BNB Chain launched several incentive programs in the third quarter, including the Gas-Free Carnival and TVL incentive program, driving growth in DeFi and NFT activities.

Written by: AJC, Messari

Compiled by: Luke, Mars Finance

Key Insights

  • BNB Chain launched several new incentive programs and initiatives, including the Gas-Free Carnival for stablecoin transfers, Gas Grants Program, and the fourth phase of the TVL Incentive Program.

  • DeFi TVL on BNB Smart Chain slightly increased to $4.85 billion, maintaining its rank as the fourth highest TVL chain. Venus Finance and Avalon Finance experienced the largest growth, with Venus's TVL increasing by 13%, while Avalon grew by over 300% after joining the BNB Incubation Alliance.

  • NFT activity showed a resurgence, with average daily trading volume increasing by 283% to $600,400, although this growth was primarily driven by large individual traders.

  • BNB Chain further advanced its multi-chain strategy by continuously launching the BNB Chain Bridge, facilitating cross-chain transfers and improving liquidity across the ecosystem.

Overview

BNB Chain (BNB) is a blockchain ecosystem where each chain serves specific functions. The three core components of BNB Chain are:

  • BNB Smart Chain (BSC): Smart contract layer and DeFi hub.

  • BNB Beacon Chain: Current staking and governance layer (its functions will migrate to BSC and be deprecated to enhance the efficiency and security of the ecosystem).

  • Note: As of the time of writing, BNB Beacon Chain is in its final decommissioning phase.

  • BNB Greenfield: Decentralized storage network. As an essential part of the One BNB paradigm, Greenfield focuses on real-time, valuable data, enabling users to create their own personal data markets.

  • opBNB: High-performance optimistic rollup. opBNB is ideal for Dapps requiring high-frequency trading, such as fully on-chain games. It offers the lowest gas fees in L2, with transaction costs at $0.0001. It boasts very high performance, handling 5,000 to 10,000 TPS.

The metrics in this report primarily focus on BNB Smart Chain (BSC). BSC is an EVM-compatible Layer-1 blockchain secured by a Proof-of-Staked-Authority (PoSA) mechanism, which combines the features of Proof-of-Authority (PoA) and Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS). In BSC's PoSA, the size of the validator set is fixed and elected based on staking weight (staking plus binding). Additionally, validators must continue to stake assets to secure the network, and the validators selected to produce blocks are rotated (not based on staking weight). For a complete introduction to the BNB Chain ecosystem, please refer to our ecosystem report.

Key Metrics

Financial Overview

Market Cap and Revenue

Similar to the broader cryptocurrency market, BNB's price slightly decreased in the third quarter of 2024. At the end of the quarter, BNB's market cap was $82.79 billion, down 4% quarter-over-quarter. Among all tokens (excluding stablecoins), BNB's market cap remained ranked third, behind ETH and BTC. Additionally, BNB's performance in the third quarter was slightly worse than BTC, as Bitcoin's circulating market cap grew by 1% during the same period.

Revenue (measured by all fees collected by the network) experienced a decline in the second quarter. In dollar terms, revenue for the third quarter was $34.9 million, down 28% compared to $48.4 million in the second quarter. Revenue in BNB also declined, falling from 81,300 BNB in the second quarter to 63,500 BNB in the third quarter (a 22% decrease).

Historically, gas fees paid for DeFi-related transactions have been the largest single contributor to revenue. This trend continued in the third quarter, with the DeFi category contributing 10,200 BNB in gas fees (down 27% quarter-over-quarter). Notably, the share of DeFi in total revenue also decreased by 6% to 16% quarter-over-quarter. Revenue related to wallet-to-wallet transactions increased by 53% in the third quarter to 8,800 BNB. Additionally, its revenue share rose by 97% to 14% quarter-over-quarter. The revenue share from stablecoins also increased, rising by 8% to 8%. All other major categories (MEV, Infrastructure, Tokens, and Other) saw quarter-over-quarter declines in revenue and revenue share.

Supply Dynamics

The initial total token supply of BNB was 200 million (launched in July 2017). BNB achieves deflation through a series of burning mechanisms:

  • Auto-Burn: An automatic burning mechanism that burns a different amount of BNB each quarter based on the token price and the number of blocks generated on BNB Chain.

  • Pioneer Burn: This program counts all BNB accidentally lost by new or careless users towards quarterly burning. Project teams will compensate users in accepted cases.

  • Gas Fees Burn: According to BEP-95, 10% of all gas fees generated on BNB Smart Chain will be automatically burned. The remaining 90% is distributed as rewards to validators and stakers.

As of the end of the quarter, BNB's circulating supply was 145.9 million, resulting in an annualized deflation rate of 4.5% (up 14% quarter-over-quarter). Finally, the 28th quarterly BNB burn took place on July 22, with 1.6 million BNB burned, equivalent to $971 million at the time of the burn. All burned BNB came from the Auto-Burn mechanism.

Adoption Metrics

On-chain activity on BNB Smart Chain slightly declined in the third quarter. Average daily transaction volume showed a decreasing trend in the third quarter, down 8% from 3.7 million to 3.4 million. The average daily number of active addresses also showed a downward trend, decreasing by 19% quarter-over-quarter, from 1.1 million to 868,300. After a period of activity in the first half of the year, on-chain activity across most smart contract platforms decreased in the third quarter.

Tether's USDT became the largest token by trading volume associated with a single protocol on BNB Smart Chain in the third quarter. Its average daily trading volume was 676,600, up 10% (from 617,300). Nearly 20% of the transactions on BNB Smart Chain in the third quarter involved USDT. The trading volume of USDT was more than double that of the second-largest trading volume protocol, PancakeSwap, which recorded an average daily trading volume of 234,200, down 14% (from 273,600). 7% of transactions were related to PancakeSwap.

Besides USDT, none of the other top six protocols achieved quarter-over-quarter growth in trading volume. However, MEV (up 2% to 2%), BNB System (up 1% to 1%), and Circle's USDC (up 1% to 0.5%) all saw increases in trading share.

Similar to trading conditions, Tether's USDT became the single protocol with the most active addresses on BNB Smart Chain in the third quarter. The average daily active addresses for USDT at the end of the quarter was 294,000 (up 8% quarter-over-quarter, from 271,800). The second largest protocol by active addresses was PancakeSwap, which maintained a relatively stable average of 94,600 daily active addresses. USDT and Tether accounted for nearly 45% of all active addresses in the third quarter. No other single protocol had an average daily active address count exceeding 10,000.

Security and Decentralization

BNB Smart Chain employs a Proof-of-Staked Authority (PoSA) consensus mechanism, electing 45 validator nodes every 24 hours to participate in consensus. The election is based on the total amount of BNB tokens staked by each node. Among these 45 validators, the top 21 with the highest staking amount are 'Cabinets,' while the remaining 24 are 'Candidates.' Then, 18 are randomly selected from the 21 'Cabinets,' and 3 are randomly selected from the 18 'Candidates' to produce blocks for a given epoch. The selected validator nodes then take turns producing blocks based on Ethereum's Clique consensus design.

Following the Feynman upgrade conducted by BNB Chain on April 18, the maximum number of active validators on BNB Smart Chain increased from 40 to 45. Since the upgrade, there have consistently been 45 active validators on BNB Smart Chain, indicating strong network security and a high demand for operating validators.

The total staked BNB amount has increased for the third consecutive quarter, partly due to the transition of staking from BNB Beacon Chain to BNB Smart Chain. The total staked BNB amount increased by 7% quarter-over-quarter, rising from 30.4 million to 32.4 million. Due to a slight decrease in BNB price in the third quarter, the total dollar value of staked BNB saw a smaller increase (up 4% quarter-over-quarter, from $17.7 billion to $18.3 billion). Compared to other PoS networks, BNB Smart Chain had the third highest dollar value of staked funds at the end of the third quarter. However, the gap with the second-ranked (Solana) was $20.7 billion.

MEV

BEP-322, a Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS) proposal for BNB Smart Chain validators, was launched in the previous quarter (Q2). BEP-322 was implemented as the builder API specification to address the decentralization of MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) solutions on BSC. This specification created a unified MEV market where block proposers (i.e., validators) do not participate in selecting which transactions to include in the proposed block. Instead, block builders create potential blocks and submit them to the proposing validators. The validators then choose the proposed block that brings them the most fees. This new mechanism brings stability and transparency to BNB Chain's MEV market while also fostering healthy market competition among block builders.

The Builder API specification for BNB Smart Chain was launched in May. Throughout the quarter, 83% of blocks were built using the Builder API specification. On the last day of the third quarter, 92% of the blocks created that day used the Builder API specification. Furthermore, as of the time of writing, there are 35 different block builders on BNB Smart Chain.

Technical Developments

Last quarter, BNB Beacon Chain began its phase-out process. Although BNB Beacon Chain served as the staking and governance layer for BNB Chain, it introduced complexities and some security vulnerabilities due to the bridging between BSC and BNB Beacon Chain. As a result, BNB Chain began migrating the functions of BNB Beacon Chain to BNB Smart Chain. BEP-333: Chain Fusion will be implemented through four different upgrades.

  • BNB Beacon Chain's first phase-out fork (implemented on April 15) - disabled cryptocurrency issuance and minting capabilities on BNB Beacon Chain.

  • BNB Smart Chain Feynman hard fork (implemented on April 18) - enabled validator creation and governance capabilities on BNB Smart Chain.

  • BNB Beacon Chain's second phase-out fork (implemented on July 14) - disabled governance and delegation capabilities on BNB Beacon Chain.

  • BNB Beacon Chain's final phase-out fork (planned for November 19) - stops BNB Beacon Chain and disables cross-chain communication with BNB Smart Chain.

In the third quarter, BNB Chain also underwent a series of hard forks and technical upgrades unrelated to BNB Chain Fusion:

  • BNB Greenfield Veld hard fork (July 8) - Key features include adding bucket status to bucket migration-related events, fixing disabled buckets that could not be migrated, correcting the initial value for delegate values supporting group names, and ignoring registration channel errors.

  • BNB Greenfield Mongolian hard fork (August 8) - Key features include supporting cross-chain strategy creation, fixing the issue that the initial value for minimum comparison should be sufficiently large, and fixing broken links redirecting from local repositories to BNB Chain documentation.

  • opBNB Wright hard fork (August 27) - This upgrade introduced several changes, such as setting the base fee to zero, supporting bundle features, and handling persistent IDs when using nodebufferlist. Mainnet Op-Geth nodes must be upgraded to Op-Geth v0.4.5 before the hard fork.

  • BNB Greenfield Altai hard fork (September 23) - The Altai hard fork resolved compatibility issues between Greenfield and the Metamask extension.

  • BNB Smart Chain Bohr hard fork (September 25) - This upgrade will introduce the following four BEPs:

  • BEP-341: Validators can produce blocks continuously.

  • BEP-402: Completes missing fields in the block header to generate signatures.

  • BEP-404: Clears miner history when switching validator sets.

  • BEP-410: Adds delegation for validators.

Development Roadmap

On January 31, BNB Chain released its roadmap for 2024. The roadmap showcases strong development plans for BNB Smart Chain, BNB Greenfield, opBNB, and more. The future development efforts aim to unify the current ecosystem and chains through a multi-chain paradigm called One BNB to achieve a cohesive, seamless experience within BNB Chain. Some key highlights include:

  • BNB Smart Chain - Completing BNB Chain Fusion, expanding the validator set to 100, introducing delegated voting, MEV proposer-builder separation, and a new parallel EVM.

  • opBNB - Increasing gas limit to 200 million and achieving 10,000 TPS (achieved this quarter), implementing BEP-336 (achieved last quarter), and introducing ZK error proofs and shared sorter sets.

  • BNB Greenfield - Adding permanent storage and making it a data availability layer.

DeFi

DeFi TVL on BNB Smart Chain (in USD) slightly grew from $4.74 billion in the second quarter to $4.85 billion, an increase of 2% quarter-over-quarter. By the end of the quarter, this placed BNB Smart Chain fourth in terms of USD-denominated TVL, dropping one position after being surpassed by Solana in July. The TVL denominated in BNB remained relatively stable at 8.3 million BNB (up 10,700 BNB quarter-over-quarter). This dynamic indicates that some of the decrease in TVL's dollar value is driven by inflows.

The top two protocols by TVL on BNB Smart Chain are Venus Finance and PancakeSwap. As the largest protocol by TVL, Venus Finance's TVL grew from $1.59 billion to $1.79 billion, an increase of 13% quarter-over-quarter. Notably, despite the growth in TVL, lending volume decreased from $707 million in the second quarter to $454 million in the third quarter, a 36% decrease quarter-over-quarter. By the end of the third quarter, Venus Finance's TVL accounted for 37% (up 10% from 34% quarter-over-quarter).

PancakeSwap's TVL slightly decreased in the third quarter, from $1.72 billion to $1.64 billion, a 5% decline quarter-over-quarter. PancakeSwap consists of three different AMMs (PancakeSwap AMM, StableSwap, and AMM V3). By the end of the third quarter, the AMM's TVL was $1.19 billion (73% of the TVL), StableSwap's TVL was $14.7 million (less than 1% of the TVL), and AMM V3's TVL was $379.1 million (23% of the TVL). However, PancakeSwap's proportion of TVL decreased to 34% (down 7% from 36% quarter-over-quarter). Overall, Venus Finance and PancakeSwap account for 71% of BNB Smart Chain's TVL.

Among the top six protocols, the only one besides Venus Finance that saw an increase in TVL was Avalon Finance, a protocol providing lending services for BTC-based assets across multiple networks. Avalon Finance launched its lending market on BNB Smart Chain in May and quickly achieved an eight-digit TVL. On July 31, Avalon Finance was announced as one of the winners of the second round of the BNB Incubation Alliance, which rapidly propelled it into BNB Chain's Most Valuable Builder (MVB) program. After this announcement, Avalon Finance's TVL quickly exceeded $100 million, reaching $159.4 million by the end of the quarter (up 315% from $38.4 million quarter-over-quarter).

Other protocols among the top six include ListaDAO, PinkSale, and UNCX Network. ListaDAO is a CDP stablecoin lending and liquid staking protocol whose TVL decreased by 38% quarter-over-quarter, from $317.6 million to $198.4 million (this figure does not include ListaDAO's liquid staking TVL). ListaDAO has been running a rewards program since the first quarter. Its third-quarter TVL decline is partially attributed to fleeting arbitrage funds searching for better yield opportunities. PinkSale, a token issuance platform protocol, saw a quarter-over-quarter decline of 11%, from $200.2 million to $179.2 million. Ranking sixth is UNCX Network, a DeFi infrastructure protocol providing various token services. Its TVL decreased by 2% quarter-over-quarter, from $80.5 million to $79 million.

In the fourth quarter, BNB Smart Chain launched a TVL incentive program. This program aims to reward projects that deploy within the ecosystem and attract significant TVL. In the third quarter, the second phase concluded, running from June 27 to July 27. The third phase is a two-part plan that sets up prize pools for two categories: Liquid Staking and DeFi. A total of $300,000 was awarded to eight projects:

  • Liquid Staking - Venus Finance, PancakeSwap, and Kinza Finance.

  • DeFi - Solv, BitU, Avalon Finance, KiloEx, and Harbor Market.

On September 4, the fourth phase of the TVL incentive program was announced. The fourth phase is a two-part plan that sets up prize pools for two categories: Liquid Staking and DeFi. The Liquid Staking prize pool is $100,000, to be distributed among three winners, while the DeFi prize pool is up to $200,000, to be distributed among five winners. The fourth phase runs from September 12 to October 11.

With the migration of validation and staking services to BNB Smart Chain over the past year, liquid staking has become one of the top priorities for the BNB Chain ecosystem. Meanwhile, ListaDAO's liquid staking solution, slisBNB, has become the leading liquid staking solution on BNB Smart Chain. As of the end of the third quarter, the amount of BNB staked on ListaDAO was 406,200 (worth $23.44 million), down 2% quarter-over-quarter compared to 412,700 slisBNB (worth $23.73 million) in the second quarter.

On September 15, the first restaking token protocol on BNB Smart Chain, YieldNest, was officially launched. YieldNest allows users to restake slisBNB as ynBNB and then deposit it into restaking protocols like Karak. In the coming quarters, restaking and liquid staking are expected to become growth areas for BNB Smart Chain.

After peaking in March, DEX trading volume among most smart contract platforms has shown a declining trend. This trend continued into the third quarter for BNB Smart Chain, with average daily trading volume declining by 18%, from $708.5 million to $578.1 million. In the third quarter, BNB Smart Chain's DEX trading volume ranked fourth among all chains ($53.73 billion). Only Ethereum ($138.15 billion), Solana ($121.47 billion), and Arbitrum ($58.53 billion) surpassed it.

As of the end of the third quarter, there were 69 different DEXs on BNB Smart Chain (an increase of 3 quarter-over-quarter). Despite fierce competition, PancakeSwap has remained the dominant DEX on BNB Smart Chain. In the third quarter, PancakeSwap's average daily trading volume was $480.9 million, down 23% (from $625.8 million). PancakeSwap's market share dropped from 87% to 83%, a 4% decrease quarter-over-quarter. The DEX with the most significant growth in average daily trading volume in the third quarter was DODO. Its average daily trading volume grew by 83% to $30.7 million, making it the second-largest DEX by trading volume on BNB Smart Chain. The top five DEXs ranked by average daily trading volume in the third quarter were as follows:

  • PancakeSwap ($480.9 million - 83% of BNB Smart Chain DEX trading volume)

  • DODO ($30.7 million - 5% of BNB Smart Chain DEX trading volume)

  • THENA ($30.3 million - 5% of BNB Smart Chain DEX trading volume)

  • Uniswap ($25.7 million - 4% of BNB Smart Chain DEX trading volume)

  • BabyDogeSwap ($2.4 million - less than 1% of BNB Smart Chain DEX trading volume)

On May 21, BNB Chain announced a trading volume incentive program. This program aims to increase trading volume on the protocol through rewards-based mechanisms. The total prize pool was $200,000, to be shared among the top ten protocols. Winners were determined based on total trading volume and incremental trading volume during the period. The program ran until July 9. Rewards were distributed to the top 10 projects with the largest incremental trading volume: PancakeSwap, THENA, APX Finance, uDEX, KiloEx, WOOFI, Sigma, Velvet Capital, KTX, and Level Finance.

Stablecoins and BTC

In 2023, the market cap of stablecoins on BNB Smart Chain showed a declining trend, primarily due to the decrease in BUSD supply. In the first quarter of 2023, NYDFS ordered BUSD issuer Paxos to stop issuing, and various centralized exchanges (such as Coinbase) also suspended BUSD trading. Therefore, the market cap of stablecoins on BNB Smart Chain has been declining every quarter in 2023.

However, this trend reversed significantly in the first half of 2024, primarily due to the growth of other stablecoins on BNB Smart Chain. In the third quarter, the market cap of stablecoins remained relatively stable, slightly declining from $5.03 billion to $5.00 billion (a decrease of $24.9 million). The largest stablecoin on BNB Smart Chain, USDT, saw a slight increase in market cap, rising from $3.97 billion to $3.98 billion. By the end of the third quarter, USDT accounted for 79% of the stablecoin market on BNB Smart Chain (unchanged quarter-over-quarter). The second-largest stablecoin, USDC, experienced a slight loss in the third quarter, declining from $543.4 million to $540.8 million.

At the end of the third quarter, BNB Smart Chain launched the 'Gas-Free Carnival' event aimed at increasing the adoption rate of stablecoins on the platform. The Gas-Free Carnival allows users to transfer stablecoins without gas fees, offering various seamless transaction options:

  • Gas-Free Stablecoin Transfers: Users can send USDT, USDC, and FDUSD on BNB Smart Chain and opBNB without gas fees, supported by Bitget Wallet and SafePal.

  • Zero Fee Withdrawals: Participating exchanges (such as Binance, Bitget, Gate.io, and SafePal) offer free withdrawal services for these stablecoins to BNB Smart Chain.

  • Free Cross-Chain via Celer cBridge: Users can transfer supported stablecoins across chains to BNB Smart Chain or opBNB network for free using Celer cBridge.

BTCB is one of the largest assets by market cap on BNB Smart Chain, second only to BNB and stablecoins. It is the tokenized version of Bitcoin on BNB Smart Chain. In the third quarter, the supply of BTCB increased by 8% year-on-year, reaching 65,300, equivalent to $4.13 billion. The number of BTCB holders increased by 7% year-on-year, slightly exceeding 1 million. The development of BNB Smart Chain is supported by its emerging BTCFi ecosystem. Projects like Solv Finance, Lorenzo, and Lombard Finance provide BTCB holders on BNB Smart Chain with channels to participate in various DeFi opportunities.

opBNB

opBNB is an EVM-compatible optimistic rollup that helps increase the execution throughput of BNB Smart Chain. Since its launch in the middle of the third quarter, the total bridged value (TVB) has been on the rise. In the third quarter, $3 million was bridged to opBNB, bringing the TVB to $78.9 million (up 4% from $75.9 million). USDT (up 4% to $52.1 million) remains the most popular bridged token on opBNB, accounting for 66% of all TVB. In terms of percentage, BTCB saw the largest growth in the third quarter, increasing by 304% to $774,200.

In 2024, DeFi TVL on opBNB has been on the rise, partly due to the launch of various TVL incentive programs during the year. In the third quarter, DeFi TVL on opBNB slightly retreated, decreasing by 12% from $28.9 million to $25.4 million. DeFi TVL on opBNB is primarily supported by two projects: KiloEx (with a TVL of $17.4 million) and PancakeSwap ($6.5 million). These two projects accounted for 94% of opBNB's TVL in the third quarter.

NFTs

After a lackluster performance in the second quarter, NFT activity rebounded in the third quarter. The average daily NFT trading volume increased by 283%, from $156,900 to $600,400. The average daily sales volume also increased, rising by 47% to 8,900. However, the average daily number of buyers fell by 53% to 2,300, indicating that NFT activity in the third quarter was primarily driven by 'whales' rather than small users.

Ecosystem Growth

BNB Chain continues to support new projects within the ecosystem through its Most Valuable Builder (MVB) Accelerator Program. In August, BNB announced the results of MVB Season 7. There were over 700 applications, with five different projects receiving investment from Binance Labs:

  • Aggregata - AI Data and Model Platform

  • Blum - Telegram-based Cryptocurrency Trading Application

  • O.LAB - Dynamic Prediction Market

  • SideKick - Social Hub for Gaming and Other Fields

  • Vooi - Cross-Chain Aggregator for Perpetual DEX

MVB Season 8 was also announced at the end of August. The MVB program for BNB Chain's eighth season offers a four-week concentrated acceleration for early Web3 projects in collaboration with Binance Labs, CMC Labs, and BNB Chain.

In addition to the MVB Accelerator Program, BNB Smart Chain held a hackathon in the third quarter. The application submission period was open from July 31 to August 28, receiving nearly 200 different applications. The total prize pool was $500,000, with three different tracks: Gaming, Social, and Payments. The winners of the hackathon were announced on October 2:

  • First Prize ($15,000) - zkGraph

  • Second Prize ($10,000 each) - Siren and CryptoBed

  • Third Prize ($5,000 each) - The Witch Credit Card, GreenPress, and Bakeland

BNB Chain also launched a series of community and ecosystem initiatives in the third quarter:

  • BNB Chain Telegram Mini Games Report (August 2) - BNB Chain highlighted the rise of Telegram mini-games within its ecosystem, noting their increasing popularity as a Web3 entry point. These mini-apps seamlessly integrate into Telegram, allowing users to access Web3 services, including decentralized exchanges and NFT markets, without leaving the app. Notable projects include GombleGames's Eggdrop, which features token-based gameplay, and SkyArk Chronicles's Let's Throw Slime, an NFT-based interactive game.

  • BNB Incubation Alliance (BIA) Winners (August 6) - Last quarter, BNB Chain announced its BNB Incubation Alliance, an incubator project designed for early ecosystem projects seeking BNB grants and investment from Binance Labs. Winners in the BNB Incubation Alliance during Bitcoin 2024 held in Nashville include Avalon Finance and Bedrock. Winners at EthCC in Brussels include Balloon Dogs, Blackwing, and Payman.

  • Meme Coin Innovation Battle Round 3 (August 13) - This program offers up to $150,000 in rewards to promote the meme coin ecosystem on BNB Smart Chain. It focuses on launching new meme coins and enhancing liquidity for existing meme coins, providing custom marketing and access to a $900,000 liquidity pool to support growth. Meme coin launchpads four.meme, MyShell, Flap, and Burve also offer additional incentives.

  • Gas Grants Program (August 19) - This program provides over $1 million in rewards over three months to incentivize projects on BNB Smart Chain or opBNB that meet specific criteria, such as daily active user requirements and passing security audits. Up to $440,000 will be allocated monthly based on participants' gas fees generated and user engagement, with top projects eligible for up to 80% gas fee refunds, capped at $50,000 per project.

  • BNB Chain Bridge (August 28) - Developed in collaboration with Celer, deBridge, and Stargate, the BNB Chain Bridge enhances liquidity, connectivity, and user experience on BNB Smart Chain. It simplifies cross-chain transfers, allowing users to easily navigate between popular tokens and bridges. Moreover, liquidity pools support faster and more competitive asset transfers.

Summary

In the third quarter, BNB Smart Chain demonstrated robust progress with significant developments in DeFi, staking, and cross-chain initiatives. Despite a slight decline in BNB's market cap (down 4% quarter-over-quarter), network activity remained strong with daily transaction volume reaching 3.4 million, although slightly down from the second quarter. BNB Chain's DeFi TVL increased by 2% to $4.85 billion, solidifying its position as the fourth largest TVL chain. Venus Finance led the charge, with TVL growing by 13%, while newly added projects like Avalon Finance also achieved significant growth after joining the BNB Incubation Alliance. The introduction of liquid staking solutions and the opBNB rollup helped drive participation and bridge TVB, enhancing BNB Chain's liquidity and user experience.

The growth of the ecosystem is also reflected in a wide range of development plans, including the ongoing Most Valuable Builder (MVB) Accelerator and hackathons. A series of community initiatives further facilitated user engagement, including the Gas-Free Carnival, Telegram mini-games, and the cross-chain BNB Chain Bridge.