Binance COO Yi He: Chase Was BD, Not Listing Manager — "Narratives Are Dead, Utility Rules"
Binance co-CEO Yi He clarified that the individual known as "Chase" was a Business Development (BD) staffer, not a decision-making listing manager. Yi said BD handles contract communication with projects but lacks authority over listing decisions, which are made by separate listing and due-diligence teams. The clarification came after Chase’s interview claiming the listing team reviewed over 1,000 projects in 2.5 years, helped about 100 tokens list in 2025 (including via Binance’s Alpha), and estimated a 5–10% success rate for projects joining Binance. Chase also argued short-to-mid-term token prices are driven by liquidity, attention (flow), and tokenomics. Yi He largely agreed about short-term drivers but emphasized long-term value depends on utility: real revenue, token utility, and emission/burn mechanisms. She cited BTC, ETH and BNB as examples that overcame pure narrative-driven dynamics. Yi’s message to the market: short-term price moves follow liquidity and flow, but sustainable projects need practical utility — "narratives are dead, utility rules."
Neutral
The news primarily clarifies internal roles at Binance and debates drivers of token performance; it does not signal regulatory action, exchange outages, or material changes to listings or token policies that would directly move markets. Clarifying that Chase was BD, not a listings decision-maker, reduces misinformation risk and may slightly lower speculative sentiment caused by the interview, producing a neutral-to-mildly stabilizing effect. Short-term, traders might de-emphasize claims about insider listing power and reassess trade setups that relied on alleged listing influence; speculative tokens touted to list may see minor cooling. Longer-term, Yi He’s emphasis on utility over narrative aligns with ongoing market trends favoring sustainable token models, which supports reallocation toward projects with on-chain revenue, clear token utility, and deflationary mechanisms. Historical parallels: revelations about exchange internal roles (or denials) typically produce limited price moves confined to affected projects, unlike regulatory fines or exchange delistings which are market-moving. Overall market impact: neutral, with modest sector rotation from hype-driven small caps toward utility-focused assets.