According to Nansen data, the Binance-linked BNB Chain has surpassed Solana in daily fees, leading all blockchains. On February 13, BNB Chain generated over $5.8 million in daily fees, exceeding Solana’s $3.3 million and totaling more than five times the amount of Ethereum. This marked the first time since Halloween 2024—when Bitcoin had a standout day—that a blockchain other than Ethereum or Solana has led the industry in daily fees.
PancakeSwap leads decentralized exchange volume
A significant portion of BNB Chain’s activities originated from PancakeSwap, a decentralized exchange (DEX) that operates across multiple chains but generates the majority of its trading volume on BNB Chain. On February 13, PancakeSwap outperformed all DEXs across all chains in trading volume. On the eve of Valentine’s Day, Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao revealed that his dog’s name is Broccoli, prompting a wave of memecoins named after his Belgian Malinois. Zhao clarified that he did not intend to launch any memecoins of his own.
The rising activity on BNB Chain was not limited to memecoins inspired by Zhao’s pet. In fact, the activity has surged recently, even surpassing Tron and Ethereum in daily active addresses to claim second place in that category, according to Nansen data. However, its nearly 6 million active addresses over the past seven days still lag significantly behind Solana’s industry-leading 35.8 million.
BNB Chain’s memecoin surge boosts activity
On February 9, BNB Chain ranked second in fee revenue, only behind Solana. A key driver of this was the meteoric rise and fall of the BNB-based “Test” (TST) token. TST was originally intended as a tutorial token for BNB Chain’s memecoin launchpad, Four.Meme. However, once traders noticed the token’s name, speculation took over, pushing its market cap to $500 million before it crashed.
Memecoins are often deemed useless with no intrinsic value. Ironically, they have become some of the most popular use cases in crypto over the past year. Even world leaders have joined the trend, including US President Donald Trump, who has endorsed a pair of meme tokens. Solana has been the dominant chain for memecoins, with speculative trading playing a significant role in driving Solana’s rise in crucial blockchain metrics like fees. BNB Chain has pledged support for the meme ecosystem in its 2025 roadmap.
The native token of BNB Chain (BNB) has risen by 15% over the past week. The token, which is used for transaction fees on the blockchain as well as within Binance’s exchange ecosystem, recently surpassed Solana’s SOL to become the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.