BNB broke through the important psychological level of $1,000, and BNB Chain also ushered in another surge in on-chain activity. On September 21, its daily trading volume hit a new high in nearly 30 days, exceeding 16.5 million transactions in a single day. At the same time, BNB Chain and opBNB have also become the public chains with the highest number of daily active users.
BNB Chain is gradually becoming an amplifier of market sentiment, from Jobless, Aster to Giggle and Sign. With the support of CZ, it has advanced from a "wealth password" to a "wealth password" manufacturing machine.
In addition, BNB Chain is also striking while the iron is hot to strengthen its fundamentals and plans to reduce the cost of a single transaction to approximately US$0.005 through network upgrades. Wall Street asset management giant Franklin also officially announced the expansion of its self-developed tokenization platform Benji to BNB Chain.
However, in the high price and lively atmosphere, some long-term BNB holders did not choose to sell sharply and leave the market in time.
not much choice
After BNB broke through a new high of $1,000 recently, Kun, a market maker for the Binance Alpha project, did not sell. He has been holding BNB since 2021, and 90% of his positions are BNB.
Kun basically does not participate in other non-mainstream altcoins. "When I exit and I don't know where to go for the time being, I will first hold BNB to absorb the benefits of interest rate cuts."
However, as the staking lock-up period is lifted, Kun may consider withdrawing part of it. This is because after the launch of Binance Alpha, Launchpool’s income has decreased, and Kun’s passive income has also shrunk.
Another major BNB investor, Chen, has sold 20% and invested part of the funds in other platform coins, while a small amount of funds are betting on new hot memes on BNB Chain.
Starting from the beginning of 2024, he gradually invested 50% of his position in BNB when the BNB price was in the range of 300-500 US dollars. After CZ was released from prison, Chen continued to add positions. After recently selling 20% of BNB, BNB now accounts for 30% of his entire position.
From May this year to now, BNB has risen from around $500 for almost five months. For Chen, taking profits at high points is a routine operation. The reason why there is no sharp sell-off is that firstly, he believes that BNB Chain is still on the trend, and secondly, there is no better place to go. "Bitcoin and Ethereum are growing too slowly, and other altcoins and Dogecoins only dare to test the water with small positions."
Crypto KOL BigFang shared on Youtube that $1,000 is an important psychological threshold. After the breakthrough, traditional OTC funds will enter the market.
In early September, Hong Kong's compliance exchange OSL opened BNB trading services to professional investors. BNB is also the sixth currency to be listed on the exchange. In addition, a number of listed companies have formed BNB strategic reserves, and VanEck and REX Shares & Osprey Funds have submitted applications for BNB ETFs to the US SEC.
The crypto KOL Big Big Orange revealed on Twitter that he has been holding BNB since the BNB ICO and has continued to increase his position by 1,000 BNB when it hit a new high of $990. After BNB’s new high, BNB remains its third largest position, behind Ethereum and Bitcoin.
In addition to continuing to hold BNB, he has also invested in the BNB Chain ecosystem and has purchased 1.4 million Aster, saying, "I want to hold Aster just like I held BNB 8 years ago."
Why can you hold a position for so long?
Compared with market sentiment such as CZ's possible return to Binance leadership, the long-term BNB holders interviewed this time may be more concerned about BNB's token economic model, team leadership and other fundamentals, as well as future incremental space.
1. BNB captures the real income of the BNB system
"From the perspective of the token economic model, BNB captures the real income of BNB." This is the most critical reason for Kun's position.
In Kun's view, on the one hand, BNB is repurchased and destroyed every quarter. This deflation mechanism directly feeds the exchange's profits back to the token value. Through continued token burning, the initial supply of BNB is reduced from 200 million to around 100 million, enhancing scarcity and value.
Kun mentioned that CZ and his team hold part of BNB, and these tokens will not flow to the market, which means that the circulating market value of BNB is lower than the data seen on the surface.
On the other hand, BNB uses Binance Alpha to allow project parties to form a fund pool on the BNB Chain. These capital pools will be established using BNB, resulting in a large amount of BNB being locked in the capital pool. This mechanism is similar to Solana's splitting principle, which reduces the circulation by locking tokens, thereby increasing the value of the tokens.
Holding BNB can enjoy additional benefits from Launchpool, HODLer airdrops, MegaDrop, etc., which is quite attractive. This is also a key reason for Chen, a major BNB investor, to hold it for a long time. Chen also mentioned that BNB, as the core asset of the Binance ecosystem, can be used in new activities such as transaction fees, staking and airdrops, as well as BNB Chain ecological applications, giving it strong value capture capabilities.
2. “Bull” CZ
The strategic and execution capabilities of CZ and BNB are also an important reason why everyone is generally willing to hold them for a long time.
Chen believes that Ethereum is more like a large company that is slow-paced and relies on external capital, while BNB Chain is like a proactive startup. Especially after CZ's return, the team continues to launch new projects and new gameplay, and there is always a way to shift market attention and funds to the BNB ecosystem.
Starting from CZ calling "test coin" TST in February, and then from CZ's dog, Mubarak, a CZ who originally said he didn't like memes, successfully transferred the community's enthusiasm for trading memecoin from Solana to BNB Chain.
After the meme craze temporarily subsided, Binance Alpha led the community to trade new Binance projects; since then, there have been narratives about Four.meme's platform currency and BNB's reserve strategy. Last week, after CZ changed the X account profile from "ex-@binance" back to "@binance", it then moved to Perp DEX, and then Aster increased dozens of times. The CZ effect has also begun to sweep through the community. CZ interactive projects include projects invested by YZi Labs, which have become the new password of the community.
Crypto KOL @yuyue_chris Yuyue also posted on the X platform that after CZ’s official “return”, people really feel like they can make money with him. “Binance has really understood the nature of assets this time.”
For Kun, who has a technical background, after seeing too many "Ponzi schemes" in the currency circle that deceive people from various angles such as technological innovation, CZ is one of the few who makes him feel that his intentions are good. "CZ has long been financially free. It is definitely not for money. As a man of science and engineering, he is active on the front line and pays attention to interesting content. It feels like it is more to consolidate the status of Binance as a whole."
3. Incremental space brought by traditional fields
The confidence in holding BNB not only comes from the vitality within the community, but also from the gradual recognition and adoption in traditional fields. This "external verification" brings BNB larger application scenarios and huge new funds.
In terms of application scenarios, on the one hand, Wall Street financial giants have successively expanded their RWA business to BNB Chain. Recently, asset management giant Franklin Templeton, which manages US$1.6 trillion, has expanded its tokenized products to BNB Chain. Another asset management giant, VanEck, also launched the tokenized treasury bond fund VBILL on the BNB Chain through cooperation with Securitize. Ondo Finance and xStock have also announced that they will introduce tokenized treasury bonds and structured products to the BNB Chain.
On the other hand, Binance Pay is also actively promoting its adoption in traditional commerce. Recently, it has been launched at 30,000 merchants in South Africa through cooperation with Zapper.
In terms of new funds, the BNB strategic treasury of traditional listed companies also brings structural buying.
In addition, the Greb Mindfulness City (GMC) Special Economic Zone in the Kingdom of Bhutan has included BNB in its official strategic reserve asset list, which means that the value and security of BNB have received attention and recognition at the sovereign level.
4. The policy risks faced by Binance are reduced
In March this year, Binance announced that it had received a US$2 billion investment from Abu Dhabi’s state-owned capital MGX, which was a very positive signal for Kun. This means that Binance has found a strong "protective umbrella".
This year, as the U.S. encryption environment becomes increasingly friendly, the policy risks faced by Binance are gradually being lifted.
In May, the SEC applied to drop the lawsuit against Binance, Binance US and CZ. On September 16, Bloomberg reported that Binance was negotiating with the U.S. Department of Justice to potentially end the compliance monitoring period starting in 2023 early. This development has dispelled the market's biggest long-term doubts to a certain extent.
Under the global compliance trend, Binance has obtained regulatory licenses from about 21 countries or regions, including Dubai, Japan, the European Union and Southeast Asia, putting its business on a more compliant basis.
Conclusion
In the current market environment full of uncertainty, long-term holding of BNB not only reflects investors' pragmatic tendencies among limited choices, but also represents a vote of confidence in a continuously evolving ecosystem.
