Binance Smart Chain is solidifying itself as a premier Decentralized Finance network. The network is looking to truly “build cross-chain financial infrastructure that unlocks the Internet of Value.”
Data Tells the Story – It’s an Exponential One
Binance Smart Chain (BSC) has rooted itself as a crucial option in smart contract networks. The BSC has grown exponentially and works in synergy with Ethereum as the leading Internets of Value.
The BSC launched on September 1st of 2020 and has since recorded 90,000,000 Unique Wallet Addresses (UAW). The growth stems from BSC’s use as a scalable and affordable Decentralized Finance (DeFi) network, hosting nearly 13,000,000 daily transactions at peak usage. Ethereums daily transaction volume pales in comparison with an all-time high at 1,800,000 in 24hrs.
BSC brought scalable DeFi to 90,000,000+ users through $100,000,000+ in ecosystem support. Scaling and community are a huge testament as to why Binance Smart Chain has captured 32% of DeFi Total Value Locked (TVL) in a year of launch.
BSC has enabled DeFi to millions of more users, which could not be achieved on Ethereum’s congested network alone – BSC offered scaling to all users in the most crucial of times.
Key Milestones and Catalysts Timeline
2020
September 1st – BSC Mainnet Launches
September 7th – 100,000,000 Incentive Fund Launches
September 14th – First dApp BurgerSwap Launches
September 22nd – PancakeSwap Launches
September – Peckshield and CertiK Security Partnership
October 8th – 100,000 Active BSC Addresses
October 15th – BUIDL Reward Program Launches
December 11th – ChainLink Oracle Integration
December 22nd – Binance Bridge V2 Update
2021
January 20th – Lagrange Update on BSC Testnet
January 22th – BSC Community Launches Roadmap
February 1st – 1000% Growth From October in Unique Active Wallet’s (1,000,000)
February 7th – BSC Handles 1,000,000 TX’s in 24 hours
February 8th – BSC Kicks off First Most Valuable Builder (MVB I)
February 25th -Langrage Upgrade on BSC Mainnet
March 2nd – Graph Announces BSC Support
March 15th –Binance.com Distributes $3,250,000 in BUIDL Rewards
March 22nd – BSC Validators Lower Fee Structure
March 26th – BSC v1.0.7 is Released
April 20th – 1st Round of BSC Grants Finishes, Distributing $780,000 to 108 Projects
April 23rd – The Big Ban of NFTs (MVB II) Officially Launches
April 25th – Binance Bridge V3 Launch
May 27th – CipherTrace Adds Illicit Transaction Analytics to Legitimize BSC
June 22nd – BSC Martians Program
June 29th – $25,000 + NFT Learn and Earn is Announced
July 8th – Top 20 MVB II Projects Selected
July 14th – Binance.com Announces Project of the Year Awards
July 26th – BSC Community Announces $10,000,000 Priority One Bug Bounty
July 29th – MVB II Winner Announced
August 2nd – BSC Learn and Earn Reboots With $45,000 in Prizes
August 6th – July Ecosystem Report is Published
August 12th – MVB II and Incubation Program are Announced
August 13th -BSC V1.1.1 is Released
August 20th – 90,000,000 Unique Wallets is Reached
August 23rd – BSC Learn and Earn 4 Launches
The Explosion of DeFi (Jan – March)
Binance Smart Chain growth rapidly accelerated in Q1 of 2021. During this time, cheap gas fees and an intuitive DeFi experience drove users to BSC. This growth is easily tracked by the rise of Unique Active Wallets (UAW).
Looking at UAW on BscScan there was an 18 day period––from February 14th to March 4th––where BSC experienced an addition of 55,108,906 users. This growth displays the inherent demand there is for an affordable DeFi experience.
The growth was also seen in protocol usage. Binance Smart Chain crossed $1 Billion in TVL in early February. From here, TVL growth in DeFi projects went exponential, peaking at $39.5B TVL in May, according to DappRadar. This period saw massive growth in decentralized financial products such as exchanges, lending, derivatives, oracles, and insurance.
A large portion of this explosive growth can be attributed to the $100,000,000 Accelerator fund offered by Binance.com on September 7th. This fund has led to the creation of ecosystem programs such as BUIDL and the Most Valuable Builder Series. By late March, over 25 projects had already received Accelerator fund support.
Projects that participated in these programs have grown to be the largest on the network, such as PancakeSwap (PCS), Venus, OpenOcean, PancakeBunny, AutoFarm, AnySwap, and ApeSwap. At the beginning of the year, there were only 15 verified smart contracts on BscScan. This quickly ballooned to 2000+ as users and incentives grew.
While the accelerator was not the sole catalyst of BSC’s growth, it played a massive role in bootstrapping the ecosystem. Notably, the Most Valuable Builder program helped shaped the top BSC projects we know today.
The massive growth in BSC has led to insane growth in DeFi projects––not only MVB winners. Individual projects such as PCS, BeefyFinance, AutoFarm, BakerySwap, Venus, Alpaca Finance, MDEX, and Nerve have experienced parabolic growth. Notably, we can look at PancakeSwap, which dominates 34% of BSC TVL.
PCS shows the same explosive growth of DeFi TVL on Binance Smart Chain. At the beginning of 2021, the protocol had ~$150,000,000 in TVL. In the explosion of DeFi, PCS went on to experience upwards of 873% of total value locked – peaking at $12.9 Billion, according to DappRadar.
The DeFi rally came to a halt due to the broader market correction. A majority of the growth has been maintained, especially considering that DeFi TVL was below 1B at the start of Q1.
Currently, BSC TVL sits in between 18B and 27B according to leading data providers Defi Llama, DappRadar, and DefiStation. Filtering through data, it appears Defi Llama has the most accurate statistics as the PancakeSwap TVL is incorrect on other data providers.
The Big Bang of NFTs and GameFi (May-Present)
Just because there was a broad market correction doesn’t mean BSC development and growth slowed. A new trend emerged across BSC in the NFT and GameFi sector. In Q3, NFTs blew up across the blockchain. Projects such as ApeSwap, BunnyPark, AirNFTs, Refinable, and BakerySwap leveraged the growing NFT hype.
ApeSwap created a massive market around their Non-Fungible Apes (NFA) NFTs, which resembled that of CryptoPunks. The market of 1,000 random monkey-like avatars currently holds a market cap just shy of $5,000,000 (9902 BNB).
These apes serve as digital collectibles and each has a unique rarity. ApeSwap incorporated DeFi mechanics such as airdrops for holders of the NFA’s. So far, these have been some of the most successful NFTs on BSC. PancakeSwap recently teased their launch of collectible avatars and an NFT marketplace.
A novel trend also emerged in Q3, where projects began combining DeFi mechanics with NFTs. This created the GameFi sector, which saw explosive growth during a time of general market consolidation. GameFi platforms such as CryptoBlades, Mobox, My DeFi Pet, Faraland, X World Games, Binamon, and Yooshi exploded.
By combining DeFi, gaming, and NFTs, projects are able to create real economies and Play-to-Earn incentive structures. That’s right, get paid to game and collect artwork.
GameFi has notably found its place on Binance Smart Chain. Aside from Axie Infinity, a majority of projects have found them on BSC due to the benefit of transaction fees. In the last 30 days, BSC hosts 5 out of the top 10 GameFi projects, according to DappRadar.
Over the past 30 days, over 140,000+ users have interacted with the top 10 GameFi projects on BSC. These projects began garnering immense support in July and August.
A major portion of this success can also be attributed to the Accelerator fund, specifically the Most Valuable Builder II. This event outlined a focus on NFTs and GameFi and bootstrapping their growth – GameFi took the cake (no pun intended), with 6 of the winning projects being NFT Gaming.
This was not just a trend on BSC, but across all blockchains––the MVB II program only accelerated the trend on BSC. Axie Infinity has become the largest protocol across all of DeFi, recording over 1 Billion in volume and 200 M in revenue. Looking at Google Trends, it appears NFTs haven’t even hit the mainstream – still below the previous search record.
This data is relevant as GameFi and NFTs have just begun gaining traction on BSC. The accelerator fund will only continue to provide these projects with the support they need. The demand for GameFi is massive, as seen in current games CryptoBlades, MoBox, and Axie Infinity. Google Trends is signaling that the NFT madness may just be getting started.
Ecosystem Support and Incentives
Ecosystem incentives are responsible for the massive success of Binance Smart Chain. As mentioned, the ecosystem support stems from the 100,000,000 Accelerator fund put in place by Binance.com. The funds have gone forward to provide support in multiple forms – notably the Most Valuable Builder and BUIDL Programs.
It started with the BUIDL Reward Program, which delivered projects rewards based on user activity. The program launched in October and allowed projects to collect 30% of gas fees used on their contracts. Some of the consistent recipients have been PancakeSwap, MDEX, AutoFarm, Venus, and Just Liquidity. Each month up to 5,000,000 in BNB will be distributed.
The second use of the Accelerator fund is the Most Valuable Builder, which is currently in its third iteration. The first MVB was launched on February 5th to help incentivize growth and support projects building on BSC.
The program consists of three phases, the first being a shortlist of the top twenty projects. Then the list dwindles to ten projects which receive a $10,000 grant, CertiK Audit, and incubation with industry experts. Finally, five winners are eligible for up to $100,000 in seed funding, $2,000,000 in liquidity support, and/or a listing in the Binance Innovation Zone.
The first MVB boasted the following phase two winners after 650+ applications were submitted: AutoFarm, PancakeBunny, LaunchZone (Formerly BSCEX), Kebab Finance, NFTBox, Beefy Finance, BDollar, and Sphinx.
Yield optimizers claimed the throne with Beefy, AutoFarm, and PancakeBunny achieving phase three. AutoFarm and Beefy were listed in the Binance innovation zone, while PancakeBunny received a $1.6M seed round investment from Binance Labs.
MVB II had a focus on NFTs, titled The Big Bang of NFTs. This round focused on DeFi + NFT improvement, high-performance infrastructures, and significant user and transaction volumes. The top twenty consisted of DeFi and NFT heavyweights, which were shortlisted further.
The top ten projects of MVB II are currently some of the most popular BSC projects. Bunnypark, CryptoBlades, Faraland, MoBox, My DeFi Pet, X World Games, Alpaca Finance, ApeSwap, BiSwap, and StreamingFast were all eligible for a $10,000 grant and CertiK quick scan. The MVB II program saw immense success, with the GameFi portfolio recording 10x growth after participation.
Source : bsc.news
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