Key Insights:
BNB Chain emerges as the Ethereum-Killer, beating Solana on multiple fronts.
The BNB Chain dominates other Ethereum-killers like Solana in terms of TVL, total no of addresses, token market cap, on-chain dapps and gas fee.
Strong support from the Binance ecosystem helps BNB Chain compete with Ethereum.
Recently Binance has reached 200 million users and has reached $100b in assets.
Solana might not be the Ethereum-Killer everyone thinks it is. Here are a few aspects which clearly give that title to the BNB Chain.
BNB Chain has been putting a tough competition against Ethereum. The TVL in the chain has the third highest value at $5.55 billion as per DeFi Llama, far greater than Solana's $3 billion.
The BNB Token has become the third most dominating non-stable crypto with a market dominance of 3.92%. This may seem less when compared to Bitcoin(53.9%) or Ethereum(17.4%), but it also leaves other Ethereum killers way down the line such as Solana, which has a market dominance of 2.92%.
Another aspect where BNB Chain has beaten Solana is the total no of addresses. BNB has around 454 million total addresses as of 8 June 2024. However, Solana has a little over 9.1 million total addresses.
BNB has far more developmental activity on its chain as compared to Solana. As per Dapp Radar, BNB Chain has 5386 Dapps built on it while Solana has just 285 Dapps on its chain.
The Binance ecosystem, i.e., the exchange and BNB token helps it offer nearly zero transaction fees on the BNB Chain which makes it lucrative for small-time users. The income from the exchange offsets the BNB Chain's lack of a decent revenue and helps it offer virtually gas-free transactions.
The ecosystem primarily comprises of three main wings, the Binance Exchange, the BNB Chain and the BNB token. There are several other components in the Binance ecosystem such as an VC arm, but they make a very little difference.
Binance Exchange has dominated all other crypto exchanges despite several setbacks in the US, Nigeria, India, and Europe. Even when it had to pay a $4.3 billion fine and its founder has been incarcerated, it still leads the crypto markets.
The BNB Chain has almost zero fees as compared to any other chain, making a suitable choice for bridged assets.
The third wing, the BNB Token dominates the crypto markets as the fourth largest crypto. With a market cap of $74 billion, it is the largest non-stablecoin crypto after Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Binance has reached 200 million users as of 8 June 2024. Compare this with Coinbase, its largest competitor which has less than half (98 million) of the number of users in Binance.
Binance dominates 36% of the global crypto user base which reached 562 million in 2024.
As per research from Triple-A, if Binance grows at this pace, its exchange could grow to 300 million users within the next year and a half, i.e., 2026.
This growth can be attributed to several factors such as features, widespread availability, its layer-3 infrastructure and its ability to adapt.
The total user assets of Binance has grown to over $100 billion in custody as on March 2024. On paper, Coinbase has a much larger amount of funds under custody i.e., $171 billion for the same period. However, Coinbase's assets under custody also have $100 billion of institutional funds which reduces the size of its user funds to less than $71 billion.
In the last one year BNB Token gave 324% returns from $203 to $720 despite all the negative news around its exchange.
Although Solana had far more gains in percentage terms, yet it is far beyond BNB in market cap.
Given that Binance comes out of trouble in the next few months, it will have far more time to develop its ecosystem than cater to regulatory crackdowns.
Also, given the estimates of its increasing user base, we can expect it to attract far more number of users to its exchange as well as its chain.
Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, but it will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.