By: Eliza Bennet
The cryptocurrency landscape witnessed a significant shift as Binance's native token, BNB, achieved a new all-time high, becoming the third-largest crypto by market capitalization. Reaching $1,335 on October 7, BNB retraced slightly to $1,306, marking a 6% increase over the past 24 hours. This surge allowed it to surpass XRP, positioning its market capitalization at $182.6 billion compared to XRP's $178 billion.
This remarkable performance of BNB highlights its growing utility within the BNB Chain ecosystem. Decentralized exchanges and the wider network economy have bolstered demand for BNB as a primary gas and governance token. According to DeFiLlama, BNB Chain's total value locked (TVL) recently grew by more than 7%, reaching approximately $4.5 billion, while active network addresses numbered over 73 million in September alone.
Several factors contribute to BNB's impressive rally, with institutional interest playing a pivotal role. Venture capital firm YZi Labs highlighted the network's expanding on-chain activities, staking utilities, and the effective dual burn tokenomics, which contribute to its robustness against market volatilities. Moreover, the latest memecoin trading buzz on BNB Chain has seen around 100,000 traders engage profitably, underscoring speculative interest in the network.
The prevailing "BNB memecoin season" signals greater retail involvement and capital influx, further cementing BNB's status as a significant player in the crypto sphere. As a testament to its evolving role, BNB now stands as a bellwether for activity within the Binance ecosystem, reflecting broader market trends while attracting attention both from individual investors and institutions alike.