Social Media Sparks Binance and Coinbase Listing Wars

In a passive-aggressive social media exchange, the leaders of Coinbase and Binance seized the opportunity to critique each other’s distinct approaches to token listing standards.

The core of the dispute involved Coinbase’s Jesse Pollak, who criticized Binance’s high listing fees, and Binance’s Changpeng Zhao, who fired back by questioning Coinbase’s failure to list BNB. Ironically, Coinbase announced the listing of BNB today. 

Listing Fees and Ecosystem Rivalry

Coinbase’s Jesse Pollak and Binance’s Changpeng Zhao (CZ) publicly clashed on social media today, trading indirect jabs over their respective exchanges’ token listing standards.

It all started when a Base developer turned to Twitter to explain why he thought Coinbase’s Layer-2 network was a better ecosystem to build on than Binance’s BNB Chain.  

The user argued that Binance’s listing offer places a massive and extractive financial burden on new projects, requiring a significant portion of the total token supply and millions in security deposits for spot listing.

He contrasted this with Base, claiming that it only asks developers to create “something meaningful.”

Pollak quote-tweeted the user’s comments, arguing that getting a project listed on a centralized exchange (CEX) should not require any fee.

Another user criticized Pollak’s social media post, arguing that it was hypocritical as Base does not list BNB on its exchange.

At that point, CZ joined the conversation by responding with an emoji that hinted at his amusement over the critique. Another user flipped the script and asked the Binance co-founder why BNB Chain doesn’t list tokens native to the Base network.

CZ defended Binance’s general listing approach by arguing that it lists “all top coins over $100 billion market cap,” sarcastically taking a jab at Coinbase because it didn’t list BNB, which has a market capitalization of over $162 billion.

In a surprising turn of events, however, Coinbase announced today that it had just listed BNB on its exchange.

The Integrity Debate Over Token Listings

The recent social media debate has resurfaced longstanding tensions between the two largest CEXs regarding their token listing standards and competitive strategies.

The dispute followed the weekend market crash, which prompted Binance to freeze withdrawals and immediately spark a public backlash concerning its solvency and customer fund management.

The event drove users to attack Binance’s entire revenue and listing model. Critics have since accused Binance of setting a low standard for listings, specifically by adding low-cap tokens and small meme coins.

More serious allegations against the CEX also rose, with critics saying that Binance lacks integrity and accepts bribes from projects for listing their tokens. However, there is currently a lack of front-facing evidence to prove this. 

Others accuse Binance of selectively listing tokens to achieve a competitive advantage. Its strategy of including high-cap coins and small-cap tokens while excluding other popular projects suggests a deliberate restriction of certain competitors.

A Debate With No Clear Winner

Binance has long been accused of deliberately not listing the HYPE token from Hyperliquid, despite its strong growth and listing on other major exchanges. 

Since Hyperliquid is a direct and successful competitor to Binance Futures in the derivative trading market, some speculate that the reluctance to list HYPE on BNB is purposeful.

That said, no one is clean. Coinbase has also failed to list HYPE. Though it finally listed BNB for trading today, the CEX also has a history of picking and choosing which tokens to list. 

In parallel, despite Pollack’s claims that listing is free, Coinbase has faced strong public criticism for this not being true. At one point, prominent figures like TRON’s Justin Sun alleged that the exchange asked for $330 million in total fees to list its token.