CZ Tests On-Chain Perpetual Long Positions on APX Finance with MUBARAK to Examine MEV Issues
Changpeng Zhao executed a leveraged long trade of 24.7x on Mubarak to investigate potential MEV issues, which resulted in an increase in the token’s price.
On March 23, the founder and former CEO of Binance opened a 24.7x long position on Mubarak (MUBARAK) using 0.04 BNB as collateral via APX Finance. The transaction was highlighted by on-chain analyst ai_9684xtpa on X, to which CZ responded, “Doing a little on-chain testing on Sunday, as usual. Nothing to be excited about.”
Despite CZ’s nonchalant response, ai_9684xtpa noted that within 7 minutes of opening the position, APX (APX) jumped by 26%, rising from $0.64 to $0.81, while MUBARAK saw a 5.5% increase, moving from $0.146 to $0.154. The trade was made with a public donation address and the position has since been closed.
This market response mirrors a well-known trend—whenever CZ engages in trading or shares updates on social media, buying momentum typically follows. Recently, Zhao acquired 20,150 MUBARAK for 1 BNB (worth $600 at that time), causing a spike in MUBARAK’s price that briefly secured its position at the top of BNB Chain’s memecoin rankings by market cap, with trading volume exceeding $180 million, as reported by Root Data.
Nonetheless, Zhao clarified that his perpetuals trade on MUBARAK was purely experimental, as he shared in his post on X, stating, “Just trying the experience, also trying to see if there is still MEV.”
Zhao has not yet disclosed any insights from his testing related to Maximal Extractable Value. His perpetuals trial comes after a poll he conducted on X on February 7, inquiring whether BNB Chain should mitigate or significantly reduce MEV issues.
Although MEV is more commonly linked with the Ethereum (ETH) network, users on BNB Chain have also experienced substantial losses due to MEV—where validators reorder or rearrange transactions awaiting inclusion in the block to optimize their profits. Reports indicate that in 2024 alone, BNB Chain users lost approximately $1.5 billion due to MEV.