Top Projects Building on Binance Smart Chain in 2022

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August 29, 2022

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Top Projects Building on Binance Smart Chain in 2022

by Danielle Greving

Summary: Binance Smart Chain is the largest smart contract blockchain after Ethereum by revenue earned (i.e., fees paid to use the blockchain). Our thesis is that blockchains earning real revenue are higher-quality investments. Today, we take a deeper look at who's building on Binance Smart Chain.

Binance Smart Chain is loosely overseen by Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange. It runs on the BNB ("Build 'n' Build") token, which functions similarly to gas on Ethereum. Holding BNB also gives you governance rights like shareholder votes. Our thesis is that investing in BNB is like investing in BSC and to some degree, the parent company Binance as well.

There are currently over 1,200 projects being built on BSC. Here are the biggest:

PancakeSwap

Number of Transactions: 2 million

Daily Transaction Value: $3.20

Total Value Locked (TVL): $2.94B

Daily Active Users: 201,175

PancakeSwap is a decentralized exchange native to Binance Smart Chain that allows users to swap coins for other coins. PancakeSwap focuses on BEP20 tokens, a specific token standard developed by Binance (think ERC-20 on Ethereum).

Most decentralized exchanges use an automated market maker (AMM). This unique system doesn’t require intermediary companies or order books to facilitate trading. There is no need for an order matching system as you're trading against liquidity pools instead of counterparties.

Buyers don’t have to wait to be matched with sellers or vice versa. Instead, when you want to trade one token for another, you deposit your token into the liquidity pool, then withdraw the tokens you want to receive.

For example, if you want to exchange a BEP20-based token on PancakeSwap (i.e., BNB to ALPHA), you just find a BNB/ALPHA pool that has enough liquidity. You then deposit your BNB tokens and automatically receive the correct amount of ALPHA based on the most recent exchange rate.

PancakeSwap isn’t just for traders. You can also work as a liquidity provider, meaning you can deposit tokens in a pool for the opportunity to earn a share of trading fees.

PancakeSwap users can partake in yield farming by locking up assets and receiving rewards in the native token called CAKE. There is also the possibility of winning a lottery when you accurately guess a winning set of numbers.

STEPN

Daily Transaction Value: $1.01

Total Value Locked (TVL): $300M

Daily Active Users: 6,615

STEPN is a move-to-earn health and fitness app. By wearing special NFT sneakers, users can exercise to earn NFT rewards and tokens. The project hopes to inspire people to lead healthier lifestyles, combat climate change, and connect to Web3.

The rewards come in the form of STEPN’s native cryptocurrency Green Satoshi Token (GST). The sneakers needed to participate in STEPN are also tradable on secondary markets and are already commanding high prices.

FastSwap

Daily Transaction Value: $0.000917

Total Value Locked (TVL): $420,472

Daily Active Users: 17,191

FastSwap describes itself as a decentralized lottery pot that allows you to purchase tickets in hopes of winning rewards. You can buy tickets with the project's native token (FAST), and prizes are awarded every 72 hours.

Funds held within FastSwap's protocol can also earn APY based on the demand for the asset. FastSwap also plans to introduce yield farming in the future.

SecondLive

Number of Transactions: 16.51K

Daily Transaction Value: $0.0235

Daily Active Users: 14,352

SecondLive is a metaverse platform built on Binance Smart Chain. In November 2021, SecondLive raised $30 million in seed funding to develop its social metaverse. SecondLive focuses on building social networks and supporting creator economic activities.

Users can draft their own digital lives within the metaverse by creating their avatars and choosing spaces to live and spend time in. Users can also complete different tasks with other avatars in various spaces like virtual art galleries, game rooms, concert rooms, exhibition rooms, and personal areas.

The goal of SecondLive is to help users experience strong social interactions while allowing them to create secondary, parallel lives.

Bomb Crypto

Number of Transactions: 14.04K

Daily Transaction Value: $0.209

Daily Active Users: 3,881

Bomb Crypto is a play-to-earn NFT game where players manage groups of cyborg bomb heroes. The heroes are programmed to search for BCOIN and fight monsters. Bomb Crypto offers NFT heroes that can be earned through buy-ins, redemptions, or market auctions. Game modes include treasure hunt, story, and battle.

BCOIN is the game’s native currency. It can be used to purchase Bomber Heroes and Bomber Houses.

Mobox

Daily Transaction Value: $0.60402

Total Value Locked (TVL): $77M

Daily Active Users: 17,852

Mobox is a play-to-earn gaming platform that combines elements of game theory mechanics and decentralized finance to create a unique, community-driven, free-to-play “GameFi” platform. Mobox is governed by a DAO where holders of the native MBOX token can vote on proposals to make changes to the platform’s parameters.

Gamers can also earn passive income by completing tasks and quests in the game. Users can partake in liquidity mining and stake NFTs to earn a variety of rewards.

XWorld Games

Number of Transactions: 23.66K

Daily Transaction Value: $0.007071

Daily Active Users: 21,711

XWorld Games is a blockchain-based gaming ecosystem. “XWorld” represents the unknown virtual world for players to explore, and the “Games” represents the connected gaming ecosystem.

The mission of XWorld Games is to connect traditional gamers worldwide with blockchain technology so they can participate in various games together. It also seeks to help more developers enter crypto by providing and creating an underlying blockchain framework.

XWG is the native cryptocurrency of XWorld Games. It's built on Binance’s BEP-20 standard.

TLDR Summary

Binance Smart Chain (BNB) is the #2 blockchain by total revenue, so it's worth serious consideration for crypto investors. Our thesis: only one or two blockchain platforms will end up taking the majority of the market.

However, aside from PancakeSwap (a Binance-flavored version of Uniswap), BSC does not have any “killer apps.” It also has a number of projects that feel like outright pyramid schemes.

In our view, Binance needs to push its resources more towards wooing developers so it can attract high-quality, one-of-a-kind projects to BSC.

Like the streaming wars or the console wars, users will flock to the platform with the best content. To beat Ethereum, Binance will have to take BNB's tagline "Build 'n' Build" very seriously.

ICYMI