BNB slides further in layer-1 race as ETH, SOL defy expectations

It is no surprise that Layer-1 chains have shared the carnage during the first half of 2022. Top L1s have been struggling to hold their fort in the current market conditions.

These include Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, and Solana which continue to head L1 chains at the summit. However, BNB appears to have taken the biggest blow of the three since the November all-time highs (ATHs).

Bearing the brunt

Other top chains such as Ethereum and Solana have attempted to break out of the burrows. Both of these smart-contract platforms have created an extensive ecosystem to scale back to the ATHs.

The same, as it stands, cannot be said for the BNB Chain. The native BNB token is around 60% down from its ATH of $654.32 to $260.32 at press time. The recent growth on the token is down to an overall relief rally in the market. But the troubles on the chain run far deeper than the token’s performance.

Binance has a major grip on the crypto industry with vast resources. The BNB Chain is even backed by the BUSD stablecoin that has faithfully supported BNB at the peak of crypto winter. As per recent data from CoinMarketCap, network activity on BNB has taken far worse dips than its competitors.

Data shows that BNB Chain has experienced the worst showdown among the three chains since their ATHs in early November 2021. Its daily transactions have fallen by 58.2% from the day of its ATH while Solana and Ethereum have fallen by 18.1% and 13.7% respectively.

Source: CoinMarketCap

There is a change in prophecy while observing the daily active addresses on these chains. Solana has managed to show growth in its active addresses by 20.4% given the expansion of its ecosystem.

However, BNB has again managed to grab the biggest drop by 68.8% since November 2021. Ethereum has also accounted for a loss in active addresses growth by 27.2% over the same period.

Source: CoinMarketCap

A silver lining

Despite the drawdowns, BNB recently saw an increase in the use by the top 400 BSC whales. There has been a 100% increase in the use of smart contracts in the past 24 hours of press time.

This is a reliable indicator for assessing the chain’s utility as whale activity dominates the market movement.

???? MOST USED smart contracts for the top 4000 biggest #BSC whales today

???? $BNB
???? #BSC-USD @Tether_to
???? $BUSD @PaxosGlobal
4️⃣ $SPARTA @SpartanProtocol
5️⃣ $GYMNET @GymNet_Official
6️⃣ $WBNB
7️⃣ $GOIN @GO_Influencer
8️⃣ $CTZN @totemearth
9️⃣ $OWL @OWLDAOio
???? $TGC @TheGardenCoin pic.twitter.com/l4Poxtj0RS

— WhaleStats – the top 1000 BSC richlist (@WhaleStatsBSC) July 18, 2022

Will this be enough for BNB Chain seems highly unlikely as other chains accelerate to new highs. Big changes are needed on the BNB Chain as it cruises through the relief crypto rally in July.