Binance-affiliated BNB Chain has rebounded after a period of stagnation in 2023 amid accelerating institutional and decentralized finance (DeFi) adoption. 

During the past year, BNB Chain has benefited from multibillion-dollar inflows into DeFi, US exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and rising trading volume at affiliated centralized exchange (CEX) Binance. 

Consequently, the blockchain network’s native BNB token (BNB) has emerged as among the market’s most resilient cryptocurrencies, surpassing all-time highs in the first quarter of 2025 even as the broader crypto market trended downward. 

“This resilience isn’t just about price action — strong fundamentals also back it,” Joao Wedson, CEO of investing analytics platform Alphractal, said in an April X post. “Binance has built a massive ecosystem where BNB is used extensively,” Wedson added.

Asset manager Standard Chartered expects the BNB token’s price to continue to rise, reaching highs of $2,775 by the end of 2028. As of May 7, BNB trades at around $600 per coin. It has a market capitalization of nearly $85 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

Meanwhile, asset manager VanEck proposed on May 5 the first BNB ETF in the United States.

DeFi activity on BNB Chain (formerly BSC). Source: DeFiLlama

Related: Standard Chartered predicts BNB will more than double in 2025

DeFi inflows

Since the start of 2024, BNB Chain’s TVL has increased from around $3.5 billion to more than $6 billion, according to data from DefiLlama. It still hasn’t recovered fully to all-time highs of more than $20 billion in 2022.

As of May 7, BNB Chain ranks fourth among layer-1 blockchain networks by TVL, the data shows. 

According to Standard Chartered, BNB Chain’s “use cases remain almost entirely on decentralised exchanges [DEXs], lending protocols, and liquid staking. This makes it a much more concentrated and ‘old-fashioned’ smart contract platform than rivals,” it said in a May research note reviewed by Cointelegraph.

“While this caps upside potential, it also provides a degree of stability,” according to the asset manager. 

PancakeSwap is among BNB Chain’s largest DEXs, with roughly $1.5 billion in TVL, according to DefiLlama.

USD1 on BNB Chain vs. Ethereum. Source: BSC Scan

Institutional adoption

Institutional adoption is growing on the blockchain network, with performance partly driven by its ties to Binance, the network’s affiliated CEX.

The exchange clocked an all-time high trading volume of around $76 trillion in 2024. It accounts for roughly 40% of spot trading volumes globally, according to Standard Chartered.

In addition, US President Donald Trump-backed stablecoin USD1 has been issued primarily on the BNB Chain. Data from BscScan shows that more than $2 billion worth of USD1 — or 99% of its circulating supply — has been issued on BNB Chain. 

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Braden John Karony, the former CEO of crypto firm SafeMoon, made an out-of-court statement claiming innocence as his criminal trial began in New York.

In a May 6 X post after court proceedings had likely ended for the day, Karony said he was innocent and “did not commit fraud” in response to media coverage of his trial. The former CEO, as well as SafeMoon creator Kyle Nagy and former chief technology officer Thomas Smith, were charged in 2023 for having allegedly “diverted and misappropriated millions of dollars’ worth” of the platform’s SFM token.

According to reporting from the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) on May 6, Karony implied that Nagy, who reportedly fled to Russia after authorities filed charges, was responsible for some of the alleged fraud at SafeMoon. On the first day of the trial, after jury selection, Smith reportedly appeared as a witness for the prosecution with a SafeMoon victim.

The trial, expected to run until May 26, has arguably received less media attention and scrutiny than other crypto cases, such as the 2023 trial of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and the sentencing of former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. Karony pleaded not guilty to charges of securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, and has been free on a $3 million bond since February 2024.

Related: What do crypto users want to happen to Alex Mashinsky?

Many high-profile individuals from the crypto industry who faced criminal charges did not publicly comment on social media until the conclusion of their cases, likely on the advice of counsel. Such statements may be used at trial.

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Karony’s case, first filed in November 2023, came as Donald Trump appointee Joseph Nocella assumed the role of interim US Attorney for the court district. EDNY’s courts have previously handled cases involving allegations of crypto fraud, but it’s unclear whether politics will play a role moving forward, given Trump’s alignment with the crypto industry.

In the neighboring US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Alex Mashinsky is scheduled to be sentenced on May 8. The former Celsius CEO pleaded guilty to two felony charges in December 2024. Prosecutors have asked a judge to impose a 20-year sentence.

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Onchain sleuth and security analyst ZackXBT claims to have identified an additional $45 million in funds stolen from Coinbase users through social engineering scams in the past seven days alone.

According to the onchain detective, the $45 million figure represents the latest financial losses in a string of social engineering scams targeting Coinbase users, which ZackXBT said is a problem unique among crypto exchanges:

“Over the past few months, I have reported on nine figures stolen from Coinbase users via similar social engineering scams. Interestingly, no other major exchange has the same problem.”

Cointelegraph reached out to Coinbase but was unable to get a response by the time of publication.

Source: ZachXBT

The claims made by ZackXBT place the total amount lost by Coinbase users to social engineering scams at $330 million annually and reflect the growing number of sophisticated attack strategies employed by threat actors to defraud crypto holders.

Related: $330M Bitcoin social engineering theft victim is elderly US citizen

FBI issues warnings on social engineering scams targeting crypto users

In July 2024, reports emerged that several Coinbase users were targeted by scammers posing as the exchange’s support staff. The scammers managed to drain $1.7 million from one user.

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a warning in August 2024, sounding the alarm on scammers posing as crypto exchanges in an attempt to steal user funds and sensitive user data.

The FBI expanded this warning in September 2024, highlighting the use of fake employment offers from scammers targeting crypto users.

According to the FBI, North Korean state-affiliated hacking groups would direct victims to download malicious software by disguising the software packages as employment tests, job applications, and information on investment opportunities.

More recently, in March 2025, crypto users reported an uptick in scam emails imitating legitimate communication from crypto exchanges, directing users to withdraw their funds to external wallets.

The growing variety and sophistication of social engineering scams prompted Coinbase chief security officer Phillip Martin to call for streamlining the scam reporting process by having a single, unified framework or repository for identifying and combating scams.

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