Binance Opens ZAMA Pre-TGE Sale Days After $118.5M ICO Closes
Alvin Lang Jan 29, 2026 09:35
Binance Alpha Points holders with 220+ points can access ZAMA Prime Sale, capped at 3 BNB per user. Token already trading 14% below ICO price.
Binance is giving Alpha Points holders early access to ZAMA tokens through a Pre-TGE Prime Sale, just days after the privacy-focused project wrapped up a $118.5 million ICO that saw 318% oversubscription.
Users need at least 220 Binance Alpha Points to participate, with purchases capped at 3 BNB per person. The restriction suggests Binance is prioritizing broader distribution over whale accumulation—a pattern the exchange has followed with recent high-demand launches.
Price Already Under Pressure
Here's the problem for sale participants: ZAMA's pre-market contract price has already slipped to around $0.043 as of January 29, roughly 14% below the ICO's $0.05 liquidation price from January 24. That Dutch auction cleared at a premium after massive demand, but early secondary market action tells a different story.
The disconnect between ICO enthusiasm and current pricing creates an awkward entry point. Buyers in this Prime Sale need to weigh whether they're getting a discount to fair value or catching a falling knife before the token generation event.
What ZAMA Actually Does
The project isn't another generic L1 play. Zama builds fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) technology—cryptography that lets applications compute on encrypted data without decrypting it first. Think confidential DeFi: private token swaps, sealed-bid auctions, encrypted lending positions.
Founded in 2020 by cryptographers including Dr. Rand Hindi and Dr. Pascal Paillier, Zama's protocol acts as a cross-chain confidentiality layer. The $ZAMA token handles protocol fees (burned) and staking rewards (minted to operators).
Whether that use case justifies the valuation remains the open question. Privacy tech has struggled to find product-market fit in crypto—Tornado Cash regulatory action spooked the space, and most users still default to transparent transactions.
CZ's Advice for New Traders
In a separate Binance Square AMA, CZ offered guidance that applies here: start small, avoid jumping straight into leveraged products, build positions gradually. For a pre-TGE token with no trading history and already-declining pre-market prices, that caution seems particularly relevant.
The 3 BNB cap enforces some of that discipline automatically. At current BNB prices, that limits exposure to roughly $1,800-2,000 per participant—meaningful but not portfolio-wrecking if ZAMA continues its post-ICO slide.
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