APX Finance Evaluates MEV Concerns with On-Chain Perpetuals Using MUBARAK Test

Changpeng Zhao, founder and former CEO of Binance, executed a leveraged long trade with a 24.7x ratio on Mubarak (MUBARAK) to examine potential MEV concerns, causing a rise in the token's value.

On March 23, Zhao opened a 24.7x leveraged long position on Mubarak using 0.04 BNB as collateral on APX Finance. The transaction was reported by on-chain analyst ai\_9684xtpa on X. Zhao responded to the report with "Doing a little on-chain testing on Sunday, as usual. Nothing to be excited about."

Despite Zhao's attempt to downplay the event, ai\_9684xtpa noted that in the 7 minutes following the opening of the position, APX (APX) increased by 26%, from $0.64 to $0.081, and MUBARAK climbed by 5.5%, from $0.146 to $0.154. The trade was made using a public donation address, and the position has since been closed.

This market behavior aligns with a recurring pattern in which buying pressure follows whenever Zhao trades or tweets. For instance, Zhao recently bought 20,150 MUBARAK for 1 BNB (valued at $600 at the time), causing MUBARAK to soar and temporarily claim the top spot on BNB Chain's memecoin rankings by market cap, with trading volume surpassing $180 million, according to Root Data.

However, Zhao's perpetual trade on MUBARAK was carried out as an experiment, as he later clarified in his post on X, stating "Just trying the experience, also trying to see how if there is still MEV."

Zhao has not yet disclosed any findings from his testing related to Maximal Extractable Value (MEV). His perpetual trade testing comes after his Feb. 7 poll on X, where he asked whether BNB Chain should eliminate or significantly reduce MEV issues.

Although MEV is more commonly associated with the Ethereum (ETH) network, users of BNB Chain have also suffered substantial losses due to MEV – where validators reorder or rearrange transactions waiting to be included in the block to maximize their profits. In 2024 alone, BNB users reportedly lost approximately $1.5 billion due to MEV.