Binance Co-founder He Yi: Listing Must Go Through Official Channels with No Intermediary Fees
He Yi, co-founder of Binance, responded to discussions regarding rights protection on a public platform, stating that projects must go through official channels to apply for listing, with no intermediaries or listing fees involved. In certain cases, airdrop allocations may be reserved for users. Contact information for those responsible for listings can be verified on the official website and other public channels, and she urged the warning against impersonation scams to be communicated to project parties and users.
She has previously emphasized that projects that have not passed screening cannot be listed regardless of how much they pay or what percentage of tokens they offer; the airdrop rules for listings like Launchpool are public, but this does not mean that simply offering an airdrop guarantees a listing. At the end of 2025, the company publicly listed a blacklist of fake listing intermediaries and offered a reward of up to approximately $5 million for tips, stating that applications must be submitted by the core team of the project through official channels, and using external agents will disqualify them and prohibit further applications.
Airdrops are specifically reserved for users rather than being paid as intermediary fees. This changes the "listing cost" from payments to exchanges to benefits for users, and separates impersonation scams from the gray intermediary market. The official website verification contact is aimed at private chats, business cards, and mass messages claiming "listing services".
Fake intermediaries have long relied on the Binance brand to charge consulting fees or tokens from early projects. Publicly denying intermediaries equates to marking such contracts as fraud risks. If a project has already made payments to a third party, the target for rights protection is the scam rather than the exchange's business department. The specifics of airdrop reservations remain opaque, only confirming "certain situations".
In terms of market mechanisms, this retracts the listing entry back to the official website form: what is bought is a verifiable application path, and what is sold is the promise of brokers for "internal quotas". Beneficiaries are projects queued according to Launchpool and spot rules and users who can receive airdrops; those under pressure are list brokers who charge for referrals and projects that write listing fees into their financing accounts. Trading volume and market making after listing remain the exchange's revenue, just not called listing fees.
Additionally, she previously arranged a one-time BNB compensation for losses caused by a stolen social media account and stated that the official and employees do not recommend meme coins. This statement addresses the listing process, not the prices of individual tokens.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
He Yi is pulling the listing process back from the relationship market to the entry market. Intermediaries exist because official contacts have long been out of the project parties' view; writing the verification path on the official website reduces information asymmetry and prepares legal grounds for "publicly announced, still paying is at one's own risk." Airdrop reservations for users change the cost item from "listing expenses" on the balance sheet to "community" on the token distribution table. The bounty and blacklist are enforcement ends of the same policy: first deny the system, then specify individual names.
Capital will not stop seeking acceleration channels because of a statement, but the quotes will change from "guaranteed listing" to "packaging materials, market making, and market maker introductions"; the name has changed, but demand remains. Launchpool ties listings to locked mining, and user-side benefits can be written as growth expenses, not necessarily as payments to exchanges. Paying money without passing screening will also not lead to a listing, keeping due diligence rights with the platform and leaving failure risks to project financing.
In contrast to early clones that openly list prices, brokerage IPO underwriting fees, and app store commissions. Leading exchanges describe license-style entries as free applications, with revenue placed after trading. The industry phase is shifting the narrative of listings from "buying a quota" to "going through the official funnel and leaving chips for users." Those still collecting dollars in private chats are standing within the publicly defined fraud definition.
The structure belongs to the concentration of entry rights under regulation and platform rules. Once listing rights are concentrated in official channels, the intermediary market loses enforceable contracts. The mechanism is: the bigger the brand, the more valuable impersonation arbitrage becomes; the platform marks arbitrage as a crime with free applications and public contacts, and then directs remaining benefits to users through airdrops. Money will still flow before and after listings, just not allowed to be called listing fees anymore.
ABAB News · Cognitive Law
Once the official channel is announced, intermediaries' contracts become fraud risks.
No listing fees do not mean no money flows before and after listings.
Airdrops written for users change the cost from channels to distribution tables.