BNB Chain Turns Five: Major Upgrades, Milestones, and Market Growth

BNB Chain is celebrating its five-year anniversary in 2025. Since its launch in 2020, the network has grown from a Binance-backed blockchain into a multi-layer ecosystem supporting decentralized finance (DeFi), gaming, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and large-scale consumer applications. 

Over this period, BNB Chain has introduced technical upgrades, navigated regulatory challenges, and expanded its developer and user communities, making it one of the largest blockchain ecosystems by activity.

Launch of Binance Smart Chain in 2020

BNB Chain’s origins trace back to Binance Smart Chain (BSC), which launched in September 2020. BSC was designed as a parallel chain to Binance Chain, bringing smart contract functionality while maintaining low fees and fast block times.

Key technical features at launch included:

• Proof-of-Staked-Authority (PoSA) consensus, combining delegated staking with authority-based validation.
• 3-second block times, making transactions significantly faster than Ethereum at the time.
• EVM compatibility, allowing developers to port existing Ethereum applications with minimal adjustments.

By the end of its first year, BSC had already become a major hub for DeFi protocols such as PancakeSwap, Venus, and Autofarm, driven largely by its low-cost transactions compared to Ethereum’s rising gas fees.

The 2021 DeFi Boom and Network Congestion

In 2021, BNB Chain (then BSC) experienced explosive growth in total value locked (TVL) as DeFi protocols and liquidity pools attracted millions of users. At its peak in May 2021, TVL surpassed $44 billion, making BSC the second-largest DeFi network after Ethereum.

However, this growth brought significant challenges:

• Network congestion during peak trading hours, with transaction volumes exceeding 12 million daily transactions at times.
• Scams and rug pulls within some DeFi protocols, raising concerns about ecosystem security.
• Validator centralization criticism, as fewer than 30 active validators handled network consensus.

Despite these issues, the 2021 DeFi boom firmly established BSC as a mainstream blockchain for retail crypto users, particularly in emerging markets.

Rebranding to BNB Chain in 2022

In February 2022, Binance Smart Chain rebranded to BNB Chain, with “BNB” standing for Build and Build rather than Binance Coin. This rebrand was aimed at positioning the network as a community-driven blockchain, not solely tied to the Binance exchange.

Key elements of the rebrand included:

• Expansion to multi-chain architecture, including BNB Beacon Chain (governance and staking) and BNB Smart Chain (EVM-compatible execution).
• A stronger focus on decentralized applications (dApps), metaverse projects, and cross-chain interoperability.
• The introduction of BNB token burning mechanisms tied to network activity, reducing overall supply.

This marked the beginning of a broader roadmap for scaling the BNB ecosystem beyond a single smart contract chain.

Major Technical Upgrades

Over the past five years, BNB Chain has introduced several upgrades aimed at scalability, security, and user experience.

BEP-95 and Real-Time Token Burns

Launched in late 2021, BEP-95 introduced real-time BNB burning at the protocol level. A fixed ratio of transaction fees is burned automatically, adding a deflationary element to BNB’s tokenomics.

By 2025, over 62.7 million BNB have been permanently removed from circulation through this mechanism, complementing Binance’s quarterly burns.

Introduction of BNB Greenfield

In 2023, BNB Chain introduced BNB Greenfield, a decentralized storage network designed for Web3 applications. Greenfield enables users and developers to store data with blockchain-based ownership verification while integrating seamlessly with BNB Smart Chain for dApp usage.

Scalability and ZK Rollups

To address network load, BNB Chain has invested in zero-knowledge (ZK) rollup solutions and sidechains, allowing higher throughput without compromising security. This has supported use cases such as gaming, payments, and large-scale social dApps.

Lorentz and Maxwell Hardfork:

In 2025, BNB Chain introduced two major hardforks that pushed its performance further. The Lorentz Hardfork on April 29 cut block times from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds, added more efficient block fetching, and improved validator networking, making the chain more responsive for latency-sensitive applications. 

Just two months later, the Maxwell Hardfork on June 30 reduced block times again to 0.75 seconds, adjusted consensus parameters, and doubled epoch lengths. These changes lowered time-to-finality to 1.875 seconds, strengthening BNB Chain’s capacity for high-frequency use cases.

Ecosystem Expansion

BNB Chain’s growth has not been limited to DeFi. Over five years, it has developed into a multi-sector ecosystem.

• Gaming and NFTs: Platforms like MOBOX and Valhalla integrated NFT-based mechanics, attracting active gaming communities.
• Stablecoins and Payments: BNB Chain became a key settlement layer for stablecoins like USDT and USDC, often exceeding $1 billion daily transfers.
• Social dApps: Applications such as CyberConnect and Web3 social platforms gained traction, leveraging BNB Chain’s speed and cost efficiency.

By mid-2025, BNB Chain consistently processes over 1.6 million daily active addresses, according to Messari, placing it among the most used blockchains globally.

Regulatory Scrutiny and Resilience

Like many large blockchain ecosystems, BNB Chain has faced regulatory scrutiny. As Binance, its founding entity, dealt with investigations and settlements in the U.S. and Europe, concerns were raised about whether these actions would impact BNB Chain.

However, the chain’s semi-independent structure allowed it to maintain activity. While U.S.-based projects slowed integration, activity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America continued to grow. This highlighted the global distribution of BNB Chain’s user base.

Key Community and Developer Milestones

BNB Chain’s five-year history also includes major community-driven efforts:

• BNB Support programs, providing funding to over 500 developer teams since 2021.
• AvengerDAO initiative, launched in 2022, aimed at improving on-chain security through real-time threat monitoring and education.
• Annual BNB Chain hackathons, drawing thousands of developers across multiple regions.

These efforts have supported a more diverse ecosystem and reduced reliance on centralized actors.

Recent Developments:

Real-World Assets on BNB Chain

On July 15, 2025, BNB Chain partnered with Ondo Finance to bring tokenized U.S. equities, ETFs, and mutual funds on-chain as BEP-20 tokens. Each token is backed 1:1 with the underlying asset and tradable globally, with full compliance. This step links traditional finance with DeFi by enabling trading, lending, and portfolio use without intermediaries.

Binance Wallet Adds Bonding Curve Token Launches

Also on July 15, Binance Wallet introduced a bonding curve-based Token Generation Event (TGE). Prices shift with demand, rewarding early buyers and creating structured token launches. The system launched in partnership with Four.Meme, with vetting in place to control quality.

Expanding U.S. Exposure to BNB

YZi Labs and 10X Capital created the BNB Reserve Company to give U.S. investors listed exposure to BNB. The effort, led by David Namdar, aims to treat BNB as a treasury-grade digital asset alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Nano Labs Buys $50M in BNB

China’s Nano Labs acquired 74,315 BNB worth about $50M, pivoting away from hardware. It is the first U.S.-listed company to anchor reserves with BNB and plans to scale holdings toward 10% of the supply.

Gas-Free Stablecoin Transfers

BNB Chain extended its Gas-Free Carnival for stablecoins through July 2025, covering over $4M in fees since launch. This has supported a surge in stablecoin activity, with market cap rising above $10B.

Community and Developer Programs

In June 2025, the Martians Program relaunched with tracks for community leaders, developers, founders, and Web3 pros. That same month, Builder Bunker opened in New York as a hub for mentoring and demo days. Meanwhile, the BNB Hack moved to a continuous format, rewarding projects every two weeks.

Tokenized Equities via Kraken

In July 2025, Kraken integrated its xStocks product with BNB Chain, bringing tokenized equities like AAPLx and TSLAx to global users. The move offers lower fees, faster settlement, and DeFi integration.

Network and Onchain Metrics

Q2 2025 revenue was $44.1M, down due to lower gas fees, but daily transactions doubled to 9.9M and active addresses rose to 1.6M. BNB’s supply fell after the 31st quarterly burn, which removed 1.6M tokens worth $916M.

DeFi, Stablecoins, and BTCB

BNB Chain’s TVL grew 14% QoQ to $6B, led by PancakeSwap, Venus, and ListaDAO. DEX volumes averaged $3.3B daily, the highest across blockchains. Stablecoin supply climbed nearly 50% to $10.5B, while BTCB holders rose 6% to 1.3M.

Institutional Growth

On Aug. 10, 2025, BNB Network Company purchased 200,000 BNB worth about $160M, with potential to scale to $1.25B. Later that month, Rex Osprey filed for a spot BNB staking ETF with the SEC, joining VanEck in pursuing U.S. approval.

Conclusion

BNB Chain’s five-year journey highlights a progression from a Binance-backed smart contract chain to a large-scale blockchain ecosystem supporting millions of users. Its major milestones — from the 2020 launch of Binance Smart Chain, through the 2021 DeFi boom, to technical upgrades like BEP-95 and BNB Greenfield — show how the chain has adapted to changing demands.

While challenges such as regulatory scrutiny and network congestion remain, BNB Chain’s track record of upgrades and adoption demonstrates its capabilities as a high-performance, multi-use blockchain.

Resources:

1. Messari BNB Chain Q2 Report: https://messari.io/report/state-of-bnb-q2-2025

2. BNB Chain’s Maxwell Hardfork announcement: https://www.bnbchain.org/en/blog/bnb-chain-announces-maxwell-hardfork-bsc-moves-to-0-75-second-block-times

3. BNB Chain’s Season 11 MVB announcement: https://www.bnbchain.org/en/blog/mvb-11-where-founders-break-through

4. Rex Osprey’s application to launch a spot BNB staking exchange-traded fund (ETF): https://x.com/ericbalchunas/status/1960453869495779654?s=46&t=nznXkss3debX8JIhNzHmzw

5. BNB Chain TVL data: https://defillama.com/chain/BSC

6. BNB Chain Greenfield: https://greenfield.bnbchain.org/

7. BNB Chain’s announcement of BEP-95: https://www.bnbchain.org/en/blog/introducing-bep-95-with-a-real-time-burning-mechanism

8. BNB Chain Support Programs: https://www.bnbchain.org/en/programs