While Bitcoin struggles to push past the $100k mark, BNB, a cryptocurrency associated with Binance, is among the top-performing altcoins in the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency surged 23% to trade at a new all-time high of $793, at some point surpassing Solana as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
The rally is reportedly supported by growing investor confidence, increasing derivatives market activity, and heightened interest in BNB’s role within the Binance ecosystem.
According to CoinMarketCap data, BNB is currently the sixth largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $108 billion. It trails Solana, which has a market cap of $109 billion and is trading at $229.
Since the beginning of the year, BNB has soared 141% from $312. The price increase is part of a broader trend of strong performance for several altcoins following the recent crypto market rally which was partly triggered by Donald Trump’s election win.
BNB’s explosive rally follows a sharp spike in trading volume, with its 24-hour trading volume reaching $6.32 billion, up by 124% from previous levels. According to CoinGlass, BNB’s derivatives market volume soared by 228%, while open interest rose by almost 32%. This suggests strong speculative interest and growing investor optimism in BNB’s further price gains.
The rapid price increase has not come without consequences. Short-sellers have reportedly faced significant liquidations, with $5.4 million worth of BNB short positions wiped out in the last 24 hours.
Market Vulnerabilities
November reports revealed that 35.5% of the BNB Chain’s blocks were targeted by sandwich attacks, Decrypt reported. These attacks, which involve market manipulation by exploiting decentralized exchange (DEX) systems, raised concerns about the BNB Chain’s security vulnerabilities.
Despite the increase in sandwich bot activity, BNB’s price remained largely unaffected. The rise in BNB’s value could be seen as a reflection of investor confidence in its use case within the Binance ecosystem, which offers lower fees and decentralized application (dApp) integration.
BNB is a cryptocurrency created and issued by Binance. The token was developed in 2017, initially based on the second-largest blockchain, Ethereum. It was later migrated to BNB Smart Chain. The token was created as part of the Binance exchange to pay discounted fees and as a native token of the Binance Chain.
