Standard Chartered Projects 360% Gain for BNB by 2028

Standard Chartered has formally initiated coverage of Binance’s exchange token, BNB, and outlined a detailed long-term trajectory for the asset. According to Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital-asset research, the token price is projected to rise from approximately $600 to $1,275 by 2025 and further to $2,775 by 2028, before stabilizing through 2029. This trajectory implies a gain of over 360% from current levels and positions BNB in a benchmark-like role within the broader crypto capital structure.

Kendrick notes that BNB has closely mirrored the performance of an unweighted basket of Bitcoin and Ethereum since May 2021, both in terms of returns and volatility. This relationship is expected to continue, driving the price from around $600 to $2,775 by the end of 2028. Standard Chartered’s broader outlook is bullish on major cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin projected to reach $200,000 in 2025 and $500,000 in 2028, while Ethereum is expected to hit $4,000 and $7,500 over the same periods.

When these forecasts are translated into cross-asset ratios, they reveal subtle shifts in market share. The BTC-BNB ratio, which indicates how many BNB one Bitcoin can buy, is expected to increase from 157 in 2025 to 180 by 2027, suggesting that Bitcoin’s dollar appreciation may outpace BNB’s. Conversely, the ETH-BNB ratio is seen declining from 3.14 in 2025 to 2.70 in 2027, signaling that Ethereum may outperform BNB, but more moderately than Bitcoin.

Kendrick acknowledges that BNB may underperform Bitcoin and Ethereum both in real terms and as measured by market cap in circulation. However, he argues that BNB’s deflationary tokenomics and deep linkage to the world’s largest centralized exchange support its long-term value. The research note also scrutinizes BNB Chain’s architecture, noting its “proof-of-staked authority” model, which rotates just 45 validators every 24 hours, making it highly centralized relative to other chains. Developer activity on BNB Chain has stagnated since the 2021 DeFi surge and now trails networks such as Avalanche and Ethereum.

Despite these challenges, forthcoming technical milestones are expected to enhance the ecosystem’s resilience. Kendrick highlights the recently completed Pascal hard fork and the upcoming Maxwell upgrade, due in June, as examples of incremental but meaningful incentives for developers. On the demand side, BNB’s fortunes remain tied to Binance’s trading engine, where holders receive tiered fee discounts based on their token balance and 30-day volume. This mechanically enforced use-case has helped the BNB Chain retain activity despite growing competition from other ecosystems like Solana. PancakeSwap, the dominant decentralized exchange on BNB Chain, further amplifies this liquidity loop.

Regular token burns, coupled with the fixed-limit supply, underpin a structural deflation that Standard Chartered says justifies the premium BNB commands on its market-cap-to-GDP valuation screen, currently considered “rich” by the bank’s preferred metric. At the time of reporting, BNB was trading at $605.