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Binance Alpha: The New King of Crypto Profits
Ladies and gentlemen, it seems the times have changed once again. After the tariff disputes, the market has transitioned from a bearish to a bullish cycle. Besides the usual fluctuations in cryptocurrency prices and sporadic project hotspots, there is a new main storyline dominating the daily lives of crypto users: How many points have you earned on Binance Alpha today?
According to statistics from X user @btguagua, since the introduction of the points system on April 25, Binance has conducted 15 "money-giving" events in the form of airdrops and TGE activities for users by May 15. The airdrop of $NXPC yesterday could yield a profit of around $700 per account at its peak price. If you have been consistently participating in Alpha and maintaining a high score, based on the highest listing price of Alpha tokens, a single account could earn nearly $2,000 in just twenty days. Even after deducting transaction wear and tear costs, this is still a considerable profit.
In less than a month, the short-term returns from participating in Binance Alpha have already surpassed the once-popular airdrop track, which is now gradually losing its luster in the market.
From a Burden to a Treasure
When "Binance Alpha 1.0" was first launched, the initial excitement from the "Binance spot candidate" concept did give the market a fresh boost, causing the tokens listed on Alpha to surge temporarily. However, the overall positioning of the Alpha sector soon became somewhat redundant. It either listed popular Meme tokens on the chain at that time or featured tokens from its own wallet TGE activities. Many Meme players and project parties even regarded Binance Alpha as the last stop for short-term liquidity absorption. Eventually, "being listed on Binance Alpha" no longer seemed like a significant advantage. The trading volume of the Alpha sector quickly declined, and it seemed to be drifting further away from Binance's initial goal of "growth."
Although "Binance Alpha 2.0" moved the Alpha interface into the exchange, the data showed that this move had little effect. The real game-changer was the "points access system" that had been on everyone's mind.
According to the data panel created by Dune user @pandajackson, since the introduction of the points system, the trading volume of Binance Alpha 2.0 has increased exponentially. By May 15, the daily trading volume of Binance Alpha had reached $771 million.
Based on the data panel created by Dune user @lz_web3, the short-term trading volume of Binance Wallet also tops the entire wallet track. From a purely trading data perspective, Binance's growth strategy has successfully made it the center of market attention and capital.
Who Wins and Who Loses in the Market?
From market discussions and user feedback, Binance's money-giving activities have satisfied the majority, with multiple market parties enjoying the benefits. Users who meet the points criteria are the most direct beneficiaries. Both retail investors and cluster studios, in a way, have ridden this Binance-created wave to earn the first wave of benefits from the "new asset issuance method."
For individuals who maintain participation, daily discussions, checks, and earning of Alpha points have become a routine task. Watching the steadily increasing Alpha points gives a sense of security, as if holding a guaranteed profitable asset firmly in hand.
For individuals, the returns from Binance Alpha are a "stable happiness" in the short term. However, for the group of wool-pulling studios with the ability to create multiple accounts in bulk, this seems to be a truly great opportunity.
"Now, many projects have reduced their human and financial resources and are focusing all their efforts on Binance Alpha," said Brother Lv (a pseudonym), who runs a wool-pulling studio. With a net profit of nearly $2,000 per account in twenty days, the return period and rate of return have far exceeded more than 90% of crypto projects. Compared to the majority of crypto projects that require a "minimum of six months, with no upper limit" and have uncertain returns, Binance Alpha's "instant feedback and one-time return" profit model is exactly what wool-pulling studios have been dreaming of. Even the yet-to-be-listed "king-level" projects seem less attractive under the current high-density money-giving activities.
From the feedback of many wool-pulling bloggers, it has become a short-term consensus that pulling projects is not as good as pulling Alpha...
A New Era for Project Parties
For project parties, being listed on Binance Alpha has once again become an excellent opportunity for traffic exposure. It can also serve as a "points-boosting target" to gain long-term liquidity, with the trading volumes of popular assets like $ZKJ and $B² continuing to grow.
According to X user @_FORAB, the schedule for the first listing on Binance Alpha is now booked until mid-June. Despite many rules and restrictions, project parties are still eager to seize this wave of huge traffic.
A Challenge for Competing Exchanges
Binance's series of money-giving strategies and its growth data are truly enviable. During the peak of Binance Alpha activities, other exchanges have also launched their own money-giving growth activities.
Who Is Losing Out?
Of course, even though many are celebrating the profits, there are still those who are struggling and "losing money."
The most direct losers are those who endure transaction wear and tear to gain points but still fail to receive airdrop rewards due to insufficient scores.
According to X user 孤鹤.hl (@ZKSgu), under the catalysis of the Alpha points mechanism, many users choose to brush points without considering wear and tear. In this process, if they do not select the right assets for trading and set the slippage properly, they may suffer significant wear and tear. Meanwhile, the difficulty of obtaining trading points increases exponentially. There may only be a few points difference between hundreds of thousands of trading volumes and thousands of trading volumes, but the wear and tear could be hundreds or even thousands of dollars more.
Hidden Losses for Some Users
In addition to the direct money-losing point-brushing users, many wool-pulling users who truly participate in project interactions for airdrops also suffer some "hidden losses" under the coverage of Binance Alpha activities. To ensure the profits of users participating in Alpha activities, projects that are first listed on Binance Alpha need to provide a considerable share of tokens and lock in liquidity. To pay the "cost of going on Alpha," some project parties choose to deduct the originally reserved token shares for the community and hand them over to Binance Alpha for airdrop distribution. In this process of taking and deducting, some of the money that belongs to "project community users" is transferred to the pockets of "Binance Alpha users." This action directly cuts off the user growth of Web3 projects and instead centralizes the native users within the exchange in a centralized manner.
When Will This Competition End?
I remember before, everyone was criticizing the points system of project airdrops. This practice, which strings along users' time, energy, money, and expectations, and drives participants into an intense internal competition, has never been considered proper. However, perhaps because the positive feedback comes quickly and is real, the market's direct criticism of Binance Alpha's points system has diminished, while praise for the profits has increased.
On the positive side, Binance Alpha has, to some extent, guided market enthusiasm in an environment without a main storyline. The money-giving activities have benefited ordinary users. Meanwhile, the continuous listing of tokens has also demystified the concept of "listing on Binance" to a certain extent.
On the negative side, the main way to obtain Alpha points at present is still mechanical point-brushing. Essentially, point-brushing does not have much meaning beyond providing data for wallets and project parties. Many people spend money and endure high on-chain slippage wear and tear, but in the fiercely competitive environment, they do not receive profit returns.
Looking Ahead
According to the current development trend, the points threshold required to obtain Alpha rewards will continue to rise in the future. As the competition intensifies, Alpha activities will become more refined and dense. A difference of just one point may result in losing the qualification to participate. The difficulty for small capital ordinary users to participate will also increase exponentially.
Conclusion
The overwhelming momentum of Binance Alpha reminds one of the Qin Dynasty in the "Records of the Grand Historian" — "sweeping the six states, capturing the feudal lords, dividing the world, and swallowing the eight desolations." It is fierce and rapidly expanding in scale and influence.
However, this expansion seems to be too fast this time. As the saying goes, "A raging fire may not burn long." Any mode that burns market expectations too quickly needs to face the test of sustainability. The current high short-term returns seem more like Binance paying for user education. As long as Binance first attracts users' time, money, energy, and attention to itself, it can plan for the future at its own pace.
The difficulty for users to obtain profits has indeed increased. The current points deduction system is already testing the investment research capabilities of participants. The era of brushing points and getting airdrops for free has ended. In the future, those who can obtain appropriate returns from activities may be players who are good at examining projects.
From the user participation perspective, high-certainty positive EV profit opportunities like Binance Alpha are rare even in an entire bull-bear cycle. Controlling the window of opportunity is crucial. As for how long this period of benefits will last and whether Binance Alpha will have a negative impact on the market in the future, "If it gets too competitive and there are no more benefits, just look for the next opportunity. No one can predict the future, but we must seize the opportunity when it comes," said Brother Lv of the wool-pulling studio in an interview.
