Q3 Cryptocurrency Market Observation: How BNB Ecosystem Is Pioneering a New On-Chain Battlefield in the Exchange Stock Battle

In the first week of October, a wave of MEME tokens with Chinese characters suddenly appeared on the BSC chain, and the “XX Life” series spread like wildfire. Within days, even overseas players started studying Chinese textbooks just to understand the jokes behind those token names.

This craze was completely different from the previous MEME season dominated by the Solana chain—the main battlefield had shifted. Creative works and trading centered around Chinese topics directly boosted the chain’s activity, and BNB’s price soared, making it the most eye-catching mainstream asset after BTC.

However, the good times didn’t last long. The sudden event on October 11 cooled the market instantly, and the heat around Chinese MEMEs faded. Ironically, the silence was broken by the head of a compliant platform on the Base chain—someone who had previously publicly criticized listing fees. During a demo of his own application, he used “XX Life” as an example. Once this iconic moment spread, BSC’s Chinese MEMEs broke out of their niche, and Group discussions exploded again.

After the incident, a leading trading platform injected $400 million into a “Solidarity Plan” to compensate users and institutions for losses. The Marketplace began to self-repair—on-chain activity rebounded, and mainstream assets steadily recovered. Despite the volatility, the resilience accumulated in Q3 remained. The data speaks for itself: by the end of Q3 2025, the total market capitalization of crypto assets had surpassed $4.02 trillion.

Throughout Q3, a leading exchange saw both Spot and derivation volume rise, maintaining over one-third of the market share with a total volume of $9.93 trillion—meaning Trading Fee income remained rock solid. BNB’s market capitalization rose to $145.998 billion, reflecting the ecosystem’s valuation to some extent. At the end of Q3, BNB Chain generated $357.3 million in fee income, proving its ability to attract capital as a Web3 foundational layer.

Volume and Share: What does $9.93 trillion mean?

As BTC prices hit new highs, the total crypto market capitalization at the end of Q3 2025 exceeded $4.02 trillion, up 16.2% from Q2’s $3.46 trillion, and a big pump of 72.5% compared to $2.33 trillion in the same period last year.

The TOP10 exchanges contributed $28.7 trillion in total volume in Q3, up 32.87% from Q2’s $21.6 trillion. Spot volume was $4.9 trillion (, up 36.11% ) quarter-on-quarter, and derivation volume was $23.7 trillion (, up 17.32% ).

Looking at share distribution, a leading platform dominated with over $9.93 trillion in total volume ( (Spot + derivation) ), accounting for 34.59% of the market—remaining the only platform consistently holding a third of the market. At the same time, three other exchanges each held over 10% share ( (12.60%, 11.58%, 11.45% )) and another ( at 11.36% ). The industry structure saw little short-term change.

Whether Spot or derivation, the leading platforms in Q3 held an absolute lead in volume share, with increases over Q2. According to CoinGecko, among the TOP6 platforms by total volume market share in Q3, the leading platform’s Spot volume was $2.05 trillion, accounting for 41.26% of the market, up 3.27% from Q2.

In the derivation market’s TOP6, the leading platform held $788 million in volume, accounting for 33.20% share, still far ahead of the other five, up 1% from Q2. Notably, a compliant platform’s share rose 2.07% quarter-on-quarter, the largest increase; another grew 1.04%, surpassing the leading platform; and one more saw a slight rise of 0.8%.

While leading in volume, the top platform also set a record net inflow of $14.8 billion in Q3, further solidifying its dominance in the CEX sector.

Interestingly, despite the 16.2% rise in total crypto market capitalization and a 32.87% rise in volume, platforms’ market shares didn’t see major shifts. The overall structure is solidifying, making both defense and offense difficult for platforms, and a new breakthrough is urgently needed.

The market leader seems to have long recognized the limitations of the exchange stock battle, shifting its strategic focus to on-chain early on. The phenomenon-level product Alpha in Q2 was a key step, with increased investment in Q3.

BSC Active Address Monthly Rise 57%, On-Chain DEX Potential Explodes

Alpha, integrated from on-chain into the main platform, acted as fuel, and the Airdrop was the spark, igniting BNB Chain and keeping the heat going since the start of the year.

CryptoRank’s latest report shows BNB Chain, Solana, and Avalanche as the “Best Performing Blockchains of Q3 2025.” BNB Chain’s DEX volume reached $225 billion, the highest since Q4 2021, second only to Solana ( $365 billion ) and ETH ( $337 billion ).

In terms of active Address count, BNB Chain overtook other chains in September, reaching a new high of 52.5 million, a 57% rise quarter-on-quarter; Solana and ETH had 45.8 million and 8.9 million, respectively. BNB Chain’s transaction count also surged from 892 million in Q2 to 1.22 billion in Q3.

The sharp increase in activity led BNB Chain to generate $357.3 million in fee income before Q3 ended. CryptoRank reports that in September alone, BNB Chain’s income hit $2.2 million, the highest since March.

Additionally, DefiLlama data shows the number of protocols on BSC reached 1,033 at the end of Q3, 2.7 times Solana’s ( 381 ), gradually approaching ETH’s ( 1,638 ); BSC’s on-chain TVL hit $8.729 billion, still far from ETH’s ( $87.415 billion ), but just $2.6 billion shy of catching up to Solana ( $11.368 billion ). Crucially, BSC’s TVL saw a monthly rise of 15.02%, making it the strongest-growing foundational chain among the TVL TOP10 public chains.

If Alpha was the key to Q2’s on-chain ecosystem rise, the perpetual contract DEX “Aster” on BSC was the successor. This perpetual contract platform saw multiple metrics rise in September, with single-day revenue reaching $7.2 million, even surpassing the derivation sector’s “king” Hyperliquid ( $2.79 million ). Its growth pushed BNB Chain’s perpetual contract volume up 55% in Q3, reaching $36 billion.

The continuous rise in BNB Chain’s on-chain trading and TVL benefited from cost reduction and efficiency gains. As trading became the main on-chain use case, on September 24, BNB Chain’s validators proposed lowering the minimum Gas price from 0.1 gwei to 0.05 gwei and shortening block generation intervals from 750ms to 450ms. This was the third major Trading Fee reduction in 18 months, with a long-term goal to lower per-transaction fees to about $0.001.

In fact, Trading Fee reductions have happened multiple times: in April 2024, from 3 gwei to 1 gwei; in May 2025, from 1 gwei to 0.1 gwei—a cumulative drop of 75%. The May reduction had a significant effect: median transaction Trading Fee dropped 75% ( from $0.04 to $0.01 ), and daily transaction count surged 140%, breaking 12 million. Clearly, fee reductions and network usage growth are strongly correlated.

The September fee reduction and acceleration paved the way for BNB Chain to upgrade from a general-purpose public chain to a financial system foundation. The chain already hosts PancakeSwap, Venus, a well-known DEX, Solv Protocol, AAVE, and other established DEX, Borrow, and Decentralized Finance platforms. Aster’s arrival completed BSC’s derivation sector, creating immediate value for itself and BNB Chain.

The flourishing BNB Chain on-chain ecosystem also validated a founder’s prediction from three years ago: DEX has huge potential. Alpha and Aster are the best answers three years later, and these “Double A” DEX have tested BNB Chain’s ability to handle High Frequency on-chain trading. As one media headline put it, the platform has created two “mini exchanges”—Alpha focuses on “on-chain Spot,” Aster handles “on-chain Futures.” In fierce competition, the only one who can disrupt itself seems to be itself.

But the question remains: while on-chain has unlimited potential, how do you get more cars running on the highway? This not only affects the ecosystem’s incremental sources but also determines how much value “on-chain income” BNB can continue to create.

BNB Hits New Record at $1,376—Where’s the Next Growth Point?

If we follow traditional capital market logic, when an ecosystem not only has super products to support its value but also strong profitability, the capital market will estimate its value. Currently, BNB’s $150 billion market capitalization reflects the market’s strong expectations for the ecosystem, putting it back in the crypto asset TOP3. Can the rise continue?

This round of growth was partly driven by capital’s optimism about BNB’s potential, especially as BTC and ETH are being locked up by institutions creating various treasuries. As US investment bank Jefferies pointed out in a recent Q&A report for large institutional investors, crypto assets are still in the “1996 phase” of the internet boom, with much more room to rise. “Many companies are actively developing investment strategies and determining how to allocate funds among tokens, ETF, digital asset treasury companies ( DAT ), and publicly listed companies with risk exposure.”

“Focusing too much on Bitcoin’s price distracts from blockchain technology’s disruptive potential across industries,” Jefferies analysts advise, echoing 1996 internet-era investment strategies: be selective and focus on lasting utility. They recommend analyzing tokens like early tech startups, prioritizing “adoption, development, Use, and use cases.”

BNB fits this advice. In June and July, several traditional listed companies announced they would include BNB on their balance sheets. When a founder revealed that over 30 teams were preparing listed company projects involving BNB reserves, this momentum grew further in Q3.

On August 25, Web3 veteran B Strategy announced a $1 billion fundraising and the formation of a US-listed company with support from YZi Labs, which will hold BNB as a financial asset and invest in the BNB ecosystem. YZi Labs is seen as the crypto world’s “strongest family office,” managing the founder’s and a few early executives’ funds since spinning off from a leading platform in January.

On October 13, Bloomberg reported that Hong Kong-listed investment bank China Renaissance Capital aims to raise $600 million to launch a BNB-focused treasury in the US. If completed, this would be the largest single investment in BNB by a listed company. Additionally, on October 9, news broke that PayPay Corp, a SoftBank ( 9984.T ) payment app operator, acquired a 40% stake in a Japanese trading platform.

News of institutional investment and acquisition, combined with rising on-chain activity, further boosted market confidence and supported BNB’s continued rise. While investing in BNB still means betting on the ecosystem’s future, BNB has long moved beyond the exchange platform token narrative, now serving as a comprehensive crypto asset integrating trading, payment, public chain fuel, and investment tool—suitable for different user groups.

As one platform user put it, “For trading users, BNB can offset Trading Fee to save costs; for investors, it’s a pass to participate in early projects and earn Return in Launchpool and TGE; for Developers, it’s the Gas for building decentralized applications on BNB Chain.”

By September, institutions prioritizing “adoption, development, Use, and use cases” arrived. Compared to the MEME frenzy, this kind of participation is a more solid driver of incremental growth for the BNB ecosystem.

On September 24, global investment giant Franklin Templeton ( Franklin Templeton ), managing $1.6 trillion in Assets, announced it was expanding its proprietary Benji technology platform to the BNB Chain ecosystem, aiming to leverage the chain’s technical advantages—including scalable, low-cost infrastructure and high transaction throughput—to further strengthen Benji’s institutional tokenization capabilities and build on-chain financial Assets.

On October 15, CMB International Asset Management ( CMBIAM ), a wholly owned subsidiary of China Merchants Bank, put a money market fund with over $3.8 billion in Assets on-chain via BNB Chain. By deploying CMBMINT and CMBIMINT Tokens on the chain, investors can subscribe using fiat or Stablecoin and redeem their Assets in Real Time via DigiFT’s proprietary liquidity management smart contract.

That’s right—RWA, a channel that’s already connecting traditional financial Assets with Web3 technology and the crypto world in practice. For on-chain infrastructure like BNB Chain, only large-scale adoption can truly validate its value. Compared to MEME, this is a new world with far greater transformative significance.

As more Franklin Templetons and CMB Internationals adopt BNB Chain, the chain’s ongoing expansion, upgrades, fee reductions, and efficiency improvements will help it achieve its long-term goal—to become the foundation of the financial system. This is the real “starry sea” BNB is heading toward after breaking through MEME hype and hitting a new high of $1,376.