Written by: Mu Mu
Editor: Wen Dao
At the end of 2024, the crypto asset market is still hot: the well-known NFT IP Pudgy Penguins issued the token PENGU, the stablecoin protocol Usual (USUAL) collateralized by real-world assets (RWA) has re-ignited the market's discussion on decentralized stablecoins, and the biological DAO network BIO Protocol distributed tokens BIO, triggering a rise in the DeSci (decentralized science) concept board...
If you pay close attention, you will find that these popular assets in the market are closely related to Binance: PENGU became the fifth project of Binance HODLer as soon as it was launched; USUAL and BIO have successively landed on Binance Launchpool, and both projects have received investments from Binance Labs.
At the end of 2024, Binance continues to maintain its hot spot leading effect, HODLer, Launchpool and other BNB "welfare launchers" are fully loaded, and the emerging project "excavator" Binance Alpha platform has begun to accumulate power in the wallet. This behemoth in the crypto asset market has begun to exert its strength towards 2025.
As the United States begins building a "crypto capital" after Trump takes office, 2025 is a good year for Binance and the entire crypto asset industry. Although there are still many uncertainties in the future, there are three things that are likely to be realized in the Binance ecosystem and will be directly related to its 250 million users.
BNB continues to hit new highs and is expected to reach over $1,000
BNB is not far from its highest point.
On December 28, with the launch of the 63rd project BIO Protocol (BIO) on Binance Launchpool, BNB, as one of the locked assets, rose to US$730. US$795 was the historical highest price created by BNB, the native token of BNBChain and Binance ecological asset, on December 4.
“Instead of waiting for ETH to hit a new high, it’s better to wait for BNB to break $1,000.” On social media, a crypto asset investor expressed his helplessness about the top 2 in the crypto asset market and his confidence in the top 5.
Indeed, throughout 2024, it seems that only the "King of Coins" Bitcoin (BTC) has contributed a wonderful performance in the crypto asset market, with $70,000, $90,000, and $100,000, charging forward one after another as if in an empty space; when people expect the "second in command" Ethereum (ETH) to follow BTC to break historical records as in the past, it has broken the defense of its holders with a year-to-date increase of 46.3%, and its performance is far inferior to that of a number of competing chain assets such as BNB (BNBChain) and SOL (Solana).
Coingecko data shows that as of 14:00 on December 31, 2024 (UTC+8), BNB's year-to-date increase is 120%, much higher than ETH, and even higher than BTC's 119% in the top 10 market capitalization rankings (excluding USDT and USDC).
As of 14:00 on December 31 (UTC+8), the top 10 crypto assets (excluding stablecoins)
Throughout 2024, BNB's K-line trend rarely showed sudden surges or cliff-like declines. Overall, it followed BTC in a fluctuating upward trend, which was very "long-termist".
This continued positive trend is largely due to the strong empowerment of Binance - several income tools within the trading platform are deeply bound to user holdings of BNB. Among them, LaunchPool, which distributes new assets almost every month, and HODLer, which was newly launched this year, encourage users to continue holding BNB.
Taking the data of the 19 completed activities of Binance Launchpool this year as an example, the total staked amount of BNB is between 11 million and 26 million. Although the total staked amount of FDUSD, another staking-supported coin, is between 1 billion and 3 billion in most projects, the number of participants (ranging from more than 80,000 to more than 200,000) is not as high as that of BNB (ranging from more than 110,000 to more than 260,000), which shows how many BNB users hold.
Binance Launchpool activity data for 2024
This may be related to the APY (annualized return) of new assets obtained by users. Data shows that the conservative APY of new assets obtained by staking FDUSD is between 18%-98%, while the conservative APY of BNB staking returns is between 27%-236%, which is higher than FDUSD overall.
This does not include BNB's potential increase in earnings. Users may be more inclined to stake BNB due to its higher potential rate of return. This is an important reason why BNB can maintain increasing holdings among the user base and thus drive the price to gradually rise.
In addition, the recent Binance HODLer airdrop activity has also become an important force in the rise of BNB. The HODLer airdrop is a reward program specifically for BNB holders. It is based on a snapshot of BNB balances and airdrops tokens to users who use BNB subscriptions or fixed-term Simple Earn products. These assets will become part of the revenue after Binance is launched.
In 2024, Binance HODLer has completed the airdrop of 5 new assets. The token PENGU of NFT IP Pudgy Penguins is the recent hot spot. During the MOVE airdrop from December 2nd to 5th, BNB once rose from US$647 to US$740, an increase of more than 14%.
Compared with the above methods that can directly lock liquidity, the deflation model of BNB since its issuance seems to be insufficient. However, the continuous destruction of BNB is still carried out according to the contract, and it will decrease every quarter. As of now, the circulation of BNB is about 145 million. At the current destruction rate, its total amount will drop to 100 million in about four years.
As long as Binance continues to provide sufficient support, there seems to be no asset in the crypto asset market that is more certain than BNB. To a certain extent, it represents the market's expectations for this trading platform.
On December 3, Javon Marks, a crypto asset analyst with 48,000 followers, tweeted that BNB will reach a new all-time high driven by the bull market, and the current value may increase to the $2,000 level.
Analyst Javon Marks' forecast tweet
This prediction may be radical, but BNB, which has already hit a high of $795, is not far from $1,000. In 2025, this may be a matter of a few Lauchpools accompanying the rally.
Next year is the second year after the fourth Bitcoin halving. According to historical market rules, the climax of the bull market often occurs in the year after the halving. More importantly, the United States, an important part of the crypto asset market, is showing a friendly attitude towards the crypto industry. With market trends and a friendly environment, Marks' prediction is not impossible.
Trump crypto-friendly Binance compliance expansion
In 2025, the crypto industry’s definite move is to keep a close eye on Donald Trump, the re-elected President of the United States who brought “Bitcoin” into the public eye.
Trump's campaign promises to "establish a national strategic reserve of Bitcoin" and "make the United States the capital of cryptocurrencies" will undoubtedly benefit the crypto asset market. As a crypto asset trading platform with 250 million users, Binance is bound to reap the benefits, and it has been making various preparations for compliance development.
The first good news for the entire crypto industry happened on November 21, when the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that its 33rd chairman, Gary Gensler, will step down on January 20, 2025. Trump will fulfill his promise to "fire the current SEC chairman on his first day in office."
Many of Gensler's actions as SEC chairman have severely cracked down on the crypto asset industry, including prosecuting related companies for fraud and money laundering and imposing billions of dollars in fines. His enforcement targets include top crypto asset companies such as Binance and Coinbase, which the SEC accused of operating unregulated exchanges and offering unregistered securities. Binance and Coinbase have repeatedly refuted the allegations in court as insufficient.
Paul Atkins, the new SEC chairman nominated by Trump, is the CEO of Patomak Global Partners, a consulting firm whose clients are spread across the financial and crypto asset industries. Some media analysts pointed out that if Atkins takes over as SEC chairman, he may help formulate key regulations for industries that Trump is keen on, or usher in a clearer and more relaxed regulatory approach for the crypto industry.
The SEC’s lawsuits against crypto companies such as Binance have always been a sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, and changes in management may bring a turning point to these lawsuits. Some companies have begun to work on refuting the SEC’s charges.
In the view of Binance CEO Richard Teng, Trump’s entry into the White House will be the beginning of a “golden age” as high confidence in the cryptocurrency industry will lead to a large number of new U.S. regulators being open to digital currencies.
Some analysts predict that as the United States includes Bitcoin in its reserves, more large companies and even some countries will include Bitcoin in their balance sheets. Trump’s promise to "cancel capital gains tax on Bitcoin transactions" will be more conducive to this trend and may even lead some small countries to follow suit, which will be beneficial to the development of the crypto industry everywhere.
A policy-friendly environment cannot be achieved overnight. Binance’s choice is to continue to increase its investment in compliance and reserve compliance resources for expansion.
As of October 2024, Binance has achieved the 20th global regulatory milestone after completing registration in Argentina, that is, obtaining licenses and registrations in 20 jurisdictions around the world, including legal registrations in France, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Mexico, El Salvador, South Africa, India, Argentina and other countries, covering Europe, the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, the Americas, and Africa. This ranks first in the entire crypto asset exchange industry.
Internally, Binance has invested a lot of energy, tools, technology and resources to prevent risk pollution and protect the security of users' assets. Throughout 2024, more than 15,000 warnings were sent to users every day, helping users recover US$9.1 million in funds, with 80 successful recoveries per month, preventing total losses of more than US$129 million, and blacklisting 47,000 malicious addresses.
Externally, Binance has maintained communication and cooperation with law enforcement agencies in multiple countries. From January to mid-November 2024, the Binance Compliance Team has responded to more than 55,700 law enforcement requests and served more than 13,800 registered law enforcement officers.
With continuous security and compliance reserves, Binance has ushered in a synchronized growth with the global digital asset adoption rate. In 2024, Binance user funds deposits reached $21.6 billion, which, according to DefiLlama data, was 36% higher than the total inflow of the next 10 exchanges ($15.9 billion). As of mid-December, its global user base has grown to nearly 250 million people, and the growth rate of institutional users has doubled compared to last year.
User asset storage data of centralized trading platforms
According to CCData, Binance has become the first centralized crypto asset exchange with a total trading volume of more than $100 trillion in 2024. This achievement highlights the trading platform's strong advantages in scale, liquidity and user trust.
The crypto industry in 2025 will usher in a friendly environment in the United States, a major region. Binance, which is good at seizing opportunities, will surely take advantage of the situation to grow, and its goal of 1 billion users will be accelerated in 2025.
Alpha adds a "shovel" and BNBChain buries a "gold mine"
Another event worth noting in 2025 is the growth of BNB Chain, which is related to the long-term value of the chain's native asset BNB and also represents Binance's layout in the decentralized Web3 world.
As Ethereum's innovative applications decrease and efficiency becomes more and more important, and as Solana is reborn from the brink of death thanks to Meme coins, BNB Chain has completed the transformation from increasing speed and enriching protocols to upgrading experience under the goal of continuously enhancing scalability in the past year, and the subsequent momentum has been a significant increase in the on-chain locked value (TVL).
In 2024, BNB Chain completed its transition to a single-chain structure, migrated the functions of the BNB beacon chain to the BNB Smart Chain (BSC), and eliminated the beacon chain; in addition, through the opBNB and Greenfield solutions, the scalability and storage capacity of the BNB Chain network have been significantly improved. Among them, the Layer2 solution opBNB supports a high gas limit of 100 million per second and achieves 4,600 transactions per second (TPS), exceeding the benchmark of Layer2 solutions such as Optimism on Ethereum.
Among them, BSC's high throughput capacity enables an average of nearly 4 million transactions per day in 2024, which is 2.5% more than in 2023; while opBNB processes an average of 7.1 million transactions per day. At the same time, BSC's average transaction fee remains at $0.03 per transaction, which is still competitive compared to blockchains such as Ethereum, Arbitrum, and Avalanche; and opBNB has lowered its average transaction fee this year to only $0.001.
High performance and low fees also directly upgraded the trading experience, and users became more active. According to the BNB Chain 2024 annual report, by the end of 2024, the average DAU (daily active users) of opBNB will reach 4.7 million, and BSC will reach 1.12 million.
BNB Chain Daily Activity Data
At the same time, users are also pouring into the BNB Chain ecological protocol with their assets. BSC has experienced significant growth in total value locked (TVL) in 2024, increasing from $3.5 billion in January to $5.7 billion by the end of 2024, a growth rate of 62%. This achievement can be seen in DefiLlama's ranking in the Top 5 among the 342 chain data collected, behind Ethereum, Solana, Tron and Bitcoin.
BSC Chain's TVL ranks in the top 5 (as of December 25)
Noah proposed that the key elements of building a strong compliance program can be divided into two categories: one is technology and resources, and the other is culture. He believes that Binance needs to have strong technical defenses, including in-depth transaction monitoring, security infrastructure, risk management mechanisms, and a robust operating framework.
In 2024, BNB Chain made significant progress in enhancing its security framework, with total financial losses falling from $162 million to $53 million, a 67% reduction compared to 2023.
In terms of user experience, BNB Chain is also constantly strengthening its connection with external demands. For example, in order to promote affordable stablecoin transfers, BNB Chain launched the "Gas-Free Carnival" plan on September 19, 2024, which exempted the gas fees for transferring or withdrawing stablecoins such as USDT, FDUSD and USDC on BNB Smart Chain (BSC) and opBNB, directly improving the use of stablecoins and the user experience in the entire ecosystem.
Meme is the hot topic on the chain in 2024. With the increase of AI concept applications such as AI Meme on the chain, the hot topic on the chain in 2025 is likely to be derived from AI. To this end, BNB Chain is ready to combine BSC's high throughput and low transaction costs, opBNB's fast processing for real-time response, and BNB Greenfield's secure and decentralized data storage to provide a powerful platform for AI-driven applications.
This year, AI projects have seen significant growth on BNB Chain, with projects such as MyShell, Holoworld AI, Sleepless AI, ChainGPT, NFPrompt, and DIN attracting the attention of a large number of users.
In addition, on December 17, Binance Alpha, an emerging crypto project discovery platform, entered the Web3 wallet’s display page. This is a new tool that will serve as a “pre-listing token screening pool” before listing on the trading market. Its purpose is to increase the transparency of the review of tokens listed on the Binance exchange.
Binance co-founder He Yi said in X Spaces on December 18 that because the BNB Chain ecosystem currently has a large amount of traffic and a concentration of hot projects, BNB Chain ecosystem projects will be the focus of Binance Alpha observation. As of December 24, the total number of Binance Alpha projects is 38.
As projects on the BNB Chain continue to develop, it will inevitably attract innovative projects to build on the chain. This also means that in 2025, users who are keen on on-chain gold mining can "vote with their feet" on the BNB Chain, just like the "DeFi Summer" of BSC in the previous cycle, and early investment projects are likely to become hot assets in the secondary market.
(Disclaimer: Please strictly abide by the laws and regulations of your location. This article does not represent any investment advice)
