A BNB Chain educational video inadvertently triggers a massive price surge for test token TST, leading to market speculation and eventual video deletion.
By Parth Dubey
Edited by Marco T. Lanz
Updated
3 mins read
The crypto market’s volatility has had investors confused as low-cap tokens soar out of the blue. An incident took place on Thursday involving leading crypto exchange Binance that resulted in widespread speculations in the market. Changpeng Zhao, the former chief executive of the firm, discussed the recent launch of the TST token by his firm, which soared to a massive market capitalization of $41.42 million in just a few hours.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Zhao explained that TST, a test token, was created by a member of the BNB chain for an educational video. The video was focused on showcasing how to launch a meme token using four.meme, a BNB-based crypto launchpad. While the token’s name wasn’t visible initially, viewers got to see the ticker during the 1:18 mark of the video, which caught the attention of the Chinese crypto community, explained Zhao.
😂 A tricky situation. A BNB Chain team member just told me this:
"We did the step by step video education for launching meme token on https://t.co/74psayTeug platform. In this video, we launched a token named TST as the example.
When we posted the education video yesterday,… https://t.co/lD77CaQDCj— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) February 6, 2025
Thereafter, influential key opinion leaders (KOLs) in the region began promoting and trading the TST token, which led to a surge in its market cap, peaking at $494,560, at the time of Zhao’s X post. However, the cryptocurrency went on to claim a monumental market cap of $41.42 million but is now valued at $10 million, witnessing significant volatility in just a few hours, data shows.
Photo: TradingView
Despite the video being intended purely for educational purposes, the viral surge in the token’s valuation prompted the BNB Chain team to delete the video once they realized the consequences. Zhao, however, pointed out that “the internet does not forget”, indicating that the video’s reach had already left a substantial imprint.
Zhao reiterated that the TST token was never meant for real trading and was not an official project of the BNB Chain team or Binance. He explained that TST was merely a “test token” used solely as part of the tutorial video.
Additionally, Zhao confirmed that no one on the BNB Chain team or Binance held any percentage of the token’s supply, adding that the private key associated with the token was deleted by the team member who originally posted the video. The creator address, which held a modest 0.13% of the total supply, has since been erased from any further association.
Zhao even recommended that the BNB Chain team restore the video tutorial, acknowledging that “it is what it is” and that the situation should be viewed as a simple misunderstanding, not a deliberate endorsement of the token.
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A crypto journalist with over 5 years of experience in the industry, Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world, gathering experience and expertise in the space after surviving bear and bull markets over the years. Parth is also an author of 4 self-published books.
