BNB Chain Shows Strong Q1 Growth Despite 15% Market Cap Drop — Messari

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Hassan Shittu

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Hassan Shittu

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Hassan, a Cryptonews.com journalist with 6+ years of experience in Web3 journalism, brings deep knowledge across Crypto, Web3 Gaming, NFTs, and Play-to-Earn sectors. His work has appeared in...

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April 29, 2025

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Despite facing a 14.8% drop in its market cap, BNB Chain concluded the first quarter of 2025 with notable growth and technical achievements.

According to Messari’s comprehensive Q1 report, the network generated $70.8 million in revenue, representing a 58.1% quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) increase.

This surge was largely fueled by an astonishing 122.6% rise in wallet-to-wallet transaction fees, which overtook DeFi as the leading revenue contributor.

The beginning of February marked a pivotal moment for the network, as the popularity of the TST memecoin helped boost user engagement, pushing unique on-chain users to an all-time high of 517 million on February 11.

This spike in activity significantly contributed to BNB Chain’s revenue, which increased in both fiat and BNB terms, from 69,500 BNB in Q4 2024 to 109,800 BNB in Q1 2025.

Despite BNB’s price depreciation, the chain maintained its position as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, trailing only Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP.

This performance outpaced Ethereum, which saw a staggering 45.2% drop, and Solana, which declined by 29.6%.

The BNB ecosystem’s deflationary mechanics remained intact, with the 30th quarterly burn incinerating 1.6 million BNB ($1.2 billion), contributing to an annualized deflation rate of 4.6%.

DeFi, DEX, and Stablecoins Anchor a Thriving Ecosystem

BNB Smart Chain’s on-chain activity saw strong growth, with average daily transactions rising 20.9% QoQ to 4.9 million and average daily active addresses increasing 26.4% to 1.2 million.

Stablecoin transfers and wallet-to-wallet transactions accounted for the majority of this activity, collectively comprising 74.4% of all transactions.

Stablecoin usage alone rose 28% to 1.2 million daily transactions, and wallet transfers surged 50.9% to 835,000 per day.

DeFi engagement held firm despite broader market uncertainty. Although Total Value Locked (TVL) in USD terms dipped by 1.2% to $5.3 billion, BNB-denominated TVL grew 14.7%.

This rise helped BNB Smart Chain claim the fourth spot in total TVL rankings, overtaking one rival chain.

Decentralized exchange (DEX) volume experienced remarkable growth, rising 79.3% QoQ to an average of $2.3 billion in daily volume.

PancakeSwap remained the dominant force, controlling 91.8% of all DEX activity, supported by a 95.2% increase in trading volume.

Other DeFi applications, such as Venus Finance and Kernel, also played key roles. Venus led by TVL despite a small decline in asset borrowings, while Kernel saw a dramatic 655.6% TVL increase from $81.9 million to over half a billion, driven by restaking incentives.

Stablecoins also fueled ecosystem revenue, generating 5,745.1 BNB in Q1, up 23.4% QoQ, although their share of total revenue declined to 5.2%.

DeFi revenue increased 7.6% QoQ to 9,274.9 BNB, but fell to the second spot in revenue distribution as wallet-to-wallet fees surged. MEV and infrastructure revenue both declined slightly, with bridge fees seeing a modest 8.6% rise to 275.1 BNB.

Upgrades Drive Long-Term Scalability

Underpinning this operational growth was a series of substantial infrastructure and protocol upgrades.

The Pascal hard fork, launched during Q1, introduced several Ethereum-compatible features such as EIP-7702 smart contract wallets, BLS12-381 cryptography for efficient signature aggregation, gas abstraction, and batch transaction support.

Gas limits were also increased from 120 million to 140 million gas units, allowing the network to support more complex transaction activity. Pascal is only the first of three major upgrades slated for 2025.

As for the BNB price, BNB is currently consolidating above the $595 support level and is trading near $602, close to the 100-hourly simple moving average.

After forming a base at $592, the price rebounded and surpassed the $600 and $605 levels, reaching a high of $611 before pulling back to retest the $600 level.

The presence of a key rising channel and a steady RSI above 50 suggests bullish momentum, with resistance at $606 and $610.

A successful breakout above $610 could lead to further gains toward $620, with potential upside targets at $635 and $650.

However, if BNB fails to overcome the $610 resistance, it may face renewed selling pressure.

The initial support lies at $600, followed by stronger levels at $598 and $592. A drop below $592 could trigger a more significant decline, potentially pushing the price down to $585 or even $580.

Overall, BNB’s short-term direction hinges on whether it can sustain support above $598 and break through the $610 resistance.