CEX caught in MEME gold rush, is it about traffic first or value anchoring?

Amid the overall weakness in the crypto narrative, MEME undeniably stands out as the focal point of this bull market, with major exchanges leveraging this sector to drive traffic and enhance community reputation. Recently, the top exchange Binance has faced community criticism and backlash for listing multiple MEME coins successively, sparking a debate between chasing hot trends versus adhering to narrative value. The crypto market is experiencing a liquidity crisis, and MEME coins have emerged as the 'white knights' to rescue the market, reminiscent of the 'gold rush,' demonstrating strong market performance. According to crypto analyst arndxt, only 42 projects have outperformed Bitcoin this year, with 11 out of the top 15 being MEME coins. The surge of MEME coins in this round originates from the community's dissatisfaction and resistance against VC coin models, meeting the public's imagination of fair distribution and grassroots atmosphere, forcing exchanges like Binance to alter their listing logic. For instance, in just a month, Binance has successively listed various MEME projects such as BRETT, DOGS, POPCAT, $NEIRO, HMSTR, and $Neiro in spot and futures markets, even listing 3 MEME projects simultaneously in a day, covering domains like Base, TON, and Ethereum. This indirectly indicates that Solana is losing its dominant position in the MEME sector. Influenced by exchange listings, these MEME coins have experienced significant price surges. For example, after $Neiro was listed on Binance, its market value soared from tens of millions to over 300 million USD. However, the collective listing of MEME coins by exchanges has sparked significant controversy. On one hand, there is a dispute over the capitalization of MEME names. For example, the uppercase $NEIRO contract listed by Binance, OKX, and others led to a sharp rise in the project for several days, causing dissatisfaction among the lowercase $Neiro community due to insider trading issues, and raising doubts about the values of exchange listings within the community. In response to this, Binance's co-founder He Yi recently stated, 'In the debate over uppercase and lowercase $neiro, it is also due to community criticism. We are reflecting more on what constitutes a good MEME. If the essence of the MEME community is another 'GameStop,' with token concentration and prices already inflated by pumping, is a MEME that may burst its bubble at any time still a MEME? Or is it just a meme disguised as a meme? So, we listed several relatively diversified projects with low market values. Initially, there were more than ten projects selected, many of which failed due to compliance audits and token concentration levels.' Cryptocurrency influencer @neso explains this case sensitivity phenomenon by stating that the various uppercase, lowercase, and punctuation coins that have recently emerged, collectively represent only a small part of meme coins in terms of market value and holder scale. These are some characteristics of periodic hot coins and do not represent the mainstream, let alone all meme coins. There are still many high-quality MEME projects with strong community consensus that Binance and OKX have overlooked. Perhaps due to interests or audit standards, or maybe they have fallen into some kind of information silo. In the long run, MEME coins that focus on cultural dissemination, brand building, and community nurturing will ultimately succeed and withstand market cycles. On the other hand, the high-frequency listing of MEME coins by exchanges like Binance has raised suspicions about influencing market trends.