-chain liquidity and market chain liquidations. Starting from June 17, 2025, 00:00 (UTC), the calculation rules for Alpha points will be adjusted, and the trading volume between Alpha tokens will no longer be included in the points calculation."
The increasingly intense and dramatic "Binance Alpha exam" has finally reached a turning point due to the price flash crash of the ZKJ/KOGE trading pair. Odaily Planet Daily will sort out this event in this article and explore the pros and cons of the Binance Alpha mechanism and its possible future directions.
A three-week "Alpha Hunt": using KOGE and ZKJ as nets, with Alpha points as bait
On May 24, as the BTC market gradually rose, the market's enthusiasm for Binance Alpha's point interaction also surged, with its trading volume once soaring to $1.69 billion, among which ZKJ's trading volume was $1.05 billion, KOGE's trading volume was $251 million, and B2's trading volume was $205.9 million, ranking among the top.
Due to the low trading friction costs of ZKJ and KOGE tokens and sufficient liquidity, large transactions of tens of thousands of dollars could participate in Binance Alpha interactions. After effective testing by market traders, the two major tokens became the best choices for "Alpha candidates," with KOGE's single transaction friction controllable at around $0.5 for nearly $10,000. Many users in the community reported that KOGE might be a model of "one fish, multiple eats" for large holders in the BSC ecosystem.
Originally, this was a "win-win" game: Binance Alpha gained users and transaction fees; BSC node large holders earned transaction fees; Binance Alpha users earned Alpha points; and project parties like KOGE and ZKJ received LP fees and other returns.
However, once the balance of interests began to tilt, the seemingly balanced situation would instantly collapse, and the hard-won "harvest phase" would turn into a "net collection action."
On June 14, ZKJ and KOGE tokens experienced the "first downward test" before the storm—according to on-chain analyst AI Yi's monitoring, the usually stable ZKJ and KOGE saw a brief drop of 3% between 21:20 and 22:05 that night, suspected to be caused by address 0x364 withdrawing liquidity and continuous selling behavior.
This address withdrew 1.29 million ZKJ and 8,667 KOGE from OKX at 21:49, and subsequently:
Sold approximately $3.1 million worth of ZKJ cumulatively at two points in time, 21:21 and 22:05; sold approximately $550,000 worth of KOGE at 21:20.
ZKJ's trading volume surged to $12.73 million at 21:21, triggering a continuous decline within 15 minutes, possibly due to LP panic exits causing a chain reaction;
A similar situation occurred at 22:05. KOGE, being closely tied to ZKJ, also suffered despite the selling amount being small.
On June 15, ZKJ and KOGE faced the final net collection—three main addresses applied dual pressure through "large liquidity withdrawals + continuous selling," causing ZKJ and KOGE to collapse in sequence:
- Address 0x1A2 withdrew 61,130 KOGE (approximately $3.76 million) and 273,017 ZKJ (approximately $532,000) in two transactions at 20:28:21 and 20:33:15.
During the period from 20:28:58 to 20:36:57, it exchanged 45,470 KOGE for ZKJ, valued at $3.796 million, during which KOGE's on-chain trading volume showed a significant increase;
From 20:30:57 to 20:59:49, it sold 1.573 million ZKJ in batches for USDT and BNB, valued at $3.052 million, with an average selling price of $1.94.
At this time, both KOGE and ZKJ experienced slight stepwise declines but did not crash.- Address 0x078 withdrew 33,651 KOGE (approximately $2.07 million) and 709,203 ZKJ (approximately $1.38 million) at 20:30:33.
From 20:31:10 to 20:58:18, it exchanged 36,814 KOGE for ZKJ, valued at $2.26 million;
From 20:35:15 to 20:37:34, it sold 1 million ZKJ, valued at $1.948 million, with an average selling price of $1.948.
The "relay-style dumping" from this address finally pushed KOGE's price into a free fall, reflected in the K-line as several consecutive large red candlesticks.- Address 0x6aD received 772,759 ZKJ, valued at $1.5 million, transferred from address 0x078 (the second dumping address) at 20:41:55; from 20:42:28 to 20:50:16, it cleared 772,000 ZKJ. It is evident that the third address was mainly used to coordinate, further catalyzing ZKJ's decline after KOGE's price crash, completing the harvesting of both tokens' LPs and holders.
ZKJ K-line chart
KOGE K-line chart
As for why the net collection action started with ZKJ, on-chain analyst AI Yi analyzed that it might be because ZKJ has CEX contracts, allowing the behind-the-scenes players to short on the exchange while dumping on-chain; secondly, from a liquidity perspective, ZKJ's liquidity is somewhat better, requiring more funds to execute the dump; additionally, the LP ranges of ZKJ and KOGE are very narrow, and once a large amount breaks through this range without enough funds to absorb the sell orders, a flash crash is inevitable. When LPs see the price drop, panic exits will also occur, creating a vicious cycle that further drives the price down; it is speculated that the continuous decline in Alpha trading volume over several days may be a trigger, and the massive LP exit is also a "run fast" game.
Moreover, according to crypto KOL Big Orange's reminder, the price of ZKJ's BSC chain token is double that of the ETH chain token, and the Binance ZKJ contract is for the ETH chain token. The BSC chain ZKJ token on Binance Alpha is actually a standalone coin, meaning that the initial LP on BSC is provided by the team's own coins. The first wave of dumping hit the BSC, and then someone followed up by dumping on Bybit, causing the contract to crash, and then the spot price on the ETH chain also collapsed.
Price of BSC chain ZKJ token on Binance Alpha
According to Coinglass data, the total liquidation amount across the network in the past 24 hours was $215 million, with the liquidation amount for long positions reaching as high as $157 million, and the liquidation amount for ZKJ alone was as high as $102 million. For KOGE large holders who completed liquidity exit through KOGE/ZKJ, it was a bloody liquidity feast.
The largest single coin liquidation occurred on Bybit
**In summary, the flash crash of ZKJ and KOGE was a premeditated hunting operation, and Binance Alpha points were a seemingly delicious but actually dangerous bait.
**
Traders trapped in the walled city of Binance Alpha: points like exam scores, airdrops are both gifts and costs
After the flash crash of ZKJ and KOGE, discussions about the Binance Alpha points system have become heated. Many people have only reaped the bitter fruit of "assets down by over 80%" from this incident, leading to considerable complaints about the Binance Alpha mechanism. The official announcement from Binance at the first opportunity also indicates the seriousness of this event.
Binance Alpha Airdrop Cannot Offset ZKJ Flash Crash Losses
As on-chain analyst AI Yi stated, the total value of all projects' airdrops from Binance Alpha to date does not exceed the market value lost by ZKJ. Its market value once plummeted from $2 billion to $377 million, evaporating about 81% of its market value in less than a day. This highlights the high volatility and brutality of the cryptocurrency industry. Many invested thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars, with their assets shrinking by over 80%.
Previously, according to X platform user Mingo statistics, the monthly earnings from Binance Alpha in May were about $1,500. For many, after working hard for a month, this wave of losses directly resulted in thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars lost, making it a case of "not worth the effort."
Overview of Binance Alpha's May earnings
Binance Alpha Points Become a Digital Game, Need to Change Thinking
After the incident, Binance officially released a statement saying: "We have noticed significant price fluctuations in ZKJ and KOGE recently. Preliminary investigations show that this is mainly due to large holders withdrawing on-chain liquidity and market chain liquidations. To maintain market fairness and stability, and to reduce systemic risks brought by centralization, Binance will adjust the Alpha points calculation rules starting from June 17, 2025, 00:00 (UTC). At that time, the trading volume between Alpha tokens will no longer be included in the points calculation."
Moving forward, Binance Alpha may need to change its purely digital game style. Specifically, possible ideas for reference include:
Avoid mechanisms that concentrate trading volume on a few tokens like KOGE and ZKJ, ensuring that interaction friction is relatively average and controllable;
Increase the sources of Alpha points, not just limited to token trading. Community engagement, posting on Binance Square, and other InfoFi-oriented "mouth-to-mouth" activities could also be considered as pathways for Alpha points interaction;
Establish monitoring mechanisms to prevent large holders of KOGE from manipulating the series of chains such as "token issuance - liquidity pool creation - Alpha token listing - Alpha points acquisition" from happening again. Of course, this is highly idealistic and extremely difficult.
Summary: The Liquidity Feast Ultimately Burdens Retail Investors
In the end, the most hurt are still the retail investors in the market. After all, Binance as a platform still reaps rewards from trading fees, while large holders of ZKJ and KOGE completed their liquidity harvesting, and retail investors became a batch after batch of "leeks" being harvested.
But for the harvesters, if such a rapid and frequent extraction continues, who will be there to keep buying?
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