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Yonatan Sompolinsky, founder of Kaspa ($KAS) just lit a fire under the crypto establishment by rejecting Binance Blockchain 100 award.
Author: Sahil Thakur
9th November 2025 – Yonatan Sompolinsky, founder of Kaspa ($KAS) and pioneer of the GHOST protocol just lit a fire under the crypto establishment by rejecting Binance Blockchain 100 award.
On November 6, Sompolinsky publicly rejected Binance’s Blockchain 100 Award, turning down an invitation to its high-profile Dubai gala. But it wasn’t just a polite decline – it was a scathing critique of the exchange’s role in what he calls the industry’s drift from “cypherpunk” to “casino crypto.”
Sompolinsky won in the “Independent Researcher” category of Binance’s annual awards. He was scheduled to attend a December 3 gala alongside names like Michael Saylor and CZ Binance.
Instead, he took to X with a blistering statement addressed directly to @binance.
He thanked the platform for the recognition, but said the support came largely from “avid kaspians” — supporters of Kaspa, not just his research. “Let them win or count me out,” he wrote.
Then came the real message.
Sompolinsky called out Binance for listing meme coins like PEPE within weeks of launch, while ignoring Kaspa, a fair-launched, pure PoW Layer-1 blockchain with no premine, no ICO, and 100ms block times. Kaspa has hit top-20 market cap status and yet remains unlisted on Binance.
He framed this as not just a missed listing, but a market distortion. According to him, Binance isn’t just reacting to demand. It’s molding the market, pushing hype over substance.
He cited @0xMert’s crypto taxonomy – commercial, casino, and cypherpunk and called on Binance to create a “privilege policy” for cypherpunk projects. These are typically fair-launch protocols that can’t pay the rumored $40M+ listing fees.
“Listing fees are legit,” he wrote. “They’re just unfit for cypherpunk.”
In Sompolinsky’s view, Kaspa is Bitcoin’s spiritual successor – faster, leaner, fairer. It was built with no dev fund, no VC dominance, and minimal early mining. He described it as a “sovereign money thesis” with real technical breakthroughs like GHOSTDAG and 10 blocks per second.
Sampolinsky argued that exchanges should support these projects, especially after crashes like the October USDe glitch, where centralized platforms played a role. He told Binance: “You’re not a read-only entity. You help define what’s strong.”
Sompolinsky also reminded readers that Binance’s listing decisions shape perception, not just reflect it.
The community responded fast. Within hours, the post had:
$KAS price surged nearly 19%, jumping from ~$0.12 to ~$0.143, even as Bitcoin dipped 2%. Users praised the move as a “thunderbolt,” a “manifesto,” and a rare act of integrity.
Videos like “Kaspa Founder ROASTS Binance” trended on YouTube. Reddit’s r/kaspa exploded with praise, and translations of the post appeared in German, Dutch, and Turkish.
This wasn’t just a rejection. It was a challenge to crypto’s biggest exchange to re-examine its priorities, and its influence.
No response from Binance yet. But with $KAS gaining traction and Sompolinsky’s post gaining global reach, this moment may push the “cypherpunk vs casino” debate into the spotlight again.
Whether or not Binance lists Kaspa, one thing is clear: the soul of crypto is still being fought over.
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