BNB Chain’s Future Growth Won’t Come From DEXs

There are few blockchains shaping the Web3 narrative as visibly as BNB Chain. Over the past months, the network has evolved from a DeFi-heavy ecosystem into one leading innovations across prediction markets, DEX infrastructure, and tokenized finance.

From the launch of Aster Perp DEX to the emergence of new prediction markets such as Myriad, and the development of a dedicated oracle layer to serve these products, BNB Chain has kept its builder community buzzing. All this comes as CZ — the ecosystem’s founder figure — received a long-awaited presidential pardon from Donald Trump, a move that sparked renewed confidence across the Binance-linked ecosystem.

In parallel, the network’s native token BNB rose by nearly 5% in the past week, trading around $1,135, helped by its recent listings on Robinhood and Coinbase.

As BNB Chain continues to expand, Block of Fame sits down with Sarah S., BD Head at BNB Chain, to discuss the network’s evolving focus – from DeFi dominance to tokenized assets and real-world finance.

BNB Chain’s TVL 

According to DeFiLlama, BNB Chain’s total value locked (TVL) stands at US $7.51 billion, marking a 9.39% increase over the past week. 

While increased DEX trading and stablecoin inflows remain key drivers of this growth, Sarah notes that the next phase won’t simply come from the same playbook.

“Except for dominant drivers such as lending and staking, we believe the next wave of TVL growth will also come from real-world assets (RWA) and institutional DeFi — especially as on-chain interest-bearing products become more attractive amid rising stablecoin activity,”
she explains.

“You can also see that recently, we’ve announced collaborations with Kraken, xStocks, Ondo, and Circle’s USYC — all part of our broader push into institutional DeFi and tokenized assets.”

Tokenized Equities Take Center Stage

Among those real-world assets, equities stand out as a key category. Sarah highlights that BNB Chain’s entry into tokenized stock trading earlier this year was a major milestone.

The network partnered with Kraken and Backed Finance in July 2025 to launch tokenized equities, followed by Franklin Templeton’s Benji Technology Platform integration in September. This bring in one of the world’s largest asset managers and its tokenization stack — covering equities, funds, and other instruments — onto BNB Chain.

“I believe the main drivers are BNB Chain’s high performance, low transaction fees, and its position as one of the largest blockchain ecosystems by on-chain activity,”
says Sarah.

“We’ve seen growing institutional interest, as demonstrated by recent collaborations with players like Kraken, xStocks, Ondo, and Circle (USYC). Our BD team continues to work closely with ecosystem partners and infrastructure providers to unlock real-world asset (RWA) use cases.”

Despite Ethereum still leading the RWA market with around 47% of tokenized activity, followed by Algorand (33%) and Solana (13%), Sarah believes BNB Chain’s rapid infrastructure gains could soon make it a leading venue for tokenized finance.

Sustainability Meets Scalability

Sarah adds that BNB Chain’s architecture also aligns with emerging sustainability standards.

“BNB Chain continues to operate as a proof-of-staked-authority (PoSA) chain, which is energy-efficient by design. Beyond infrastructure, we’re also supporting the tokenization of carbon credits and ESG-aligned assets on-chain,”
she notes.

“This includes projects focused on carbon offsets, sustainability-focused DeFi, and bringing transparency to carbon markets through blockchain.”

Also Read: Stock tokenization’s Biggest Hurdle

Performance Upgrades and Global Expansion

Recent upgrades — the Maxwell hardfork and earlier Lorentz upgrade — have reduced block times to ~0.75 seconds, transforming how developers build on the chain.

“This surge has been fueled by continuous performance upgrades such as the Maxwell hardfork, Binance Alpha-driven engagement, and strong momentum from key protocols like PancakeSwap,”
says Sarah.

“Campaigns such as the Gas-Free Stablecoin Carnival also enhanced user experience and helped boost stablecoin adoption.”

These upgrades, she adds, enable near-instant finality and low latency — conditions that are now crucial for emerging gaming, social, and AI-powered applications.

Also Read: Where Tokenized Equities Go Next

Next Targeted Markets

Looking forward on where BNB Chain is headed next, Sarah said, “BNB Chain’s strongest communities lie in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, but expansion plans are underway.”

“We’re expanding deeper engagement in the Americas, while also seeing India as a highly active and strategic market with strong developer and user communities,”
Sarah shares.

“We look forward to more local collaborations and supporting builders through hackathons and ecosystem programs.”

2025–26 Roadmap: Towards 20K TPS

Looking ahead, Sarah emphasizes infrastructure scaling as the most critical growth lever.

“While all components of our roadmap contribute to long-term growth, I believe the scaling of gas limits, sub-150 ms finality, and 20K+ TPS will have the most tangible impact on ecosystem expansion,”
she says.

“We’re already seeing strong demand from gaming, social, DeFi, and AI-powered applications that require high throughput and low latency. By increasing gas limits and speeding up finality, we’re enabling developers to build more complex, real-time use cases — achieving our next goal of providing a CEX-like experience to serve millions of users.”