Behind GIGGLE’s Surge: Can Meme and Philanthropy Coexist?

When an educational project meets a community-driven Meme coin, miracles happen.

Written by: Nicky, Foresight News

Do you remember last March, when CZ casually mentioned on Twitter that he wanted to start an educational project? Most people thought it was just a sentimental side project for the Binance founder. No one expected that this project, called Giggle Academy, would give rise to a Meme coin with over 1000x gains a year and a half later. Even more surprising, this Meme coin is truly changing the real world.

Origin: A Pure Educational Dream

In March 2024, CZ announced his new project, Giggle Academy—a free global basic education platform. In an interview with Foresight News this March, he candidly shared his thoughts: "When I had nothing to do in the US, I thought about what I could do to have the greatest positive impact."

The idea for Giggle Academy first came from CZ's observations of the current education system. "Today's classrooms are like assembly lines. Kids who are good at math might be forced to spend more time learning English, and in the end, everyone becomes 'average'," he said in the interview. He believes the future world needs people with "long enough planks" (strong strengths), not just "beautiful averages." There are still over a billion children worldwide who don't have access to schooling, especially in Africa, where building physical schools is highly inefficient. However, smartphones and tablets are already widespread—so why not use gamification to let kids learn while playing?

CZ's vision is clear: it's not about helping kids get into Harvard, but about helping them acquire skills to make a living. "A 10-year-old can earn money by doing AI data labeling, and my nephew managed a gaming community of 14,000 people at age 13." This pragmatic attitude set a unique tone for the project.

The project team carefully designed the logo—the smiley face made up of the "Gi" characters, and the tongue-sticking "G"—all reveal an intention to break the dull atmosphere of traditional education. More importantly, CZ stated: "All content is free. I think this kind of investment return is higher than any charity."

Turning Point: Spontaneous Community Action

The turning point came on September 21, 2025, when Giggle Academy announced it would accept cryptocurrency donations. The rules were simple: all donations are traceable on-chain, and the funds are used to incentivize community contributors.

After that, the community spontaneously created the GIGGLE token, which began to operate quietly. The design of this token is simple yet clever: a 5% transaction tax is levied on every transaction, and 100% of it goes into the GiggleFund smart contract.

The effect was immediate. Within 12 hours of opening donations, Giggle Academy received over $1 million in donations, 90% of which came from the GIGGLE token transaction tax. Even CZ himself was surprised: "I still don't understand how a coin with a $5 million market cap can generate $900,000 in donation fees within 12 hours."

Even more surprising was CZ's change in attitude: "This completely changed my view of Meme coins. Meme coins are actually useful." These words sparked a huge reaction in the community, and GIGGLE's market cap broke $50 million that day.

The subsequent development was not all smooth sailing. On September 25, the official GIGGLE account was suspected to have been hacked, and the token's market cap plummeted by more than 60% in a short period, once falling below $10 million. Some worried that GIGGLE would repeat the fate of Meme coins going to zero.

Unexpectedly, on October 3, GIGGLE was listed on Binance Alpha, and on the 9th, it was listed on Binance perpetual contracts. By the 10th, CZ announced on X: "In less than 20 days, $11 million worth of BNB has been donated to Giggle Academy."

On the 25th, GIGGLE was listed on Binance spot, and the token price once soared above $300, with a market cap exceeding $300 million. But the next day, the token price began to fall, and on November 4, it once dropped below $50.

The real milestone also appeared on November 4. Binance announced it would donate 50% of the spot and margin trading fees from GIGGLE to support the charitable projects advocated by Giggle Fund. Giggle Academy then stated it would use 50% of these funds for token burning.

However, GIGGLE's burning mechanism created an interesting paradox: when Binance announced that 50% of trading fees would be donated to Giggle Fund, and the project team chose to use these funds for token burning, the originally pure charity narrative began to take on a financial operation color.

He Yi's description of "mutual pursuit" indeed paints a beautiful picture, but reality may be more complex. When the charitable effect becomes the support for the token's value, and when children's educational opportunities and token holders' investment returns are placed on the same scale, Giggle Academy has to face a dilemma: how to find a balance between goodwill and profit.

As with most Meme coins, we don't know whether GIGGLE will eventually go to zero, or whether those who profited or lost truly have goodwill. But this craze driven by Binance will leave a mark for future participants and the Meme ecosystem.