In November in Bangkok, the humid air is filled with intense anticipation. The crowd at the Devcon venue reflects the frenzy as BTC's price breaks through 90,000 USD, and rumors about a single memecoin breaking a million circulate on social media.
Traffic here is stagnant, with ride-hailing software displaying red like blood vessels; red also appears under the nearby overpass, where local children shake red transparent plastic cups towards passersby, most of which are empty. On the other side of the night, the same red appears in the eyes of hackathon developers: the high-pressure development in a short time leaves them exhausted yet excited.
At the BNB Chain hackathon in Bangkok, the air conditioning was ample, and the venue was spacious. The snack area ran out of a certain brand of tom yum flavored chips first, and Coca-Cola was the most popular drink. Within 24 hours, over 100 developers submitted 38 projects, and 8 teams had the opportunity to showcase, half of which were from India, with 3 teams winning prizes to enter the next stage. The teams whispered among themselves, and some shook hands to say they'd come back next time. The low-key and quiet competition is like a small tide, seemingly building up strength.
In the past three years, BNB Chain has held more than 20 hackathons, covering tens of thousands of developers from over 35 countries, with over 1000 projects submitted and a total prize pool of about 50 million USD.
The 'silent three years'
There was once a voice in the community that said, 'Nobody is playing on BNB Chain anymore.' It was only recently that BSC's Thena (THE) and Memes went live on Binance, which sparked some attention.
During the three years of 'silence', the BNB Chain appeared calm on the surface, but the data reveals another dimension.
According to DeFilama data from November 2024, BNB Chain still ranks second after Ethereum in the second tier. Statistics show that it currently ranks third in stablecoin market capitalization and fourth in TVL (Total Value Locked) with over 8 billion USD, occupying one-sixth of the weekly trading volume in the entire on-chain world.
BNB Chain currently offers 218 types of developer tools, with over 800 active applications, performing outstandingly in DeFi, Gaming, and AI sectors.
The MVB (Most Valuable Builder) program, which began in 2021, is an important part of BNB Chain's support for early projects. According to publicly disclosed information, of the 131 projects incubated in the past seven sessions of MVB, 75 projects have attracted attention from top investment institutions, including Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, Delphi Capital, and Zhen Fund. Binance Labs invested in 39 of these projects. According to incomplete statistics, more than 60 projects have completed their TGE, and over 60% have listed on major centralized exchanges, among which Galaxy, Mobox, SpaceID, SleeplessAI, and Altlayer have launched on Binance LaunchPool.
Given the high elimination rate of the Web3 industry, the survival rate of these early projects supported by BNB Chain is remarkable. However, this data is often not perceived by the outside world.
While users have recently embraced the wave of meme culture on Solana, the BNB Chain community, like many other public chains, envies this explosive user growth and attention.
From an objective data perspective, the number of Memecoins currently running on BNB Chain still differs significantly from that on Solana. There are also long-lived meme projects like 1 MBABYDOGE, SimonCat (CAT), WHY, and CHEEMS that have launched on Binance contracts or spot markets. With the completion of infrastructure such as launch platforms like Four.meme and long-term support from community resources, it is expected that more vibrant 'Meme Seasons' will emerge on BNB Chain.
Turning towards the sea
If Ethereum resembles a group of idealistic geniuses and Solana is a pioneer adept at capturing attention, then BNB Chain is more like a silent craftsman quietly toiling away.
The important role that Binance plays in this ecosystem cannot be denied. However, the BNB Chain community lacks star figures and dazzling technical geniuses; instead, it consists of a group of individuals with low egos and a focus on pragmatism. Their constant reflection is: Should we follow the short-term tide? What are the truly valuable things in the long term?
Meme represents public opinion, carries the emotions of the community, and is also the direction supported by BNB Chain, but the industry cannot be solely about Memes. Through countless discussions in the community and team, BNB Chain has gradually formed a clear positioning: Web3 needs to move towards broader and more realistically meaningful application scenarios.
From both temporal and spatial dimensions, BNB Chain has built a comprehensive support system for developers and users through patient layout.
In terms of time, early on, BNB Chain held hackathons to discover and support potential developers and projects; BIA (Incubation Alliance) then supports projects in capital connections, followed by resource investment and pouring into the MVB program's incubation academy for weeks. The mid-term focuses on user activity (DAU), total locked value (TVL), and transaction volume incentives after project deployment, while also providing technical and market support. The later stage involves resource connections across the entire ecosystem, including but not limited to investment and resource connections for listings, as well as the subsequent development of projects.
This progression model of the timeline often starts with 1-2 years of companionship.
From a spatial horizontal dimension, the multi-chain ecosystem centered around BNB includes: Smart Chain BSC, high-performance layer two opBNB, and storage chain Greenfield, providing developers and users with a complete set of 'oneBNB' multi-dimensional infrastructure.
The sea is right there. The ship has been built, but where are the caravans and the passengers going?
The direction of the tide: AI+
In the ebb and flow of crypto, building a solid ecosystem in its own way.
According to DappBay, in the past 30 days, among the top 10 active addresses on the BNB Chain, 5 projects are focused on AI infrastructure and tools, and 3 are in Gaming.
Currently, on BNB Chain, the number of active projects related to the AI ecosystem has exceeded 30, such as AI Agent types: My Shell, HoloWorld AI, Sleepless AI; content creation applications like NFPromt; middleware REVOX, Aggregata. With the support of the Greenfield storage chain, the data-related proportion is high, such as data labeling types (Data Labelling) DIN, Alaya AI, JoloWorld, etc. According to DappRadar data from November 20, Din ranks first among all AI applications with nearly 700,000 weekly active addresses.
This trend is not difficult to understand. BNB Chain has its own high-speed layer two opBNB and data storage chain Greenfield infrastructure, providing an efficient, secure, and private data storage platform, which is the core infrastructure for decentralized AI application deployment.
The BNB community's supportive attitude towards AI can be said to be 'clear-cut'. Most of the projects mentioned above were incubated through MVB, with Binance Labs investing in 7 of them. Support occurred even earlier than MVB and investment stages—such as StoryChain, a project that emerged from last year's BNB Chain hackathon, which has made its way into the selection list for the eighth session of MVB, with its mainnet set to launch next year.
The initial intention of laying out the storage chain may stem from optimism about decentralized social (DeSoc). Interestingly, the infrastructure of BNB Chain's data storage chain combined with the NFTization of intellectual property, along with the vigorous development of the AI+Data ecosystem, perfectly aligns BNB Chain with the recently emerging wave of decentralized science (DeSci).
DeSci usually requires strong data storage capabilities and fast access support, and this data is often sensitive and private. The existing ecological system of BNB Chain can help researchers better and more securely share data, provide lower-cost data computing resources, and ensure fair distribution of scientific achievements through smart contracts.
This makes BNB Chain likely to become a nurturing ground for the DeSci wave, supporting more scientific advancements that change humanity.
A 'pragmatic and diverse marine vision'
In addition to the strongly data-related AI field, the BNB Chain ecosystem is currently also laid out in DeFi, GameFi, and stablecoin payment sectors.
In terms of TVL ranking in the BTCFi track, projects such as Solv Protocol, Avalon Labs, Lorenzo, Lombard, and Kinza occupy the forefront. Among them, Solv, Lorenzo (formerly MEP), and Kinza are all projects incubated through the MVB program and received investment from Binance Labs. Avalon, on the other hand, is a newcomer in the eighth session of MVB. According to Messari's Q3 report, its TVL increased by over 300% after joining BIA (Incubation Alliance).
Gaming has always been the mainstay of BNB Chain. In the last GameFi summer, over 40% of gaming projects were built on BSC, attracting a large number of gaming users and developers. Currently, the most active users and transactions include: Seraph, TG Mini Games, World of Dypians, Egg Drops, as well as Gomble Games (which has received investment from Binance Labs) and Elfin Metaverse. Their weekly active users range from 600,000 to 1 million, contributing to most of the transaction volume on BNB Chain.
Many projects currently emerging on BNB Chain are still very young, but if one traces back to the incubation history of BNB Chain and Binance Labs, they will find coincidences that do not seem to belong to the same period.
For example, the leading project in the RWA field, Ondo, was incubated in the third session of MVB; other contemporaneous projects include: the DeFi protocol Impossible Finance; DeFi data tools and wallets Debank; and the trading platform Woo Network. Recently, the BTCFi protocol Solv Protocol, which has gained attention for its significant increase in TVL and ranks second, is one of the outstanding graduates of the fourth session of MVB. Also from the fourth session are the security network Goplus Security and the once-hot star in GameFi, StarSharks.
Although these projects belong to different fields and fluctuate due to narrative changes, they have survived over time in this fast-paced and harsh industry. Their commonality is providing application value to users in their respective fields, and these growing projects have injected more diversified possibilities into the BNB Chain ecosystem and the entire crypto industry.
The industry's hotspots are always emerging rapidly and switching quickly. What BNB Chain has been doing for a long time can actually be summarized in one sentence—simply building the infrastructure well, bringing in more developers and applications, and creating value for users.
BNB Chain has long stated that its vision is to attract the next 1 billion users into Web3—this statement sounds a bit distant and abstract. However, it seems that this community is proving its development philosophy and aesthetics through action: pragmatic, long-term, and value-creating.
Through continuous improvement of infrastructure, the rise of AI, and exploration in Gaming and DeFi, what BNB Chain has been thinking about and is currently depicting is a more comprehensive and long-lasting Web3 ocean.
