Binance lists MARSCOIN, its first memecoin spot listing in a year

Binance is bringing a memecoin back to its spot exchange for the first time in roughly a year. The world’s largest crypto exchange announced on September 4 that it will list MarsCoin (MARSCOIN) for spot trading, opening up MARSCOIN/USDT, MARSCOIN/USDC, and MARSCOIN/TRY pairs starting at 21:00 GMT+8. The token promptly did what memecoins do best: it ripped. MARSCOIN’s price surged over 73% in the 24 hours following the announcement, pushing its market capitalization briefly north of $170 million. From Binance Alpha to the main stage MARSCOIN’s path to the spot listing followed what’s becoming a recognizable playbook on Binance. The token first appeared in the Binance Alpha program on July 30, essentially a proving ground where newer, higher-risk tokens get early exposure to the exchange’s massive user base. Then came the leverage. On September 1, Binance launched a USDS-margined perpetual futures contract for MARSCOIN with up to 20x leverage. That alone sent trading activity surging, giving speculators a way to amplify their bets on the token before it even had a proper spot listing. Three days later, the spot listing dropped. The whole sequence, from Alpha inclusion to futures to s...