From PancakeSwap to CryptoBlades, here is a list of top 10 BNB Chain projects you should check out!
Witnessing explosive growth over the last year, BNB Chain — formerly Binance Smart Chain — has solidified its position as the third most popular DeFi ecosystem, with close to $12 billion in assets held in its most successful DeFi protocols.
BNB Chain is a combiniation of Binance Chain and Binance Smart Chain, and now stands for "Build and Build," instead of Binance Coin.
Benefiting from extremely high throughput, low transaction fees, and fast transaction completion times, BNB Chain is widely considered to be a low-cost alternative to Ethereum, and there are now well over one thousand projects and tokens already deployed on the platform.
In this article, we’re taking a look at the top 10 projects on BNB Chain, a high-speed Go Ethereum fork and smart contract platform that was designed to be efficient, accessible, and immediately familiar to most cryptocurrency users.
Let’s dive in!
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Binance Coin (BNB)
Source: invezz.com
By far the most popular asset on BNB Chain is the platform’s native token known as Binance Coin, or BNB. Initially a simple utility token for the Binance exchange platform, Binance Coin saw its utility and popularity skyrocket from 2020 onwards with the launch of the BNB Chain blockchain.
The token now has more than 1.5 million holders across the BNB Chain and Ethereum ecosystems, and has a wide variety of use cases; including fee discounts on Binance, paying for transaction fees on BNB Chain, making in-store payments, and more. But more than this, Binance Coin was one of 2021’s best-performing cryptocurrencies, netting holders a staggering 1,280% profit last year alone.
PancakeSwap
No list of the most popular BNB Chain projects would be complete without talking about PancakeSwap.
Despite its whimsical name, PancakeSwap is by far the most popular dApp on BNB Chain. Now, it comes with an entire suite of DeFi applications, including a decentralized exchange, yield farms, prediction markets, an NFT marketplace, and more.
The platform stands heads and shoulders above other DEXes on BNB Chain as far as trading volume is concerned — with the PancakeSwap regularly clocking in more than half a billion dollars in daily trading volume.
With over 4 million monthly users, PancakeSwap has dramatically exceeded expectations and is now one of the most successful projects currently running on BNB Chain.
The native asset for the platform, known as CAKE, has a wide variety of use cases but does suffer from relatively high inflation since it is one of the primary reward tokens for participants in its PancakeSwap’s yield farms.
Chainlink
As an oracle provider, Chainlink allows blockchain-based projects to easily integrate data feeds from off-chain sources, which might include IoT sensors, stock markets, centralized databases, and more.
This data can then be fed into smart contracts, helping to power and secure a huge range of decentralized applications and services, including exchanges, tokenized stocks, and prediction markets.
Its two-way oracles also allow traditional businesses and databases to receive data from decentralized blockchains, helping to deliver the benefits of blockchain to the real world.
Originally launched on Ethereum, Chainlink has also integrated with BNB Chain and a variety of other blockchains, and its native asset, known as LINK can be bridged to BNB Chain using a standard token bridge.
Baby Doge Coin
For fans of meme coins, this next project likely needs no introduction.
We are talking about Baby Doge Coin, which is currently arguably the most popular meme-coin on BNB Chain.
Launched in June 2021, Baby Doge Coin is slated to be an enhanced version of the ever-popular Dogecoin. The token is currently one of the most widely distributed assets on BNB Chain, with over 1.3 million holders. It has also been promoted in some pretty high profile places, including on renowned Nascar driver Brandon Brown’s custom-wrapped No. 68 Chevrolet Camaro, as well as a popular tweet by tech pioneer and famed meme-coin lover Elon MuskThough Baby Doge Coin is a hyper-deflationary meme coin, the project also supports a wide variety of charities and dog rescue initiatives.
Venus
Billed as a decentralized money market and stablecoin protocol, Venus provides an open marketplace for lenders and borrowers — allowing users to earn interest on their BNB Chain assets by contributing them to decentralized lending pools.
On the flip side, borrowers can take out a loan in a wide variety of different assets by putting down sufficient collateral, all with no credit checks or long documentation to fill out.
It also offers a fully decentralized stablecoin known as VAI, but this has so far struggled to maintain its peg at $1.
Venus was one of the first projects to launch on Binance Launchpool — allowing users to stake their BNB, BUSD, and SXP tokens to farm XVS tokens over a 30-day period. And as of this video going live, it’s the second-largest dApp on BNB Chain by total value locked, with more than $1.4 billion worth of assets locked in the protocol.
Swipe
One of the most ambitious projects on this list, given that it aims to improve the spendability and utility of cryptocurrencies while providing a crucial on-ramp to the industry.
The platform offers a variety of crypto-related services, including a popular multi-asset wallet and a white label debit card issuance solution — which is already being used by several blockchain industry titans, including Binance and FTX.
Swipe was taken over by Binance in December last year after the tech giant moved from majority ownership to sole ownership of the company as part of its plans to expand the availability of its services.
The platform's native token, known as SXP, recently became the second most mentioned cryptocurrency on Twitter after Bitcoin in Nov. 2021 and is primarily used to unlock access to higher tier debit cards with improved features — like cashback and freebies.
Tranchess
Source: thedefiant.io
A derivatives trading protocol and platform that provides a variety of yield-bearing funds
designed to cater to different risk appetites.
The platform currently offers three funds, each of which has a different risk profile. At the highest end of the risk spectrum is the ROOK fund, which trades leveraged assets to provide users with the maximum possible returns. In the middle is the QUEEN fund, which is primarily designed for long-term holders and provides reasonable yields with moderate risk. And last up is the BISHOP fund, which provides the lowest returns on stablecoins, but also has the least associated risk.
Launched back in July 2021, Tranchess has consistently offered some of the best yields in the BNB Chain DeFi scene, and now has close to $800 million locked in its protocol.
Besides its popular risk-return products, Tranchess also offers a handful of other DeFi tools, including a swap platform and a primary market used for creating, splitting, and merging QUEEN tokens.
CryptoBlades
CryptoBlades slashes its way into eighth place on our list. If there’s one niche that really took 2021 by storm, it is play-to-earn gaming.
By promising to reward players in the form of cryptocurrency tokens for their in-game efforts and successes, play to earn projects became incredibly popular in 2021, and literally, dozens of P2E games are now up and running.
But few managed to garner more attention than CryptoBlades — arguably the most popular P2E game on BNB Chain.
As a blockchain-powered role-playing game, CryptoBlades leverages the speed and efficiency of BNB Chain to allow players to own and leverage their assets, including characters and weapons, to earn an income by playing.
Since all in-game assets take the form of NFTs, owners are free to sell or trade them as they see fit on the CryptoBlades marketplace.
The game recently launched its PvP open beta, allowing players to battle one another and put their equipment to the test in a variety of combat situations.
Mobox
Catering to fans of play-to-earn games and non-fungible tokens, Mobox is a popular GameFi platform that launched on BNB Chain in mid-2021.
The platform combines DeFi, gaming, and community to create an immersive ecosystem of products known as the 'MOMOverse' — which is the name of Mobox' metaverse.
The Mobox ecosystem currently consists of a variety of play-to-earn games, including a battle game known as Block Brawler, a cross-platform idle mining game called ChainZ Arena, and the turn-based idle game Token Master.
But more than this, the Mobox platform looks to make NFTs more powerful and accessible through its NFT creator tool suite, marketplace platform, and game creator.
Mobox is unusual among BNB Chain projects in that it was fairly launched — meaning there was no token sale or pre-mine, and the MOBOX utility token was distributed to users for free based on their activity on the platform.
BSCPad
2021 saw the elaboration of a huge number of new projects, many of which went on to become incredible successes, while others…. not so much. Part of this was attributed to a surge in the number of launchpads, which are essentially platforms that help crowdfund new blockchain projects. BSCPad was one of the first launchpads to primarily focus on the BNB Chain ecosystem and helped to crowdfund and incubate some of 2021’s most profitable projects — including the likes of AIOZ, GameZone, and MetaVPad. The platform aims to democratize access to sought-after new projects at the earliest stages of fundraising by providing a tier-based system that allows holders of the BSCPAD token to participate in their IDOs. The platform is currently the largest launchpad on BNB Chain in terms of both market cap and number of users.
Honorable Mentions
Although we’ve already covered arguably the top 10 most popular BNB Chain projects, the BNB Chain ecosystem is developing incredibly quickly, and there are now well over 500 projects and 200 protocols building on the platform.
As you might expect, there are more than a handful of projects that didn’t quite make the cut for a top 10 slot, but are still incredibly innovative or useful, and are certainly worth exploring.
Here, we take a look at the three projects we think have major potential in the months and years ahead.
Alien Worlds
Alien Worlds is one of the few genuinely promising play-to-earn games. In an industry full of hordes of clones and copycats, it boasts a wide array of unique features that help distinguish it from the competition.
The game sees players acquire NFTs to mine the TLM token, engage other players in battle and participate in a wide variety of in-game quests. Users can also take part in its in-game governance system, which entails staking their Trilium tokens to one of several competing “Planet DAOs” to help it increase its share of the TLM token emissions, which then get shared among participants.
The game features a large number of NFT-based assets, including land, tools, minions, avatars and weapons — which can differ considerably in their rarity, desirability and utility. These can be used and traded, while Alien Worlds’ in-game LAND assets can be rented to other players to earn a passive yield.
Operating on three separate blockchains and boasting more than 2.5 million players, Alien Worlds is doing more than most to appeal to a more mainstream audience. It also doesn’t require any investment to begin playing — a rarity among blockchain games nowadays.
1inch
If this list were ranked based on pure utility, then 1inch would have a strong claim for the top spot — given that it allows traders to maximize their capital efficiency by ensuring they always get the best rates for their swaps.
The platform is an incredibly powerful and intuitive DEX aggregator, which allows users to trade their assets across multiple DEXes through a single user interface. The platform automatically selects the best route for trades, helping to maximize returns and keep both fees and slippage to a minimum.
It also provides a range of advanced options that generally aren’t available elsewhere, such as custom gas price and partial fill tools, while allowing users to use or exclude their DEXes of choice.
But perhaps most importantly, 1inch also provides limit order functionality, allowing users to trade their favorite DEXes like an orderbook-based exchange, helping them better choose their entry and exit points.
MCDEX
DeFi derivatives have been picking up serious momentum in the last year, since they provide an attractive way to trade digital assets without relying on centralized platforms or dealing with the limitations of spot exchanges.
MCDEX promises to make DeFi derivatives more accessible and cost-effective by building on BNB Chain.
A permissionless DEX for perpetual futures, MCDEX allows users to go long or short on over a dozen different assets with up to 15x leverage — which, in case you’re not familiar with leverage, allows them to multiply their gains (or losses) by up to 15x.
As an automated market maker, MCDEX allows users to contribute to the protocol to trading fees, funding payments, and liquidation penalties from traders. It also has its own Binance-esque insurance fund, which is used to make up liquidation losses if any occur.
Since it launched in October last year, MCDEX has grown to become one of the few functional DeFi derivatives platforms, helping traders maximize their capital efficiency and trade both sides of supported markets with ease.
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