In November, Bangkok was filled with humid air and a sense of fervent anticipation. The bustling crowds at the Devcon venue mirrored the frenzy of BTC breaking through $90,000, and rumors of memecoins reaching a market cap of over $1 million were quickly spreading on social media.
Traffic was stagnant here, with the ride-hailing apps displaying a network of red lines; the same red could be seen under the nearby overpasses, where local children were holding up transparent plastic cups, mostly empty, towards passersby. On the other end of the night, the same red appeared in the eyes of the hackathon developers: the intense development within a short timeframe had left them exhausted yet exhilarated.
At the BNBChain Bangkok hackathon, the venue was well-equipped with air conditioning and ample space. The snack area was quickly cleared of a particular Sour Cream & Onion flavor of potato chips, and Coca-Cola was the most popular beverage. Within 24 hours, over 100 developers had submitted 38 projects, with 8 teams given the opportunity to present, half of which were from India, and 3 teams receiving prizes to advance to the next stage. The teams whispered to each other below the stage, some shaking hands and saying they would return next time. The low-key, quiet competition was like a small tide, as if gathering strength.
Over the past 3 years, BNBChain has hosted more than 20 hackathons, engaging over 10,000 developers from more than 35 countries, with over 1,000 projects submitted and a total prize pool of around $50 million.
"The Quiet Three Years"
There were once voices in the community saying, "No one plays on BNBChain anymore." It wasn't until the recent launches of Thena (THE) and meme projects on the BSC ecosystem on Binance that some attention was drawn.
During the "quiet" three-year period, the surface of BNBChain may have appeared calm, but the data revealed another dimension.
According to DeFilama data from November 2024, BNBChain remains firmly in the second tier after Ethereum, with the third-largest stablecoin market capitalization, the fourth-largest Total Value Locked (TVL) at over $8 billion, and accounting for one-sixth of the entire chain's trading volume.
BNBChain currently provides 218 developer tools, with more than 800 active applications, performing exceptionally in the DeFi, gaming, and AI sectors.
The MVB (Most Valuable Builder) program, launched in 2021, has been an important part of BNBChain's support for early-stage projects. According to public information, of the 131 projects incubated in the past seven rounds of MVB, 75 have received investment from leading firms such as Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, Delphi Capital, and Sequoia Capital, with Binance Labs investing in 39 of them. Incomplete statistics show that over 60 projects have completed their Token Generation Event (TGE), with over 60% listed on top centralized exchanges, including Galaxy, MOBOX, SpaceID, SleeplessAI, and Altlayer on the Binance LaunchPool.
Considering the high attrition rate in the Web3 industry, the survival rate of the early-stage projects supported by BNBChain is remarkable. However, these data points are often not perceived by the outside world.
While users have been enthusiastically embracing the meme culture on Solana, the BNBChain community, like many other public chains, has been envious of the explosive user growth and attention.
Looking at the objective data, BNBChain currently has a significantly smaller number of Memecoins compared to Solana. However, it has launched longer-lived meme projects like 1 MBABYDOGE, SimonCat (CAT), WHY, and CHEEMS, which have been listed on Binance's contract or spot markets. With the completion of infrastructure like the Four.meme launchpad and the long-term support of the community, BNBChain is expected to witness a more vibrant "Meme Season" in the future.
"Turning to the Open Sea"
If Ethereum is like a group of idealistic geniuses and Solana is a pioneer adept at capturing attention, then BNBChain is more like a quiet, diligent craftsman.
The important role played by Binance in this ecosystem is undeniable. However, the BNBChain community lacks star figures and brilliant technical talents; instead, it is a group of people with smaller egos, focused on practical matters. Their frequent thoughts are: Should we follow the short-term tides? What are the truly valuable things in the long run?
Memes represent public opinion and carry the emotions of the community, and they are a direction supported by BNB Chain. However, the industry cannot be limited to just Memes. Through countless discussions within the community and the team, BNBChain has gradually formed a clear positioning: Web3 needs to move towards broader and more meaningful application scenarios.
From both the time and space dimensions, BNBChain has patiently built a comprehensive support system for developers and users.
Over time, it has hosted hackathons to discover and support potential developers and projects; the BIA (Binance Incubation Alliance) helps projects with capital connections, and the MVB program provides resources and investment for weeks-long incubation. In the medium term, it offers incentives for user activity (DAU), total locked value (TVL), and trading volume, while also providing technical and marketing support. In the later stages, it facilitates resource connections across the entire ecosystem, including investment and listing resources, as well as ongoing project development.
This progressive model often takes 1-2 years to get started.
In the horizontal spatial dimension, the BNB-centric multi-chain ecosystem includes the smart contract mainnet BSC, the high-performance Layer 2 opBNB, and the storage chain Greenfield, providing developers and users with a comprehensive "oneBNB" multi-dimensional infrastructure system.
The open sea is right there. The ship has been built, but where are the caravans and passengers, and where are they headed?
"The Direction of the Tide: AI+"
Amidst the ebb and flow of the crypto tides, BNBChain is building a solid ecosystem in its own way.
According to DappBay, 5 out of the top 10 most active projects on BNB Chain in the past 30 days are AI-related infrastructure and tools, with 3 being in the gaming sector.
Currently, BNBChain has deployed over 30 active projects in the AI ecosystem, such as AI Agent applications like My Shell, HoloWorld AI, and Sleepless AI; content creation apps like NFPromt; and middleware like REVOX and Aggregata. Due to the support of the Greenfield storage chain, data-related projects have a high proportion, such as data labeling projects like DIN, Alaya AI, and JoloWorld. According to DappRadar data on November 20th, DIN ranked first among all AI applications with nearly 700,000 weekly active addresses.
This trend is understandable, as BNBChain has its own high-speed Layer 2 opBNB and the Greenfield data storage chain, providing an efficient, secure, and private data storage platform, which is the core foundation for deploying decentralized AI applications.
BNBChain's supportive attitude towards AI is also "on the table," as many of the aforementioned projects are incubated through the MVB program, with Binance Labs investing in 7 of them. The support started even earlier than the MVB and investment stages - for example, StoryChain, a project that emerged from a BNBChain hackathon last year, has now been selected for the 8th round of MVB and will launch its mainnet next year.
The initial motivation for building the storage chain may have stemmed from the optimism towards decentralized social (DeSoc). Interestingly, BNBChain's data storage chain, combined with the NFT-based intellectual property infrastructure and the thriving AI+Data ecosystem, perfectly aligns with the recent rise of the decentralized science (DeSci) wave.
DeSci typically requires robust data storage capabilities and fast access support, and the data is often sensitive and private. BNBChain's existing ecosystem can help researchers better and more securely share data, provide lower-cost data computing resources, and utilize smart contracts to ensure fair distribution of scientific achievements.
This may enable BNB Chain to become the breeding ground for the DeSci wave, helping to drive more transformative scientific progress for humanity.
"A Pragmatic and Diverse Ocean Vision"
In addition to the strong data-related AI domain, BNBChain's ecosystem also has deployments in DeFi, GameFi, and stablecoin payment sectors.
In terms of TVL ranking in the BTCFi track, projects such as Solv Protocol, Avalon Labs, Lorenzo, Lombard, and Kinza occupy the top positions. Among them, Solv, Lorenzo (formerly MEP), and Kinza are all projects incubated through the MVB program and have received investment from Binance Labs. Avalon, on the other hand, is a new member of the eighth batch of MVB, and according to Messari's Q3 report, its TVL grew by over 300% after joining the BIA (incubation alliance).
Gaming has always been the stronghold of BNBChain. In the last GameFi summer, over 40% of game-related projects were built on BSC, attracting a large number of game users and developers. The currently most active in terms of user count and transactions are: Seraph, TG mini-game World of Dypians, Egg Drops, as well as Gomble Games (already invested by Binance Labs) and Elfin Metaverse. Their weekly active users are at the level of 600,000 to 1 million, contributing the majority of transactions on BNBChain.
Many of the emerging projects on BNBChain are still very young, but if we look back at the incubation history of BNBChain and Binance Labs, we can find that they are not from the same period, but rather a coincidence of collisions.
For example, the leading project in the RWA field, Ondo, was incubated in the third batch of MVB; during the same period, there were also: the DeFi protocol Impossible Finance; the DeFi data tool and wallet Debank; the trading platform Woo Network. The BTCFi protocol Solv Protocol, which has recently gained attention due to its significant TVL growth and ranked second, is one of the outstanding graduates of the fourth batch of MVB. Also from the fourth batch are the security network Goplus Security and the once-hot GameFi star StarSharks.
Although these projects belong to different fields and have experienced ups and downs due to narrative changes, they have all survived in this fast-paced and cruel industry. Their common point is that they have provided application value to users in their respective fields, and these growing projects have also injected more diversified possibilities into the BNBChain ecosystem and the entire cryptocurrency industry.
Industry hotspots are constantly emerging and changing rapidly. What BNBChain has been doing all along can be summed up in one sentence - to build a solid infrastructure, attract more developers and applications, and create value for users.
BNBChain has always said that its vision is to attract the next 1 billion users to enter Web3 - this statement sounds a bit remote and abstract. However, it seems that this community is using actions to prove its development philosophy and aesthetics: pragmatic, long-term, and value-creating.
Through the continuous improvement of infrastructure, the rise of AI, and the exploration of Gaming and DeFi, BNBChain has been thinking about and is currently depicting a more comprehensive and long-lasting Web3 ecosystem.
