Retail users are loving Binance Smart Chain. On a single day, BSC recorded 14.7 million transactions, reaching an all-time high. Behind its momentum are blockchain games and decentralized finance (DeFi) on BSC.
On November 17, the Binance Smart Chain team tweeted:
“Binance Smart Chain hit a record-breaking milestone of over 14.7 million blockchain transactions in one day; a milestone no other blockchain project has ever achieved!”
What’s Catalyzing The Momentum Of Binance Smart Chain?
Binance Smart Chain has been immensely popular in Southeast Asia for a prolonged period.
A combination of the retail friendly meme components of key platforms, like PancakeSwap, made it more comfortable for casual users to utilize Binance Smart Chain.
PancakeSwap is the main automated market maker (AMM) or decentralized exchange on Binance Smart Chain. With cute graphics modeled after pancakes and syrup, it made DeFi easier to use for newcomers.
Lending and earning protocols, like Belt Finance, Venus, and Alpaca Finance have also retained high total value locked (TVL), indicating high user demand.
In DeFi, TVL means the amount of capital or money that is locked in a platform or a protocol.
According to the data from DeFiStation, the top five DeFi protocols on Binance Smart Chain are sustaining TVL in between $700 million to a staggering $17 billion.
But for DeFi protocols to sustain their growth, continuous demand in the application layer is important.
On BSC, newcomers are seemingly interested in crypto games, particularly from Vietnam, most of which are launching on Binance Smart Chain.
Crypto Games Continue Frenzy
Beginning with the explosive growth of Axie Infinity in early 2021, blockchain games have taken the crypto market by storm.
According to Dappradar, two of the five most popular blockchain games by user activity are Alien Worlds and Crypto Mines, both of which are based on Binance Smart Chain.
As the demand shows no signs of decline, in recent weeks, blockchain games have continued to receive funding from top venture capital firms to launch on BSC.
Binance Labs itself, the investment arm of Binance, started to make investments in the P2Earn and metaverse space.
Aspo raised a $2 million round from Asia’s leading crypto VC firm Hashed, top Vietnam crypto-focused fund Raptor, and popular crypto game studio in Southeast Asia called Icetea Labs.
“After the success of the NFT game unicorn projects from Vietnam, we’ve got more attention from the international community, so there have been short-term projects springing up to scam a lot of investors. That’s why we decided to establish a serious and quality project with the best people, who can go a long way to protect and develop with investors, and also affirm the position of NFT games from Vietnam in the international community,” said Thong Nguyen, founder at Aspo World.
Other blockchains, like Solana and Terra, have also been seeing an influx of P2Earn games.
Solana’s hyped blockchain game projects include the likes of Star Atlas and Aurory, both of which are trading at above $1 billion in fully diluted valuation.
On Terra, game projects like Derby Stars, a horse racing P2Earn game, are building unique experiences to further bolster the blockchain game market.