CZ-backed Genius.fun is leading a Meme community in a reverse takeover of a public company?

Original ｜Odaily (@OdailyChina)

Author｜Golem (@web3_golem)

CZ's "golden touch" has been activated once again. On the evening of September 17, on-chain trading terminal Genius announced the launch of stock-meme pairing Meme launchpad genius.fun, and CZ retweeted the announcement, instantly drawing community attention to this new platform.

As of press time, genius.fun has seen 38 Meme coins "graduate," with the highest market cap being Gstock, which peaked at $20 million and currently sits at $16 million. Gstock is paired with BNCB launched by Binance bStocks, and BNCB is the stock token of CEA Industries (BNC), a U.S. listed company with a BNB treasury strategy.

Beyond CZ's endorsement, the biggest difference between genius.fun and other stock-meme pairing Meme launchpads like Pons, Long, and 4stock is that it adopts a foundation model to help Meme community capital flow back into the real world, and ultimately the community may even have a chance to acquire a publicly listed company.

An Old Platform's Second Act

Genius's Past Life

Genius was not previously a token launchpad. In January of this year, YZi Labs invested tens of millions of dollars into Genius, and CZ served as an advisor to the project. Genius's main business is an on-chain trading aggregator, where users can purchase tokens across multiple chains through a single terminal and a single account without manually bridging, and can also directly trade perpetual contracts on Aster and Hyperliquid. At first glance, Genius resembles the currently popular FOMO, but Genius does not support social trading features.

After receiving funding from YZi Labs, Genius did not develop well. According to Dune, around the time of the YZi Labs investment, Genius's weekly trading volume even exceeded $4.7 billion, but afterward trading volume plummeted as if users vanished overnight, with weekly trading volume on the week of September 7 amounting to only $18 million.

Additionally, the GENIUS token officially launched on April 14 and was listed on Binance spot on May 22, with an opening price of $0.43 and an all-time high of $0.82, after which it continuously declined. Due to yesterday's launch of genius.fun, the token saw a slight uptick, though it remains below its issue price.

Stock-Meme Pairing Narrative Version 2.0: Acquiring a Publicly Listed Company

genius.fun supports a very broad range of stock token pairings. Creators can pair tokens with stocks from Binance bStocks, Ondo, and Fourmeme's 4stock, and can also choose to pair with BNB, USDT, and USDC. Creators can receive up to 1.25% in trading fees, with a fixed 0.25% trading fee used for buyback and burn of the Meme coin, and tokens will be launched to PancakeSwap upon raising 15 BNB.

When creating a token, creators can also choose the "Genius Foundation Mode." Under this mode, 1% of trading fees flow into the Genius Foundation's treasury, and creator fees are reduced to 0.25%.

This treasury only accumulates stock tokens, and any Meme coins received will also be converted into the paired stock tokens. According to the team, once the accumulated shares reach a certain scale, the foundation can serve as a legal entity to hold shares in the company in the real world, with genuine voting rights and dividend rights. However, the specific scale required has not yet been disclosed by the team.

As of press time, the Genius Foundation's treasury has accumulated over 27,000 BNCB, worth approximately $150,000, largely thanks to the explosive popularity of the Meme coin Gstock.

Unlike the earlier version 1.0 of the stock-meme pairing narrative, genius.fun appears to have evolved to version 2.0. It no longer emphasizes the narrative that on-chain Meme coin trading demand drives up stock tokens, which in turn affects the price movements of the underlying stock; instead, it has chosen a different approach—accumulating community capital through trading fees, and acting as a legal intermediary to convert community capital into real-world equity in a publicly listed company, exerting influence from within the company.

Theoretically, as long as on-chain Meme trading continues, the more community capital the Genius Foundation accumulates, the more real-world company equity it will hold, and the stronger its real-world influence over the company will become—from a minor shareholder to a major shareholder, and eventually seizing a board seat. If this logic holds, the ultimate endgame of this chain is a community acquisition of a publicly listed company.

This idea is even more insane and FOMO-inducing than simply pumping a stock's price, but investors need to rationally recognize that many problems remain to be solved before this flywheel can be realized.

Can a Meme Community Acquire a Publicly Listed Company?

The Genius team clearly states in its documentation that the official shared treasury is managed by the foundation's fixed multi-signature, its assets belong to the foundation, and Meme holders have no right to redeem them.

It should be noted that Meme holders are in fact a component of the community, which means the foundation is not holding stock tokens on behalf of the community—rather, these accumulated assets genuinely belong to the foundation. Since the community cannot redeem these stock tokens, does the foundation have the right to sell these assets? The team has not yet provided an explanation on this issue.

Secondly, the Genius team has not only failed to specify how many stock tokens the treasury must accumulate before converting them into real-world company equity, but also has not explained the method of conversion. Before the specific pathway is disclosed, the possibility of project team fraud cannot be ruled out.

Assuming the Genius Foundation ultimately does convert stock tokens into real-world company equity, then according to the provision that "assets belong to the foundation," who ultimately controls and exercises this equity—the Meme community or the Genius Foundation? As the legal entity holding this equity, the Genius Foundation is theoretically the shareholder of the company. Without clear and strongly enforceable provisions, the Meme community could very well expend money and effort only to end up making a wedding dress for someone else.

Even if the Genius Foundation ultimately hands over the power to exercise this equity to the community, how the community itself should be governed, and how it should participate in the governance of a real-world company, will remain ongoing issues.

genius.fun is still in its early stages, and Genius cannot answer any of these questions. Whether the narrative of Meme players becoming on-chain shareholders and communities acquiring publicly listed companies can be realized remains to be seen. The biggest reason genius.fun has attracted attention is still CZ's endorsement.

In this cycle of stock-meme pairing Memes, we have already witnessed the speed-run scam of JINQIAN/FAMI and the narrative collapse of 4Stock/BNC4. When facing new narratives, we should still be more cautious.