Original article | Odaily Odaily( @OdailyChina )
Author｜jk
While most emerging public chains are still struggling with a cold start, BNB Chain faces a different challenge: how to activate a mature ecosystem that already has a large user base?
In the second half of 2025, Nina Rong took on this challenge. As the new head of growth for BNB Chain, the core question she needed to answer was: Now that the infrastructure is in place and the user base has been established, what's the next step?
This is no easy position. The competition in the public blockchain arena has long since evolved from "who is faster" to "who can truly retain users." The contest of technical parameters is gradually giving way to the contest of ecosystem experience, which is often more difficult to quantify and replicate.
In this dialogue, Nina did not shy away from the industry's real-world challenges: high user education costs, an information gap between high-quality products and users, and developers' understanding of public blockchains often lagging behind the technology's iteration speed. However, she also offered a clear methodology: rather than teaching users to "learn how to use blockchain," it's better to make blockchain as invisible as cloud computing, allowing users to "use it and naturally get on the chain ."
Odaily Odaily sat down with Nina to discuss BNB's growth strategy and future direction. The full interview is as follows:
Q1: Nina, your joining the company has garnered a lot of attention on Twitter; what motivated this career change? What are the core strengths of BNB Chain that attract you the most?
Nina Rong: Many people think I "jumped ship to BNB Chain," but that's not actually the case. I left Arbitrum in March of this year, and had a break of about six months. The opportunity with BNB Chain came after that, and frankly, it was very appealing to me.
In my opinion, BNB Chain is one of the few public chains on the market that still has huge untapped potential. Its foundation is very solid. It possesses the three key elements of user scale, institutional resources, and developer ecosystem. Among the L1 or L2 projects launched in the past 12 months, there are not many that can simultaneously meet all three criteria.
From a longer-term perspective, rebuilding such a foundation will only become increasingly difficult. Therefore, I believe that BNB Chain already possesses all the conditions necessary for success; the key now lies in whether it can truly unleash these advantages through efficient, restrained, and continuous execution .
Q2: How do you define BNB Chain's growth priorities for the next one to two years?
Nina Rong: From a visionary perspective, BNB Chain's goal is very clear— to bring the next billion Web3 users truly onto the blockchain . Therefore, users are always the most important element.
However, we are also very clear that BNB Chain is essentially an infrastructure product for developers, not directly for end users. The connection between users and us is mostly achieved indirectly through wallets, DeFi applications, and various on-chain products.
Therefore, in terms of growth strategy, we will simultaneously advance two things: on the one hand, continuously improve the activity level and overall scale of users on BNB Chain ;
On the other hand, it attracts more outstanding developers and teams to join the ecosystem , enabling them to build products that are truly used by users based on BNB Chain.
Q3: In terms of the developer ecosystem, will BNB Chain have a more specific focus on certain areas?
Nina Rong: From an ecosystem perspective, we will not "close the door" to any opportunity. But if I had to say which direction we value more, I think trading and AI are two very important tracks.
AI is still in a relatively early stage. This is not only BNB Chain's assessment, but also the view of the entire industry and even human society as a whole, which still needs time to mature. However, in the medium to long term, its potential is very clear.
In the trading field, we have already seen a very clear Product-Market Fit. The definition of trading itself is very broad, including not only memes and NFTs, but also more traditional asset forms such as stocks and RWAs. Essentially, applications and infrastructure built around "value exchange" are always the core of the public chain ecosystem, which is why we attach great importance to the trading track.
Q4: In the process of "guiding the next billion users onto the blockchain", what is the biggest bottleneck at present? How will BNB Chain deal with it?
Nina Rong : Compared to one or two years ago, the bottlenecks in the industry as a whole are gradually decreasing . Regulatory uncertainty has improved significantly over the past year, which is a positive sign.
However, the core issue that remains is that user education costs and the barrier to entry for Web3 usage are still relatively high. In terms of user experience, the entire industry has not yet achieved a level of seamless accessibility for "ordinary users with absolutely no background knowledge."
From BNB Chain's perspective, we don't want users to "be aware that they are using blockchain." Ideally, blockchain should be like cloud computing, an invisible infrastructure. Just like when using a mobile app today, users don't care which cloud server the application is running on.
Therefore, we will work very closely with developers in the ecosystem to help them make their products more user-friendly, thereby bringing more people onto the blockchain without increasing the user's understanding cost.
Q5: As the head of growth, what are some of your "first three moves" when you take office?
Nina Rong: The first thing is definitely talent recruitment. You may have seen my recruitment posts on Twitter. I hope that people who are interested in blockchain and share our vision will join the BNB Chain ecosystem. This doesn't necessarily mean joining BNB Chain itself, but could also be joining projects within the ecosystem. We have many opportunities, and I hope to be a bridge connecting talent and the ecosystem. Only by attracting more outstanding talent can this ecosystem continue to develop.
The second point is better developer services. I believe truly good developer services enable developers' products to be discovered by high-value users. Currently, there's a common problem in the industry: many good products lack users, and users also struggle to find good products. As an ecosystem partner, we can act as a bridge for showcasing and connecting, allowing well-developed projects to receive timely market feedback.
Q6: What are your thoughts on developers' current understanding of BNB Chain? Regarding developer experience, does BNB Chain have any new plans you can reveal in advance?
Nina Rong: Actually, many people don't realize that the core developers of BNB Chain are not very willing to step into the limelight. They prefer to work quietly and don't express themselves publicly.
What I hope to change is to get more technical personnel to explain the underlying technology of BNB Chain clearly. Over the past five years, BNB Chain's performance has improved significantly. We are about to achieve a block time of approximately 450 milliseconds, which is already among the best in Layer 1. However, many people's understanding of BNB Chain is still stuck in 2020 and 2021.
We hope that more technical staff can communicate directly with frontline developers to quickly obtain feedback and iterate on the product. Since we are serving developers, we must truly understand their needs.
For example, Etherscan recently shut down the Free API for some of its chains, which has been a topic of discussion in the developer community. The Free API is fundamental for developers, so BNB Chain quickly launched its own. We hope developers can build with confidence, rather than being bogged down by these fundamental issues.
Meanwhile, we currently have a Kickstarter program where projects built on BNB Chain can apply for support such as cloud service points and audit fee waivers. For early-stage developers, we encourage participation in hackathons; for relatively mature projects and entrepreneurs, they can participate in the YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) One Billion Builder Fund.
Between hackathons and funds, I hope to build a platform that allows developers to test their products and get user feedback in a risk-free environment, and allows users to discover interesting new applications, rather than treating them as investment targets.
Q7: What is your view on the role of Meme in the public blockchain ecosystem?
Nina Rong: I believe that Meme is an asset type with real PMF, and the public blockchain ecosystem should not shut it out.
However, we are also very clear that public blockchains should not participate in the issuance or success/failure of memes. Which memes will succeed and which will not should be entirely determined by the market. One of the charms of crypto lies in its grassroots nature and uncertainty, and this randomness is something that no individual or team can and should control.
Q8: How will your success at Arbitrum affect your work at BNB Chain?
Nina Rong: This is a question I asked myself before starting the job. But after two or three weeks, I gave up on the idea (laughs).
I prefer to return to first principles rather than replicate past successes. Different projects have different foundations, resources, and community cultures; relying on past successes can limit my judgment. Therefore, I focus more on the goal itself and then break it down into what needs to be done.
Of course, industry knowledge and connections have been a great help to me personally, but not only in this job, but throughout my entire career.
Q9: How do you define the core product value of BNB Chain compared to other L1/L2 platforms?
Nina Rong: I believe the core value of BNB Chain lies in its large user base with a long-term foundation of trust in the ecosystem.
This kind of trust is not easy to build, and it will only become increasingly scarce in the future. The BNB ecosystem has been deeply rooted in the industry for five to six years, forming a very strong system. Developers are willing to build here, and users are willing to continue using products within the ecosystem. This is an extremely important and difficult-to-replicate advantage.
Q10: What do you think your leadership style is?
Nina Rong: I prefer to be an enabler. My core responsibility is not to micromanage every aspect of execution, but to provide platforms, resources, and space for more specialized people to leverage their strengths.
In the public blockchain ecosystem, business development, marketing, and technology are highly intertwined, and no single team can accomplish anything significant independently. Therefore, I place great importance on cross-team communication mechanisms, hoping for seamless collaboration and the free exchange of ideas between different functions.
Q11: What kind of ecosystem do you hope BNB Chain will become in two years?
Nina Rong: I hope BNB Chain can become an extremely user-friendly ecosystem for retail users. Users can seamlessly enter and easily use applications built on BNB Chain, while also finding products that truly suit their needs very easily.
If I had to use a single label to summarize it, I would say that BNB Chain is the " invisible but indispensable infrastructure " of this industry.
Q12: If you could go back to 2021 when you first entered the crypto industry, what advice would you give yourself?
Nina Rong: I tell myself: do more research, observe more. In this industry, a person's ceiling largely depends on their cognition. But once you enter a specific position, you're often occupied by a lot of execution work, making it difficult to sit down and do systematic research. So now I cherish the time I can do independent research, which is extremely important to me.
Q13: What career advice do you have for young people who want to enter the Web3 field today?
Nina Rong: The most important point is: the ability to learn proactively.
Web3 is a field where textbooks can never keep up with industry development; there are no ready-made paths to replicate. Everyone must find the information acquisition method that best suits them. Some acquire information by reading research reports, some by communicating with others, and some by putting it into practice themselves. The key is not the method, but whether one continuously and proactively builds their own cognitive system.
Q14: How did you maintain your motivation during the industry downturn?
Nina Rong: For us, bear markets are actually very exciting times. In bull markets, the initiative is in the hands of the market, and the team is often overwhelmed; while bear markets give us time to review, reflect, and plan our direction. Bear markets are the real time to build.
