BNB, the native token of Binance’s BNB Chain, has recently surged to a new all-time high, solidifying its position as the third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization in the world. According to data from CryptoSlate, BNB reached a record high of $1,335 on October 7th, before slightly retracing to around $1,306 at the time of writing. The token has seen a more than 6% increase in the past 24 hours, making it one of the top performers in the market for the day. Over the past week, BNB has gained nearly 30%, extending its monthly rally to about 50%.
This recent surge has propelled BNB to surpass XRP in total market value, with BNB’s capitalization now standing at $182.6 billion, exceeding XRP’s $178 billion. BNB now ranks third in global rankings, trailing only Bitcoin and Ethereum, representing approximately 32% of Ethereum’s $568 billion market cap.
The uptick in BNB’s price can be attributed to its growing utility and network activity within the BNB Chain ecosystem. Decentralized exchanges like Aster have experienced significant increases in trading volumes, driving demand for BNB as the chain’s core gas and governance token.
According to DefiLlama data, BNB Chain’s total value locked (TVL) has surged more than 7% in the past 24 hours, reaching approximately $4.5 billion. Network fees amounted to $4.51 million during the same period, while protocol revenue climbed to $2.23 million. Additionally, active addresses on the BNB Chain have seen a substantial increase, with over 73 million recorded in September and 15 million logged already in October.
Venture capital firm YZi Labs highlighted that BNB’s fundamentals are geared towards mass adoption, citing expanding on-chain momentum, broad staking utility, deflationary tokenomics through dual burn mechanisms, and low transaction costs post the Maxwell hard fork as key drivers behind its post-ATH performance. Institutional players have also started integrating BNB for treasury and liquidity management, signaling a deeper level of adoption.
The recent rally in BNB coincides with a surge in speculative trading on the blockchain network. Bubblemaps, a blockchain analytics platform, reported a significant increase in memecoin activity, labeling the ongoing “BNB memecoin season” as one of the most profitable in recent cycles. Over 100,000 on-chain traders participated in new token launches, with about 70% of them posting profits.
Notable projects like the $4 memecoin, Binance Life, and PALU have seen impressive performances, with early traders earning substantial gains ranging from $100,000 to $1 million. This influx of retail speculation and capital movement has created a favorable environment for BNB’s momentum, reinforcing its role as both a utility token and a barometer for broader activity on Binance’s blockchain network.