Binance’s BSC Mogs, but for How Long?
Introduction
For the second time since June, activity on Binance’s BNB Smart Chain (BSC) has surpassed all other blockchains. Memecoin trading has been the primary driver of decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes on BSC. Accordingly, $BNB, the chain’s native gas token, has broken all-time highs and just flipped $XRP in market capitalization to become a top three crypto asset, behind only Ethereum’s ether, and, of course, bitcoin.
Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has been a key instigator behind the bump in activity, tweeting frequently about individual memecoins, promoting BNB’s perpetuals platform Aster, and appearing on an X Spaces broadcast titled “BNB Supercycle” on Oct. 8. It drew thousands of live listeners and amplified the narrative that BNB’s resurgence is a full-cycle ecosystem comeback.
Key Takeaways
$BNB broke all-time highs, now trading around $1,250.
$CAKE, the native token of the PancakeSwap protocol on BSC, also ripped.
Four.meme, BSC’s memecoin launchpad, has flipped Solana’s Pump.fun in 24-hour revenue.
BNB Chain daily fees have broken $5 million, up from below $500,000 in August.
That’s a >1,000% increase.
BSC daily DEX volumes are up to above $6 billion, compared to Solana which is ~$5.5 billion.
Artemis data shows BNB chain netted +$182.6M in flows over the past three months.
All this positions BSC as a challenger to Solana and Hyperliquid in the memecoin and perpetual futures verticals, respectively.
CZ’s “BNB meme szn” tweet on Oct. 7
Over the past six months, BNB has surged ~133%, greatly outperforming BTC. At the same time, CAKE has pumped ~146%, signaling that trading and onchain activity are returning to Binance’s home ecosystem.
This move also reflects the success of PancakeSwap’s tokenomics, which have a buy-back-and-burn model. The DEX targets a net annual supply reduction of ~4%, with burns funded by platform revenue. The protocol’s ultimate goal is to reduce total CAKE supply by ~20% by 2030, one of the most clearly articulated deflationary frameworks among major DEX tokens. BSC’s surging DEX volumes and user activity have clearly helped PancakeSwap achieve its goal.
BNB Price Chart, Oct. 7
Price of CAKE, native token for PancakeSwap, BSC’s leading DEX, Oct. 7
A Quick Explanation of BSC’s Architecture
Launched by Binance in 2020, BNB Smart Chain (BSC) is the execution layer of the BNB Chain ecosystem. Originally named Binance Smart Chain, BSC was designed to be a fast, low-cost, EVM-compatible blockchain to complement the exchange’s Binance Chain, which handled simple asset issuance and transfers but did not support smart contracts.
In 2022, Binance rebranded the entire network stack under the BNB Chain umbrella, positioning it as a more decentralized ecosystem with BNB (formerly “Binance Coin,” now “Build and Build”) as its gas and governance token. The architecture initially comprised two core layers: BNB Beacon Chain (the governance and staking layer), and BNB Smart Chain (BSC, the execution layer).
By 2024, however, Binance completed the BNB Chain Fusion, deprecating the Beacon Chain and consolidating its governance and staking functions into the BNB Smart Chain.
BSC validators have recently proposed cutting gas fees in half (from 0.1 gwei to 0.05 gwei) and reducing block times from 750 milliseconds to 450 milliseconds. This would lower the average transaction cost to roughly $0.005, bringing BSC closer to Solana fees.
Recently, the $ASTER token generation event and speculation around a potential AsterDEX airdrop have resulted in an explosion of inflows and activity in the ecosystem. CZ has vociferously promoted the chain on X (formerly Twitter), even declaring “BNB meme szn.” DefiLlama recently delisted AsterDEX perp volumes from its platform, citing the data provider’s suspicions of wash trading as it correlated Binance and Aster volumes.
Hyperliquid has already proven that successful perp DEX products can be extremely lucrative in crypto and pump.fun has proven the same for low-friction launchpads. Now, CZ seems keen on entering both markets, and he is well positioned to do so. AsterDEX has the full backing of his firm YZI Labs and is vying for Hyperliquid’s market share. Four.meme, the “Pump.fun of BNB,” just surpassed Pump and another launchpad, Axiom, in 24-hour revenue and is seeing a huge surge in user activity as traders scramble to bridge assets from Solana to BSC.
Daily Revenue: Pump.fun vs. Four.meme
At the time of writing (Oct. 8), Four.meme had flipped Pump.fun in 24-hour revenue, with $1.4m compared to Pump’s $1.14m.
BNB Chain has also seen a massive spike in daily fees with all of this user activity. Fees have spiked from below $500,000 in August to above $5 million as of Oct. 8, an increase of more than 1,000%.
BSC’s DEX volumes (>$6b) have overtaken Solana’s (~$5.5b). This is notable because in April, they were less than $1b. Aggressive marketing and incentives are working as intended.
Net Flows
Data from Artemis (as of Oct. 7) shows BNB Chain received +$182.6m in net flows over the past three months. For comparison, Solana had +$118m and Avalanche had +$41m.
BNB Chain
Solana: Notably, the largest capital outflows bridged from Solana went to BNB Chain with $46 million in the past three months migrating there from Solana alone.
Why It Matters
BSC’s mindshare capture underscores the reality that branding and narrative still outweigh everything in crypto, at least in the short term. CZ’s renewed visibility (from declaring a “BNB Supercycle” to amplifying certain memes) has transformed BSC into the current hottest hub of activity in the space.
For example, the token known as 币安人生 (Chinese for “Binance Life") launched on Oct. 4 and broke $450 million in market cap. You simply do not see this happening on Solana. Even the best-performing new Solana token launches right now struggle to break $20 million in market cap.
It’s easy to forget that under the previous U.S. administration, CZ served four months in prison and Binance paid $4 billion to settle federal charges. After getting out, he laid low for a time. But in mid-September, CZ updated his X profile, changing his bio from “ex-@binance” to simply “@binance.” This mirrors his pre-2024 profile and suggests he is responding to a more permissive environment under the Trump administration. Binance is seeking to ease its U.S. enforcement terms and YZi Labs has raised a new $1b fund for BNB ecosystem growth. Binance is back on offense.
In the broader picture, exchange-driven ecosystems are resurging. MNT (Mantle) is openly mirroring the BNB playbook with Bybit. As BSC proves, owning both the exchange liquidity and the execution layer can be an unbeatable combination. Coinbase teasing a BASE token launch could signal a realization of the benefits of adopting a similar vertically integrated model to capture more liquidity.
The next question, as always with these surges, is durability. If Four.meme, Aster, and PancakeSwap can sustain volumes without external incentives, BNB’s supercycle may prove to be more than a meme.
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