BNB Breaks New ATH, Now Above $700

Binance Coin (BNB), the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization ranking, has attained a new all-time high (ATH) of $710. The price surge follows several milestones recorded in the BNB ecosystem.

Source: CoinMarketCap

BNB Above $700

Binance, the leading crypto exchange, launched BNB via an initial coin offering (ICO) in July 2017. Although the digital asset was initially deployed on the Ethereum network through the ERC-20 token standard, it was later migrated to its native blockchain, the BNB Chain (formerly called the Binance Smart Chain).

Since its inception, BNB has grown into one of the leading cryptocurrencies in the industry. At the time of writing, the coin has soaked up a market cap of over $104 billion, trailing Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Tether (USDT).

Before today, BNB saw its last peak value in May 2021 when it traded above $671. Since then, the Binance-branded coin has dropped below the $300 price mark. Most of these price drops were fueled by a regulatory crackdown on Binance.

In June 2023, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sued the crypto exchange and its co-founder Changpeng Zhao (CZ) about alleged claims of unregistered securities sales. Months later, BNB dropped to as low as $211 as matters exacerbated. In November, CZ stepped down from his CEO role as part of the settlement with regulators. In April 2024, he was sentenced to four months in prison.

Notably, BNB’s latest price surge comes amid a regulatory tussle with the Nigerian government. Since February, the African country has alleged that Binance aided peer-to-peer (P2P) traders to cripple the Nigerian Naira. Two Binance executives were also held captive in the country.

What Drives the Bull Run?

BNB’s bull run is largely driven by milestones recorded within its ecosystem. The BNB Chain’s DeFi business, for example, recently reclaimed a total value locked (TVL) of $6.7 billion after the FTX crash.

Another feature that has attracted more users to the BNB ecosystem is the Binance Launchpool, an initiative that allows users to earn crypto rewards by staking existing assets like BNB.