CZ's "paid contact" has sparked heated discussion: How much is the time of the encryption tycoon?

Binance founder CZ charges $125 BNB on ReachMe as a message fee

"I will adjust the price and try to keep it at the best level of about 10 messages a day." CZ said he had previously increased the charges due to being bombarded by a large number of messages.

Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) has launched a new feature called Pay to Reach, allowing users to send private messages to him by paying for a fee and receive guaranteed responses.

CZ first proposed the move earlier this month in a post on Binance Square, aiming to deal with the massive amount of messages he receives every day. He said that, in theory, this feature will help optimize communication and reduce spam.

The Pay to Reach system was launched early this morning, enabling users to send messages directly to CZ and other key opinion leaders (KOLs) through the platform ReachMe.io.

The service does not require registration and uses Binance's BNB tokens as the transaction currency.

Initially, CZ set the message price at 0.04 BNB, then increased to 0.1 BNB and later to 0.2 BNB because he received a lot of irrelevant or low-quality messages.

“The initial price left me with spam,” CZ said in an announcement tweet. "Please don't waste your money like this."

He added: “I will adjust the price and try to keep it at the best level of about 10 messages a day.”

Users who pay the fee can receive a CZ response within five days. If CZ does not reply, the user will receive a 50% refund.

The feature has attracted nearly 70 key opinion leaders (KOLs) to join, setting their own message prices, ranging from 0.01 to 0.2 BNB.

As the KOL network continues to expand, the "paid contact" model may be further verified, providing new monetization channels for digital interaction.

In addition, CZ promises that all BNBs he receives through the feature will be donated to charities. In his initial Binance Square post, CZ explained the motivation behind the concept of “paid contact”, saying that the idea stems from optimizing reach rates rather than time management.

He mentioned that social media platforms such as LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) also offer similar features, but due to the low entry barrier, spam is flooded.

However, this message charging model has also sparked discussions about accessibility, as users who cannot pay for it may be excluded from the opportunity to communicate with well-known figures in the crypto industry.

While this new system encourages more serious and efficient communication, it also commercializes traditionally free interactions.

Since CZ announced the feature, ReachMe.io has reminded users that it does not have official tokens and warned traders not to buy any tokens claimed to be related to the platform.

After the “paid contact” feature was launched, BNB prices rose 0.6%, according to CoinGecko data, showing the influence of these industry leaders on crypto prices. However, BNB prices have now been pulled back. According to CoinGecko data, its current price is US$625.51, down 0.4% from the same period yesterday.