The BNB Chain ecosystem continued to see gains this week and has now experienced more than a month of consistent growth.
TL;DR…
- Altcoin surge lifts BNB Chain market cap by $8 billion
- On-chain activity soars: daily transactions +310%, DEX volume +1400%
- Ecosystem updates: Maxwell fork improves blocktime; Alpaca shuts down; Sophon airdrop
Led by a strong Bitcoin (BTC), the altcoin market surged this week. The BNB Chain ecosystem caught some of this windfall, sending popular BEP-20 assets soaring.
The CMC Crypto Fear and Greed Index has now cooled to a healthy 68, suggesting a slight veneer of greed in the market.
>> Click here to read last week’s update
BNB Chain Market Recap
The BNB Chain ecosystem continued to see gains this week and has now experienced more than a month of consistent growth.
Source: BNB Chain Ecosystem Page
The sector added more than $8 billion to its market capitalization (mcap) this week, bringing the total to $175.4 billion (+4.8%).
The majority of popular BNB Chain tokens are in the green this week, with some of the best performers gaining upwards of 30% during this time.
These include:
- Merlin Chain (MERL): +48.2%
- Lista DAO (LISTA): +37.7%
- Cookie DAO (COOKIE): +36.2%
- Mask Network (MASK): +28.5%
The chain’s native gas asset, BNB (BNB), briefly touched $695 and is up 4.8% for the week. It is currently the best-performing smart contract gas asset among the top 10 by mcap.
But not all BNB ecosystem assets got the bullish memo, with some suffering heavy losses instead, including:
- Huma Finance (HUMA): -50.8%
- Hey Anon (ANON): -23.1%
- SKYAI (SKYAI): -17.3%
- Solidus Ai Tech (AITECH): -17.3%
Source: Artemis
This month, BNB Chain became the second most active smart contract platform by number of daily transactions, spiking from 3.5 million to 14.4 million YTD (+310%).
Source: Artemis
It also saw skyrocketing DEX trading volumes in May, surging by 1,400% this month. BNB Chain now handles more on-chain trading activity than all other L1s combined.
BNB Chain also led in terms of seven-day TVL growth, at +6.9%.
Taken together, these figures highlight BNB Chain’s growing market and mindshare.
BNB Chain News Roundup
As one of the most diverse blockchain ecosystems, there is an avalanche of regular updates and developments to keep tabs on.
Below, we’ve highlighted three of this week’s most significant developments.
Maxwell Hard Fork Halves Block Times: BNB Chain’s Maxwell upgrade went live on testnet May 26, cutting block times to 0.75 seconds. BEP-524, -563, and -564 enhance consensus, networking, and data propagation ahead of the planned June 30 mainnet rollout.
Alpaca Finance Shuts Down After Four-Year Run: Leveraged yield-farming pioneer Alpaca Finance said on May 27 it will wind down all BNB Chain products by year-end, citing weak revenue, Binance’s April delisting, and failed M&A talks; withdrawals stay open until Dec. 31.
Sophon HODLer Airdrop for BNB Holders: Binance recently announced that Sophon (SOPH), a ZK-powered entertainment chain on BNB Chain, is the 20th HODLer Airdrop project; 150 million tokens go to BNB Simple Earn subscribers before spot trading begins. (source)
>> That’s a wrap. Join us next week for more BNB Chain news and developments.
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