Binance’s BNB Chain rebounds amid institutional, DeFi adoption

Binance-affiliated BNB Chain has rebounded after a period of stagnation in 2023 amid accelerating institutional and decentralized finance (DeFi) adoption. During the past year, BNB Chain has benefited from multibillion-dollar inflows into DeFi, US exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and rising trading volume at affiliated centralized exchange (CEX) Binance. Consequently, the blockchain network’s native BNB token ( BNB ) has emerged as among the market’s most resilient cryptocurrencies , surpassing all-time highs in the first quarter of 2025 even as the broader crypto market trended downward. “This resilience isn’t just about price action — strong fundamentals also back it,” Joao Wedson, CEO of investing analytics platform Alphractal, said in an April X post. “Binance has built a massive ecosystem where BNB is used extensively,” Wedson added. Asset manager Standard Chartered expects the BNB token’s price to continue to rise , reaching highs of $2,775 by the end of 2028. As of May 7, BNB trades at around $600 per coin. It has a market capitalization of nearly $85 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. Meanwhile, asset manager VanEck proposed on May 5 the first BNB ETF in the United States . DeFi activity on BNB Chain (formerly BSC). Source: DeFiLlama Related: Standard Chartered predicts BNB will more than double in 2025 DeFi inflows Since the start of 2024, BNB Chain’s TVL has increased from around $3.5 billion to more than $6 billion, according to data from DefiLlama. It still hasn’t recovered fully to all-time highs of more than $20 billion in 2022. As of May 7, BNB Chain ranks fourth among layer-1 blockchain networks by TVL, the data shows. According to Standard Chartered, BNB Chain’s “use cases remain almost entirely on decentralised exchanges [DEXs], lending protocols, and liquid staking. This makes it a much more concentrated and ‘old-fashioned’ smart contract platform than rivals,” it said in a May research note reviewed by Cointelegraph. “While this caps upside potential, it also provides a degree of stability,” according to the asset manager. PancakeSwap is among BNB Chain’s largest DEXs, with roughly $1.5 billion in TVL, according to DefiLlama. USD1 on BNB Chain vs. Ethereum. Source: BSC Scan Institutional adoption Institutional adoption is growing on the blockchain network, with performance partly driven by its ties to Binance, the network’s affiliated CEX. The exchange clocked an all-time high trading volume of around $76 trillion in 2024. It accounts for roughly 40% of spot trading volumes globally, according to Standard Chartered. In addition, US President Donald Trump-backed stablecoin USD1 has been issued primarily on the BNB Chain. Data from BscScan shows that more than $2 billion worth of USD1 — or 99% of its circulating supply — has been issued on BNB Chain. Magazine: 12 minutes of nail-biting tension when Ethereum’s Pectra fork goes live