BNB soars 39% despite 28% drop in smart contract deposits

BNB Chain's locked total value has fallen more than its competitors, but the network's decentralized applications are not disappearing.

The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies jumped from $860 billion on June 30 to the current $1.03 trillion, a 20.6% relief in five weeks. Ether (ETH) may be the absolute leader among the largest smart contract chains, but BNB managed to gain 39% during this period. The BNB token's year-to-date performance remains negative by 43%, but its current market capitalization of $49.5 billion is the third largest excluding stablecoins. Furthermore, the leading decentralized application (DApp), PancakeSwap - which runs on BNB Chain - has 843,630 active addresses in the last seven days. The token primarily serves as a utility asset within the Binance exchange ecosystem, allowing traders to earn discounts or participate in token offers. So technically, the BNB token does not grant ownership or dividends to any company or service owned by Binance. However, according to Bloomberg, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating whether an initial coin offering (ICO) of BNB tokens in 2017 consisted of the sale of unregistered securities. A digital asset can come under the SEC's scrutiny if the buyers intended to profit from the efforts of a company or project funded by a capital raise. To understand whether BNB's 39% rise in five weeks is justified, investors should analyze network usage, including smart contract deposits, active users and the adoption of decentralized applications.