ZKJ and KOGE big dump triggered market turmoil, Binance Alpha faced a wave of one hundred thousand withdrawals.

Author: BlockBeats

Original Title: 100,000 People Withdraw from Binance Alpha, Profit from Score Arbitrage Disappears, ZKJ and KOGE Plummet Triggering the Crisis

With the implementation of Binance's new regulations, Alpha is gradually shifting from a score manipulation arbitrage tool to an incentive mechanism that emphasizes real interactions and value capture. This means that point acquisition will no longer only consider trading volume or LP quotas, but will lean more towards dimensions such as holding duration, interaction depth, and real demand. However, for many users who rely on low-cost score manipulation strategies, this shift forces them to reevaluate the meaning of their participation.

After the flash crash events of $ZKJ and $KOGE, the activity of Binance Alpha has significantly declined. According to Dune data, the number of Alpha trading users plummeted from a peak of 233,000 on June 12 to 195,000 on June 15, losing nearly 40,000 users in just three days, with a significant drop. As of today, the actual number of users trading on the platform has further reduced to 70,000, indicating a cliff-like drop in user enthusiasm and willingness to participate. Meanwhile, the marginal cost of score manipulation has significantly increased, and the cost-effectiveness of Alpha games is rapidly deteriorating.

At the same time, some recently launched projects on Binance Alpha are showing signs of "immediate pouring upon launch."

BlockBeats calculated the profits of the Binance Alpha new point collection project VELO. Under normal circumstances (with a principal of 1000 dollars), the current Alpha user earnings are in a slight profit state. If trading between Alpha tokens is considered, the daily trading wear and tear can reach 4 dollars, with an expected profit of 224 dollars over 30 days, expected costs of 120 dollars over 30 days, and expected profits of 104 dollars over 30 days, averaging 3.5 dollars per day.

Starting from 00:00 on June 17, 2025 (UTC), Binance Alpha will officially enable the new rules, and the trading volume between Alpha tokens will no longer be counted in the calculation of Alpha Points. This means that strategies that once relied on arbitrage such as ZKJ/KOGE will no longer be effective, and users will face a higher threshold for earning points and a more complex liquidity structure.

It is foreseeable that, affected by the sharp decline of $ZKJ, the incentive model of Binance Alpha is entering an adjustment period. The direct consequence of this mechanism replacement is that a large number of users who were originally active in the Alpha ecosystem are choosing to exit. Some are leaving with losses from the $ZKJ/$KOGE dual currency pool, while others have found that the marginal returns from score manipulation are no longer worth the trading costs, and are no longer willing to invest their efforts.

In this interview, BlockBeats spoke with several Alpha users, including LP providers who suffered actual losses during this round of market downturn, as well as ordinary participants who attempted "score arbitrage" but did not achieve the expected returns. Among them, some have decided to completely withdraw from the Alpha game, while others are still hesitating whether to continue seeking new opportunities. Through their narratives, we are able to reconstruct the real emotions and thoughts behind this "cliff-like wave of resignations."

The people who gave up

"The early profits are really high, and the transaction fees are low, especially since we also benefited from Adventure Island. By late May, I had gradually added up to 20 accounts. Due to frequent face recognition, I handed the account of the account owner over to them to manage themselves, and we maintain a real trading volume of 16,000 USD every day."

However, as the number of participants increased and competition intensified, Jiang Jiu stated that he had already sensed something was wrong in mid-June: "On the 14th, I noticed something was off. That day, a few accounts experienced significant losses, totaling 160U, which was very unusual. However, because I was troubled about how to change my strategy, I ignored the risks that might be forthcoming or that I was unwilling to admit, still hoping for too much."

Unfortunately, during the ZKJ crash, a friend of Jiang Jiu misinterpreted his message "Have you finished brushing?" as a prompt to rush in and increased his position in ZKJ, ultimately suffering a loss of up to 60%. Jiang Jiu recalled that he originally intended to wait for his friend's reply before reminding him not to continue brushing and to observe the situation first, but the other party misunderstood his intention and immediately went to trade. After buying, he found it difficult to sell smoothly and turned to Jiang Jiu for help. Jiang Jiu also did not have time to explain in detail how to place a low-priced order to exit quickly, which ultimately led to his friend being unable to do anything but watch the price fall. He admitted that the core of this loss was not luck, but the cost of information analysis and communication.

When asked whether he had contacted the project team, Jiang Jiu stated that he had not attempted to seek feedback, "Such things are too common in the crypto space. Unless the trading platform is willing to take the lead, retail investors will just lose money and have no place to argue. They still have to remain cautious themselves."

He also added that since losing pools like ZKJ and KOGE for low-fee trading, the cost of brushing points has significantly increased, with rewards dropping to around 50-60U per period, while the score threshold is getting higher and higher. He is on the verge of giving up, "but still wants to struggle a bit to see the returns for the next few periods; if it doesn't go well, I can only give up."

Unlike Jiang Jiu, Weng Xiang operated four accounts, with a total profit of about 5000U before the crash. Anomalous fluctuations of ZKJ were detected the day before the crash, but because the coin price rebounded at that time, it instead increased his sense of luck.

"The day before, I noticed that ZKJ was volatile. I held on for an hour and found that it bounced back, earning me 5U. When it plummeted that day, I noticed the spikes were significant and thought it would be like the day before."

This lucky mentality led to the first account being trapped with 30U after which I still used the second account to enter the market, "I thought it would be the same as the day before, normal pin insertion, so I didn't touch this account and continued to do tasks with the second account for 1800U, but as a result, the second account started to plummet too."

In the end, Mosquito Coil decided to cut losses and leave the market when the coin price fell to 0.8, with total losses exceeding 2000U. "I still didn't pay enough attention to the risks, and I should observe the size of the pool more. That day, there was indeed a large volume of withdrawals from the pool."

Mosquito incense believes that the Alpha project is nearing its end, "the input and output are no longer proportional, getting squeezed a few times feels like a waste; today all the accounts have withdrawn after receiving the minimum guarantee."

Not just mosquito coils, in an interview with BlockBeats, several interviewees mentioned that the input-output ratio of Binance Alpha has decreased, and many people no longer choose the multi-account strategy.

The dividend window for Alpha may be closing.

Under the sunk cost, the score brushing continues.

Jie Ge is a builder of the BSC ecosystem community, who has been participating in Alpha activities since the initial Shell new token offering. As an information disseminator in the community, he also could not avoid this systemic risk.

"I felt at that time that when 'stablecoins' are no longer stable, there will be a lot of price fluctuations. In fact, I had already sensed that the gray rhinoceros was about to arrive. However, due to the management work of the account and the time spent on trading, it filled my personal life, so I couldn't control it in time," said Brother Jie.

During the crash, Brother Jie quickly executed a stop-loss and notified the group members, but still faced significant losses. He believes that this loss cannot be entirely attributed to luck: "I can only say that I need to pay tuition to the market again. There are still many ways to avoid this situation. It's just that I happened to hit this timing while making a large transaction, and both accounts were trading at the same time, making it impossible to avoid immediate halving of the position."

This experience made Brother Jie reflect on his risk control strategy, especially the importance of on-chain monitoring tools. He feels that he needs to introduce some on-chain monitoring tools in the future, "I felt the price of this coin in real time, and as the capacity of the pool decreases, the price will bring greater volatility."

Nevertheless, Brother Jie stated that he would continue to participate in Alpha, "If there are profits, it is worth continuing to work hard, and of course, I also look forward to more innovative and fair launch models from Alpha."

"The initial strategy is to place 33 orders at the 60,000 level, followed by 66 orders at the 130,000 level. The profits have not been calculated in detail yet," Siner explained. This high-frequency, high-amount trading strategy can generate considerable returns during stable price periods, but it also exposes greater operational risks.

His main losses did not come from market fluctuations, but from human errors: "Most of the losses were due to my own operational mistakes. The first one was forgetting to sell Koge on the 16th, and then deciding to aggressively place an order at 130,000. The number I forgot to sell has now dropped from 1000u to 400u."

Large-scale account operations have also brought efficiency challenges. "I usually finish everything in 1-2 hours, but 170,000 tasks are too much, leading to continuous operations for four or five days, resulting in empty operations."

Unlike the users who are leaving the market, Siner remains confident about Alpha's future. When asked if he would continue to engage with Alpha, Siner stated, "We must continue; I just found a lossless method." This means he will continue to look for speculative opportunities in the Alpha ecosystem, even after the rules have been adjusted.

For Tian Ge, who did not incur losses during the ZKJ crash, exiting Alpha means that the sunk cost of the initial investment cannot be recovered. "There was already a sunk cost of two hundred percent in the early stage. If I give up, it's like all of it will be wasted. Moreover, if a good project comes to Alpha later, I can recover my investment in one wave."

Tian Ge summarizes the mindset for participating in Alpha projects like this: "Brushing points and farming rewards are all garbage projects, don't get emotionally involved."

Conclusion

Jiang Jiu frankly stated that the Alpha reward distribution has already been unable to cover operational costs, "Now the rewards are only around fifty or sixty U, the score threshold is high, and the trading slippage is getting larger. One day of work might only earn three or four bucks." Moreover, the collapse of ZKJ/KOGE took away not just the principal but also a low-cost arbitrage path. Once the Alpha project cancels the rule of counting trading volume between token pairs towards points, users will face higher trading wear and a more complex point game structure.

Binance Alpha was once regarded as an innovative mechanism to revitalize on-chain activity and user participation, but the current points model clearly overestimates the long-term incentive effectiveness of trading volume and LP, while also underestimating the risks of structural runs.

With the implementation of the new regulations by Binance, Alpha is gradually shifting from a score arbitrage tool to an incentive mechanism that focuses more on real interaction and value capture. This means that point acquisition will no longer solely consider trading volume or LP quotas, but will lean more towards dimensions such as holding duration, interaction depth, and real demand.

However, for many users who rely on low-cost scoring strategies, this shift forces them to reassess the meaning of participation. If future Alpha wants to restart the growth engine, it will need to find a new balance between fair distribution and risk control mechanisms.

For users still exploring the Alpha ecosystem, it is advisable to strengthen risk management awareness, pay attention to indicators such as pool structure, token fundamentals, and LP concentration, and avoid becoming a bag holder during the next systemic risk exposure. After all, in this continually trial-and-error Web3 world, the window for arbitrage always exists, but the cost of stepping on a landmine has never decreased.