Despite facing some market challenges in Q3 2024, the BNB Chain has shown notable changes across various metrics. The Total Value Locked (TVL) saw a moderate rise, and there was a significant surge in NFT trading activity. However, the network revenue and overall on-chain activity experienced a decline compared to the previous quarter.
BNB Smart Chain’s DeFi TVL, when measured in USD, witnessed a 2% QoQ increase, moving from $4.74 billion in Q2 to $4.85 billion in Q3. Despite this growth, BNB Smart Chain slipped to fourth place in the TVL rankings, with Solana overtaking it. In terms of BNB, the TVL remained stable at 8.3 million BNB, indicating steady capital inflows. Venus Finance managed to hold onto its position as the leading protocol by TVL, with a 13% QoQ rise to $1.79 billion; however, borrowing on Venus fell drastically by 36%, lowering to $454 million.
Staking activity also saw growth, with total BNB staked experiencing a 7% rise to 32.4 million BNB. ListaDAO’s liquid staking solution, slisBNB, continued to lead, although staked volumes saw a 2% QoQ drop to 406,200 slisBNB. A significant development was the introduction of a re-staking feature by YieldNest protocol, allowing users to convert slisBNB into ynBNB for further staking, a move aimed at enhancing ecosystem liquidity.
However, the revenue of BNB Chain, reflecting the total fees collected by the network, experienced a decline in Q3. The quarter’s revenue totaled $34.9 million, a 28% decrease from $48.4 million in Q2. In terms of BNB, revenue also saw a decrease, falling by 22% QoQ. In Q3, revenue amounted to 63,500 BNB, down from 81,300 BNB in the previous quarter.
In the realm of NFTs, BNB Chain made a significant comeback after a quiet Q2. The average daily trading volume soared by 283% to $600,400 in Q3, with the average daily sales also seeing a 47% increase, reaching 8,900. However, the number of unique daily buyers fell by 53% to 2,300, indicating that the recent NFT activity was driven by larger transactions from a smaller pool of high-value traders.
Despite some areas experiencing positive momentum, BNB Smart Chain’s on-chain activity slowed down. Average daily transactions saw an 8% QoQ decrease to 3.4 million, while active daily addresses dropped 19% to 868,300. Stablecoin transactions remained strong, with USDT leading in active addresses, averaging 294,000 daily—a growth of 8% QoQ. PancakeSwap remained the second most active protocol, with 94,600 daily addresses.
In the wake of these trends, BNB Chain announced its “Gas-Free Carnival” aimed at enhancing stablecoin usage. This initiative offers gas-free transfers for USDT, USDC, and FDUSD, supported by Bitget Wallet and SafePal. Additionally, fee-free withdrawals and free bridging options via Celer cBridge aim to improve user experience and boost adoption.
