- Binance Coin (BNB) emerged 3rd most valued cryptocurrency.
- BNB bulls poised to attain new price levels.
- Popular critic still maintains that BNB is worth nothing
For a brief period today, Binance coin (BNB), the native token of Binance’s Smart Chain (BSC) ecosystem, topped Cardano to clinch 3rd place ranking among cryptocurrencies by market valuation according to data from Coinmarketcap.
It currently has a market cap of over $73 billion, spurred on by growing activity in the BSC ecosystem. A glance at the BSC scan shows that the number of unique addresses has surpassed 90 million, with the number of active addresses surpassing Ethereum, thanks to high fees on the second-largest blockchain.
However, recent comments reveal that not all observers are impressed with the grounds that BNB is covering in the crypto-industry. Pseudonymous investor and analyst ‘Mr. Whale’ has said he still believes that in reality, BNB is worth “zero” due to Binance’s multiple scandals.
“Binance is banned in 37+ countries, has dozens of fraud and price manipulation lawsuits, and a variety of other scandals. In reality, this coin [BNB] is worth zero, but this goes to show you how spoofed this market truly is”.
Meanwhile, for most market players including Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, the reality is that the crypto asset is poised to outperform its competitors. This sentiment is mostly due to the 16th quarterly token burn completed in July that saw 1,296,728 BNB (over $390 million at the time) burned by Binance. The removal of the tokens from the market, as specified in the tokenomics of the BSC ecosystem, has the effect of making BNB more scarce in the market.
Shortly after the completion of the burn, CZ seemingly hinted at the price of BNB clinching a $1000 price tag. His prognostication may be backed by the market outlook as, despite the exchange’s current tumultuous phase, they have still been highly successful and have retained their status as the biggest cryptocurrency exchange globally. Recall that despite currently being ranked as the 4th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, it was for a brief period in February the 3rd largest cryptocurrency. In the last 30 days, the exchange handled over $3 trillion worth of trades, an impressive figure by all standards.
The exchange has also been fighting to emerge from the heavyweight of regulatory scrutiny it is currently under and has made several moves to become more compliant with regulators. Its most recent move in that direction was the announcement of the hiring of Tigran Gambaryan, a former U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent.
Gambaryan, in his days in the IRS, led several high-profile investigations including the Silk Road website crackdown and the Mt. Gox hack investigation according to a Bloomberg report. It also announced the hire of Matthew Price, another former IRS special agent with an impressive record. Price is coming on board as senior director of investigations for Binance.