Update: Oct. 6, 1am UTC: This article has been updated to include a response from DeFi Lead at BNB Chain Marwan Kawadri.
BNB, the native token of the BNB Chain — a layer-1 blockchain created by crypto exchange Binance — has reached a new all-time high amid plans for upgrades and a broader market rally.
The token reached $1,111.90 for the first time on Friday, after rising more than 7.4% in the last 24 hours and surging 17.5% for the week, according to data aggregator CoinGecko.
It also comes as more treasury companies have been stacking BNB. Soon after the coin’s all-time high in July, analysts told Cointelegraph that treasury buying, along with regular token burns, had contributed to its price gains, with more room to grow.
Speaking to Cointelegraph Marwan Kawadri, DeFi Lead at BNB Chain, said BNB’s rally represents “growing confidence in the unique strength of the BNB Chain ecosystem,” and also “the market’s recognition that utility and real-world adoption matter.”
“We’re seeing both increasing retail and institutional adoption of BNB-native products, from RWA to payments and more.”
“While short-term market moves will always fluctuate, we’re focused on delivering the infrastructure and ecosystem that will support the next generation of DeFi, RWA projects and Web3 applications,” he added.
Asset manager Standard Chartered predicted in May that the token would reach a peak of $1,275 in 2025, based on its expected gain in tandem with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
The rest of the cryptocurrency market also registered gains on Friday, with the total market capitalization rising 1.6% to $4.2 trillion.
BNB Chain metrics rise as well
Along with the token price, BNB Chain’s total locked value (TLV) has also risen. The total number of active addresses and transaction volumes has increased over the past month, according to analytics platform DefiLlama.
The blockchain’s TLV has increased 2.5% in the last 24 hours, tapping $8.23 billion. At the same time, the number of active addresses spiked to 73.24 million last month, reaching the highest recorded level.
Transaction volumes have also been on the rise, recording the second-largest amount in September, reaching 4.34 million total. The biggest monthly transaction volume was recorded in June.
The new all-time high and growing user metrics came just days after the official X account for BNB Chain was compromised on Wednesday, when hackers posted phishing links targeting crypto wallets.
BNB upgrades on the horizon
On Wednesday, validators and builders operating on BNB Chain adopted the new minimum gas price of 0.05 gwei, which the BNB team said in an X post would result in faster and cheaper trading for users.
“Next step for wallets, CEXs and trading platforms: To adopt 0.05 gwei to align with the network and keep BNB Chain the most attractive home for onchain activity,” the team said.
Kawadri told Cointelegraph BNB Chain is “entering a transformative phase in terms of scalability and performance.”
“Over the next year, BNB Chain will roll out major upgrades including a 10x increase in the block gas limit, faster transaction finality down to 450ms on mainnet, and ultra-low fees,” he said.
In its outlook for the remainder of 2025 and 2026, the BNB team stated that plans are also in place to increase the block gas limit from 100 million to 1 billion, aiming to meet user demand and ensure smooth activity across decentralized applications.
Meanwhile, in 2026, there is an intent to develop a blockchain architecture capable of processing 20,000 transactions per second with confirmation times of under 150 milliseconds.
Related: ‘Diamond hand’ investor turns $1K into $1M as BNB tops $1,000
There are also plans for native privacy features, upgradable virtual machines and more user-friendly tools for next year.
Two major upgrades already went live in 2025
Earlier this year, BNB Smart Chain’s Maxwell upgrade went live in June, which was geared toward creating faster blocks, better validator coordination and smoother network performance. It also sparked speculation that a rally could be around the corner.
In April, the Lorentz Hard Fork went live, reducing block times and introducing enhanced validator networking to make the chain more suitable for latency-sensitive applications.
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