According to a new report, BNB – the official cryptocurrency of digital exchange Binance – is outperforming bitcoin as of late.
BNB – The Industry’s Strongest Coin?
Bitcoin has been on something of a weak roll over the past few months. Things ultimately took a nasty turn for the currency in late September when Bakkt – the institutional crypto trading platform owned and governed by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) – opened its doors to rather lackluster reception. Following 12 months of hype and hoopla, the platform didn’t make any serious dent in people’s minds, and thus, Bakkt traded less than 75 contracts in its first weekend.
Sadly, this took a nasty toll on bitcoin. The currency fell from approximately $9,500 to just over $8,100 in a matter of minutes, thereby losing about $1,400 within a very short period. From there, things got even worse when it was announced that Mark Zuckerberg – the head honcho at Facebook – would take part in a Senate hearing regarding Libra. Many members of Congress didn’t trust the new cryptocurrency and were curious how it would protect people’s financial information and prevent white-collar crime such as money laundering.
The situation proved too much for certain enthusiasts to handle, and the cryptocurrency’s price fell even further to about $7,400.
However, things ultimately improved when Bakkt began picking up speed and positive comments regarding blockchain technology came from Chinese president Xi Jinping. Bitcoin ultimately rose back up to the $9,000 range, but the change didn’t last long. It is now trading for about $7,500 at press time, meaning it’s lost another $2,000 since mid-November.
Binance Coin is allegedly up 156 percent since the beginning of the year. Bitcoin, by contrast, is up by only 100 percent, though to be fair, bitcoin still has a much larger market cap. This report is designed only to tout BNB’s price increase, but it doesn’t boast the usage rates or the market strength of bitcoin, which is still number one in the crypto space.
In addition, Binance itself has suffered several reputation-staining incidents this year, including a $40 million bitcoin hack that occurred over the summer, along with rumors of a police raid. The company also took part in a BNB burning that saw heavy stashes of the coin go up in flames. The maneuver was met with heavy controversy.
Bitcoin Still Has Higher Usage and a Higher Market Cap
Still, many are looking at BNB as the next big thing in the industry, with figures like Travis Kling – a chief executive of Ikigai Asset Management – explaining:
BNB’s large relative outperformance came in the first part of this year, as the IEO craze reached its peak. IEOs have cooled off a lot of its relative performance.
At the time of writing, BNB is trading for over $15, while bitcoin is trading for just under $7,500.
