BNB Price Up 0.138% as Standard Chartered Predicts 368% Gain by 2028

BNB's latest price was $602.77, up 0.138% in the last 24 hours. Standard Chartered, a prominent global financial institution, has projected significant growth for BNB, the utility token of the BNB Chain ecosystem, over the next few years. The bank's head of digital asset research, Geoff Kendrick, highlighted that BNB has been closely mirroring the returns and volatility of Bitcoin and Ethereum since May 2021, suggesting that as long as these two largest cryptocurrencies continue to appreciate, BNB will follow suit. This correlation is expected to push BNB to new highs, with Kendrick predicting a rally to $1,275 this year, $1,755 in 2026, and $2,225 in 2027, before trading near $2,800 in 2028.

Despite its significant market cap and ranking as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency, BNB has faced criticism for being an outdated token stuck in the 2021 DeFi boom and a centralized Ethereum backed by Binance. The BNB Chain ecosystem uses a proof of staked authority (PoSA) consensus mechanism, which changes its set of 45 validators every 24 hours. This, along with Binance's central control and a lack of developer traction, has contributed to the network's challenges. However, BNB's ties with the largest crypto exchange by trading volume and its deflationary model have kept it afloat. Its profound decentralized exchange presence, owing to PancakeSwap’s sustained user influx, has ensured BNB’s relevance. As a result, with Binance’s influence not going away and BNB’s sustained correlation with BTC and Ether, Kendrick noted that BNB could be a proper benchmark asset for gaining exposure to the broader cryptocurrency market.

CryptoQuant recently called BNB the most resilient asset in the current market, counteracting assertions that the token closely mirrors the market’s tune. This resilience is further supported by the upcoming Maxwell upgrade and the recent Pascal hard fork, which are expected to alter the situation and boost developer activity. Additionally, BNB’s utility in the Binance cryptocurrency exchange ecosystem and use on related decentralized platforms such as PancakeSwap have made its low developer activity less of a hurdle.

BNB could also potentially receive additional utility and see greater adoption in the near future. VanEck recently filed for a spot BNB exchange-traded fund (ETF), adding to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) growing pile of such products it needs to decide on. The SEC is widely expected to approve a significant set of such investment vehicles due to multiple factors, including opening the floodgates with Bitcoin and Ethereum in 2024, growing more crypto-friendly under President Donald Trump, but also due to Trump Media & Technology (NASDAQ: DJT) partnership with Crypto.com to launch digital asset exchange-traded products (ETP).

Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao has also been lobbying for nation states to adopt his company’s cryptocurrency and recommended that Kyrgyzstan include both BTC and BNB in a strategic reserve. This move could further boost BNB’s adoption and utility, making it a more attractive investment option. However, for Standard Chartered’s price prediction to materialize, BNB would need to break its stagnant performance and see a substantial shift in its price action. While it has been somewhat stagnant, BNB has shown resilience and potential for growth, making it a key player in the cryptocurrency market.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao has initiated discussion around a potential reduction in gas fees on the BNB Chain, suggesting a cut by three to ten times. The proposal comes as network activity rises and pressure grows from more cost-efficient competitors like Solana. Right now, BNB Chain has low fees, with a median gas price of 1 Gwei, which is about $0.01 per transaction. In the last 24 hours, the network processed over 7.2 billion transactions, with an average fee of $0.0945. Zhao's idea is already competitive, and it could mean even lower user costs. However, getting rid of all fees might have bad results, like spam and putting too much strain on network validators and infrastructure. The challenge is to lower fees without messing with stability or developer incentives.

Ethereum still has relatively high transaction costs, though. On average, it costs $0.42 over 24 hours, even though they have been making upgrades to improve efficiency. Meanwhile, Solana is setting the standard for affordability. It has an average fee of just 0.000024 SOL, or about $0.0035, making it a very affordable option for users while also supporting high throughput. Zhao's idea could make BNB Chain stronger in the competitive L1 landscape as it would offer a middle ground between Ethereum's strength and Solana's cost-efficiency. There has not been any official announcement yet.