On Apr. 19, following the highly anticipated debut of the Binance Chain mainnet, the price of Binance Coin (BNB) surged by 10 percent against the US dollar, becoming the first crypto asset since 2017 to achieve an all-time high.
Other crypto assets that come close to BNB, digital assets created before 2019, are down about 20 to 50 percent against the dollar, with most other tokens down nearly 99 percent against the USD since the peak of the market in 2017.
How Binance Coin (BNB) Became the First Crypto to Surpass ATH Since 2017
On Jan. 12th, 2018, Binance Coin achieved a record high at $24.46 after recording a 12-fold increase in value in a mere two months.
In the past 24-hours, BNB surged by 11.2 percent against the US dollar and hit $24.77 following the highly anticipated launch of the Binance Chain mainnet, recording a staggering 309 percent gain year-to-date.
The large increase in the value of BNB in a relatively short period of time suggests that investors in the crypto asset are confident in the long-term growth of the cryptocurrency, particularly in the decentralized exchange (DEX) and decentralized application (DApp) space.
After the launch of Binance Chain’s mainnet, several blockchain projects such as Red Pulse and Mithril moved from smart contract protocols such as Ethereum to Binance Chain.
$MITH will be one of the first projects to migrate tokens onto @Binance_DEX. Our community thank you for your support! https://t.co/zvG7tvtL2b
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) April 18, 2019
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Other large-scale projects like Enjin, which reportedly has secured a strategic partnership with Samsung, announced support for Binance Chain and BNB.
The Enjin Wallet will fully support #Binance Chain, including $BNB assets and @Binance_DEX exchange functions.
We’re excited to be a part of this @binance revelation and provide #EnjinWallet users with a convenient, secure, and precise trading platform.https://t.co/kP8zz6Vbht pic.twitter.com/vLhnEwpNLF
— Enjin (@enjin) April 19, 2019
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However, even before the build-up towards the mainnet launch of Binance Chain, BNB has performed strongly against both bitcoin and the U.S. dollar throughout the 16-month bear market.
The solid performance of BNB throughout 2018 is mainly attributed to its coin burn mechanism, a process during which profits generated by Binance, the crypto-to-crypto exchange, are used to buy back BNB from holders.
The momentum of BNB established by the buyback mechanism was further fueled by the announcement of the exchange to launch a decentralized exchange in the first half of 2019 accompanied by the launch of its own blockchain protocol.
In the upcoming days, Binance is expected to initiate the second largest token swap in the history of the cryptocurrency market, moving BNB, which is currently based on Ethereum as an ERC20 token, to Binance Chain.
Interesting, 2nd largest swap in history. Learn something new every day! https://t.co/SCPCHwC4c6
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) April 19, 2019
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BNB remains as the most valuable token on Ethereum by a large margin with a market capitalization of $3.4 billion. Maker, the second most valuable token on the protocol, is valued at $620 million.
What BNB Has to Prove Now
If the price of BNB performed well throughout 2018 due to the buyback mechanism and engaged in a new rally in 2019 in anticipation of the mainnet release, Binance Chain would have to show real potential as a high throughput and large capacity blockchain.
While the focus of Binance Chain is seemingly placed at supporting decentralized exchanges, it will have to demonstrate to investors that projects like Mithril and other blockchain platforms that plan to migrate to Binance Chain can function seamlessly on the protocol.
The eyes of investors are likely to be placed on how the Binance team moves forward with its plans to further decentralize Binance Chain in the months ahead through a wider geographical distribution of nodes.
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