Musk and CZ Trade Barbs as Crypto Crash Deepens

Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, the founder of Binance, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk were at it again on Friday, exchanging memes as stocks tumbled and crypto prices collapsed. The exchange began under a post from Billy Markus, who co-created Dogecoin and had just woken up in Japan, asking about the state of the market.

The jokes were aimed at traders nursing real losses as Bitcoin (BTC) fell alongside equities. Those holding leveraged long positions — bets funded with borrowed money on rising prices — took the biggest hit.

How Did Musk and CZ React to the Crypto Market Crash?

Musk fired off the first reply to the Dogecoin co-creator. His post carried a grainy, red-tinged image of CZ, a wink at the red candles that track falling prices.

pic.twitter.com/mGCRoirFb1

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 6, 2026

The jab brought back an earlier clash between the two. After hackers linked to North Korea drained about $6.3 billion from Binance on October 29, Musk posted laughing emojis beneath a security warning from CZ.

Back then, CZ called it a bad time to troll and asked Musk for “a little support.”

This time around, the Binance founder played along with a cartoon of a figure hunched on the ground, an arrow stuck in a bleeding leg.

pic.twitter.com/185SwuaNKi

— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) November 6, 2026

Yi He, Binance's co-founder and co-CEO, piled on about an hour later. She quoted Musk’s post with the red and blue pill scene from The Matrix, where the red pill exposes a harsh reality and the blue pill preserves a comforting illusion.

Her post also featured a green-tinted and a red-tinted version of Musk’s CZ image, asking followers: “Which colored pill do you choose?”

Which colored pill do you choose?💁🏻‍♀️ https://t.co/UwM37oOmg7 pic.twitter.com/SONk4QQpE5

— Yi He (@heyibinance) November 6, 2026

A Wall Street Rout Reached Asia Before Dogecoin’s Co-Creator Woke Up

The selloff kicked off in US equities. On Thursday, a slide in AI chip stocks triggered a $2 trillion stock wipeout that rippled through global markets overnight.

By the time the Dogecoin co-creator logged on in Japan, Asian markets were under severe strain. In South Korea, the KOSPI index dropped below 5,000 and set off a circuit breaker after an 8% decline.

The stock rout quickly morphed into a crypto market crash. One trader lost 201 BTC, worth roughly $15.6 million at the time, in eight straight liquidations.

In the meantime, the Bitcoin price fell under $80,000 and hit its lowest level in a month.

For now, what happens next may hinge less on memes than on stocks. Crypto analyst Ben Cowen has cautioned that a 2018-style selloff could push Bitcoin back to $58,000. That kind of slide would stretch the crypto market crash well beyond this week’s losses.