In brief
- BNB leads the top 10 coins by market cap with 85.6% YTD gains, far outpacing Ethereum and Bitcoin.
- The rally has been fueled by interest in the Aster DEX, surging on-chain activity, and institutional interest.
- Experts have queried whether the rally is sustainable, pointing to overbought technical indicators.
While Bitcoin and Ethereum have grabbed headlines with new all-time highs in recent weeks, BNB has quietly outperformed its top-ten crypto rivals over the past year.
Year-to-date, BNB’s 85.6% gains put it at the front of the pack, dwarfing Ethereum’s second place returns of 37.7%. Of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap, TRON, Bitcoin and Solana have managed YTD gains in the lower double-digits, while the remainder of the top ten have generated single-digit returns.
BNB is currently trading at $1,300, up 30.7% over the past week, per CoinGecko data.
“BNB’s recent rally has been largely driven by increased on-chain activity and growing institutional interest,” Illia Otychenko, lead analyst at CEX.IO, told Decrypt.
DEXs drive growth
This on-chain activity is particularly evident in the explosive growth of decentralized exchange (DEX) trading on the BNB Chain.
A significant driver has been the speculative frenzy around Aster, a recently launched BNB Chain-based decentralized exchange backed by Binance co-founder CZ’s investment firm YZi Labs.
Hopes of a potential Aster airdrop have drawn substantial volume to BNB Chain, helping it to emerge as the dominant platform for perpetuals trading. Over the past week, BNB Chain has seen a staggering $511.8 billion in trading volume, per Dune Analytics data—dwarfing competitors like Hyperliquid ($45.63 billion) and EdgeX ($23.85 billion).
However, users of prediction market Myriad, launched by Decrypt’s parent company DASTAN, are bearish on Aster’s prospects in the medium term, placing a 72% chance on its token remaining below $4 through November.
BNB itself, however, has seen its price surge underpinned by key metrics, Otychenko said, noting that “over the past month, BNB Chain’s monthly active addresses surged by over 18%, while the total value locked grew by more than $2 billion.”
He also pointed to macro-institutional tailwinds, including “speculation about a potential U.S. spot BNB ETF and reports of companies such as Jiuzi Holdings and Alem Crypto Fund adding BNB to their treasuries.”
Nevertheless, Otychenko tempered his outlook, noting that from a technical standpoint a pullback may be imminent due to fading bullish momentum.
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