Originally unveiled in December 2024, Binance Alpha is a tool inside the Binance Wallet meant to highlight early-stage, highly growth potential cryptocurrency businesses. Acting as a pre-listing token selection pool, it lets consumers investigate and make investments in upcoming Web3, DeFi, and other crypto projects before they go on sale generally.
Though listing on the Binance Exchange was never assured, the platform aimed to close the gap between retail investors and developing projects by providing access to tokens through Token Generation Events (TGEs) and Alpha Airdrops.
Introduced on March 18, 2025, Binance Alpha 2.0 expands on this basis with notable enhancements.
Binance blog post claims that the update brings a more user-friendly design, closer ecosystem interaction, and a community-driven token choosing process meant to improve openness.
Now housed in the Binance Exchange’s “Markets” section, a dedicated “Alpha” page acts as a centralized center allowing users to track Alpha Tokens, view real-time charts, access project data, and make trades without using outside wallets.
This connection simplifies trade by removing the requirement for asset transfers to on-chain wallets, therefore lowering transaction costs.
Though users must still pay network gas prices for blockchain transactions, Binance is also providing a promotional period from March 18 to September 17, 2025 whereby all token transactions on Alpha 2.0 are free of transaction fees.
With features like Quick Buy and asset swaps included into the Binance Wallet further simplifying the process, this action is meant to draw retail traders.
The release of the platform coincided with the closure of OKX DEX, therefore placing Binance Alpha 2.0 as a timely substitute for those looking for DEX capability inside a centralized exchange.
Community-driven governance, A path toward openness?
A trademark of Binance Alpha 2.0 is its token listing and delisting community-based governance structure.
With Binance doing an initial screening to identify interesting applicants, users can vote on which projects should be listed on the Binance Exchange.
Tokens with the highest votes go under due care before being listed. Projects failing to reach development targets or offer updates are placed in a “monitoring zone,” in which case the community can vote to delist them.
Binance presents this as a means of increasing openness and community interaction, contending it enables users to help to define the ecosystem of the platform.
But as will be discussed later, the system has not been embraced everywhere; some detractors doubt its accessibility and impartiality.
The Alpha Points System: Promoting Exploitation or Participation?
Users must earn Alpha Points, a metric based on two components: Balance Points, derived from the total value of assets held in Binance Wallet or Exchange (specifically Alpha Tokens), and Volume Points, tied to the trading volume of Alpha Tokens, to be part of Binance Alpha’s exclusive programs including airdrops or TGEs.
Alpha Points now expire after 15 days and are totally consumed when utilized for prizes or event participation, according to a divisive upgrade Binance presented to this system on May 13, 2025. Users must keep continuous action to remain eligible since this means they cannot build points over extended terms. Although Binance says this promotes active involvement, some counter that it drives unsustainable participation patterns and unnecessary pressure.
An Ethos Departure from Web3
Built on the promise of decentralization, community ownership, and fair access is Web3. Critics such as X user @satyaXBT, however, contend that Binance Alpha 2.0 is more akin to a “burn-to- earn” or “pay-to- play” approach favoring new participants over early project backers—often referred to as “whales.”
Openly writing to Binance and CEO Richard Teng on May 15, 2025, @satyaXBT commented, “Binance Alpha seems to be a Monopoly game. While users are compelled to dig for Alpha Points, facing outrageous buy-sell fees, projects toss out token allotment. The true disaster is Early supporters of initiatives from day one, OGs sometimes get nothing but scraps.
This attitude reflects a more general worry that Binance Alpha gives top priority to short-term incentives above long-term community building. Early contributors—testnet users and Discord moderators—often spend months helping a project, only to see their efforts discounted by Binance’s point-driven system, which honors high trading volumes and sizable holdings—activities more easily available to wealthier people.
Points farming and leaderboard capitalism
X user @AlwaysBeenChoose expanded the criticism by labeling Binance Alpha a type of “leaderboard capitalism” that promotes point farming above real project involvement. “Crypto should reward long-term belief, not snapshot optimizing,” they said.
People quit building and begin farming when points count more than involvement. This approach, they contend, erodes the allegiance of early adopters by giving metrics like trade volume top priority above significant contributions, therefore undermining the natural development of crypto communities.
The figures support the expansion of the platform but also underline its controversial character. Driven mostly by retail traders, Binance Alpha 2.0 had daily trading volume of $361.54 million and cumulative volume of $1.7 billion.
By May 19, Binance said that daily volume of Alpha 2.0 had increased to $386 million and that cumulative volume was almost $3 billion. However, many users feel the system favors transactional behavior over community-driven development, hence this increase in engagement has not resulted in unanimous approval.
Something like a “Veiled Extraction Scheme”?
X user @ EarnByAbhi, who called Binance Alpha a “veiled extraction scheme,” offers maybe the most biting criticism.
They said, “even if you swap $512 for a full week, you only get 63 points,” pointing out the disproportionate effort needed to gain Alpha Points.
“Recent criteria were 65 and 80 points, and I guess they will keep raising the bar. They contend that this system guarantees that the expenses and work needed often exceed returns, therefore depriving retail dealers of their due.”
Critics also draw attention to Alpha Point expiring as a particularly exploitative aspect. Binance generates urgency by requiring users to spend points within 15 days, which motivates continuous trading and helps the transaction volume of the site but leaves customers struggling to keep eligibility.
This dynamic has some people wondering whether Binance Alpha really benefits the society or instead takes use of possibilities to extract wealth.
Binance’s Defense and Market Effects
Defining Alpha 2.0 as a “Web3 participation filter” instead of a conventional airdrop mechanism, Binance has justified it The exchange maintained in a blog post that the platform is about encouraging significant involvement with early-stage initiatives rather than “freeloading.”
Steps toward inclusivity and openness are touted as zero-fee trading for six months and the community voting system. With about 750,000 daily transactions reported on May 10, 2025, Binance also notes Alpha 2.0’s success as proof of great user adoption.
Though Alpha 2.0’s interface integration has improved accessibility, data from PanewsLab indicates that its influence on trading dynamics has been minimal and “little effect” on general market statistics. This begs issues regarding whether the advantages of the platform are exaggerated, especially for retail users who have great obstacles to effective involvement.
The Bigger View
The reaction to Binance Alpha 2.0 captures a wider conflict in the crypto scene: the collision between centralized platforms and the distributed ideas of Web3.
Although Binance is daring in trying to link DEX capability with its centralized exchange, it runs the danger of offending the very community it aims to serve.
The point-based system of the platform and emphasis on trade volume feel as a betrayal of the values of fairness and community ownership that define the space to Web3 campaigners.
The crypto world will be attentively observing as Binance keeps adding improvements to its Alpha platform and features like the forthcoming SOON token airdrop on May 23, 2025.
Whether Binance can answer these complaints and balance innovation with the distributed ethos driving Web3’s expansion will determine Alpha 2.0’s success.
Right now, the argument rounds. Is Binance Alpha 2.0 a profit-driven program undermining the Web3 ethos or a revolutionary path toward democratizing access to early-stage projects?
The response might depend on how Binance addresses the issues raised by its community and whether it can recover trust among the activists and early adopters who feel behind-behind.
