BNB Supercycle w/ CZ

The Spaces convened Trust Wallet’s Pav with CZ and core BNB Chain builders to unpack why BNB is surging and how culture, infra and collaboration are compounding. Sarah (BNB Chain) detailed aggressive infra upgrades (two gas cuts, Maxwell hard fork halving block time, AI builder tools, upcoming 1G broadcast for higher DEX throughput), plus builder programs, incentives and a newly announced $1B EASY Labs fund. CZ framed momentum as years of compounding efforts by many projects, a decentralized “garden” rather than a top‑down plan, and highlighted the ecosystem’s collaborative, multi‑chain, culture‑first ethos. CC (ForMeme) described BNB’s bottom‑up meme‑driven moment and East–West culture fusion. Leonard (Aster) outlined surging perps activity, multi‑chain liquidity and native Trust Wallet integrations; Chef (PancakeSwap) showed record, diversified spot volumes. Trust Wallet’s Ewen positioned the wallet as the distribution layer bridging chains, integrating native perps/spot/memes, delivering gas‑simplified UX and security that stopped $460M of scam transfers YTD. In Q&A, CZ called prediction markets a large, early opportunity; said RWA and AI are nascent due to liquidity and regulatory hurdles; stressed open collaboration (incl. Solana) and noted BNB’s low institutional penetration as upside. The session closed with builder‑focused optimism and near‑term launches.

BNB Super Cycle Twitter Space: Ecosystem Momentum, Builders, and Infrastructure

Participants and Roles

• Pav (Host; Social Lead at Trust Wallet)
• Changpeng Zhao (CZ; BNB Chain ecosystem figurehead; former Binance CEO)
• Sarah (BNB Chain core team)
• CC (Forming)
• Chef (PancakeSwap)
• Aaron (Trust Wallet)
• Leonard (Aster)
• Mario (Guest interviewer)
• Feroc (Guest interviewer)

Executive Summary and Key Takeaways

• BNB Chain momentum is the result of cumulative, multi-year building across wallets, launchpads, DEXs, infra upgrades, and strong community culture—an “organic garden” rather than a top-down plan.
• Infrastructure advances on BNB Chain (lower fees, faster block times/finality, AI tooling, and broadcast limit upgrades) plus ecosystem incentives and incubations are catalyzing high-frequency, on-chain activity.
• Memes have become a powerful social layer unlocking cross-cultural participation (East meets West), driving liquidity and user growth on BNB Smart Chain, with builders like Forming leaning into narrative and UX.
• DEX growth is accelerating: Aster reported surging perps volumes (including a 100M day that briefly surpassed Binance on Oct 5), multi-chain support, and deep Trust Wallet integration. PancakeSwap is seeing ATH spot volumes with diversified pair activity (top-5 share fell from ~70% to <40%).
• Trust Wallet is positioning as the distribution layer and bridge across ecosystems: deep native integrations (pancake spot, Aster perps, meme UX), gas abstractions, fraud prevention (~$460M blocked from scams in 2024 YTD), and upcoming TWT VIP program.
• Prediction markets (event futures) have massive potential; money-backed forecasts are more accurate than media narratives. RWAs and AI are high-potential but early: RWAs face volatility/liquidity and regulatory constraints; AI+crypto lacks breakout products yet.
• BNB vs other L1s (e.g., Solana) is positive-sum; chain-agnostic tooling and cross-chain growth benefit the whole industry. BNB’s prior underinvestment (institutional and US presence) implies significant upside now as momentum, institutional interest, and developer activity increase.
• Market outlook: CZ sees the bull cycle far from over, with growing global pro-crypto posture. Builders should focus on open tools, UX, and user protection.

Ecosystem Momentum: CZ’s View on Strategy and Culture

• Organic, bottom-up growth: CZ contrasted two approaches—meticulous planning vs cultivating a diverse “garden.” BNB Chain’s current momentum stems from many strong, independent builders whose products fit and complement one another (wallets, launchpads, DEXs, liquidity venues), rather than a grand blueprint.
• Vision at two extremes: A clear long-term thesis (world becomes more decentralized; blockchains transform money and verification) and very tactical support of the smartest, hardest-working teams with product-market fit. “Everything in the middle is missing” (no rigid multi-year roadmap).
• Community-driven catalysts: CZ recounted how a casual “finance life” meme reply and a Mid-Autumn Festival post unexpectedly energized the BNB meme space—unplanned, organic community responses that require being present and engaged.
• Collaboration ethos: Despite decentralized incentives, projects on BNB Chain tend to collaborate unusually well. CZ sees his role as a cheerleader nudging humility, hard work, and cross-project support.
• Language and global inclusivity: Discussion on supporting additional languages beyond English/Chinese across CEX/DEX/launch platforms to bring the world closer via blockchain.

BNB Chain Infrastructure and Builder Programs (Sarah)

• Gas fee reductions: Two cuts in 2024 (May and this week) to keep fees low and support high-frequency dApps/transactions, especially on BNB Smart Chain.
• Maxwell hard fork: Reduced block time from ~1.5s to ~0.75s, effectively doubling finality and improving throughput.
• User protection: Launch of a “goodwill alliance” with core builders to mitigate malicious token behaviors, protecting retail users and traders amid early-2024 pain points.
• Stablecoin rails: “MegaFi solutions” enabling stablecoin transactions to CEXs and payment gateways boosted stablecoin circulation, DAUs, and on-chain transactions.
• AI builder tools: Rolled out to ease AI+crypto adoption for developers on BNB Chain.
• Throughput expansion: Plan to 10x broadcast limit to ~1G, targeting support for up to ~5,000 DEX swaps per second.
• Incubation and demo days: Two rounds of MVP incubation with Easy Lab and CMC (rebranded to Easy Range), BNB demo days with leading VCs and users; ongoing new incubation cohort reviewing applicants.
• Incentives and hackathons: $4.4M in trading competitions, $100M native asset incentive initiatives, global online/offline hackathons—more offline events planned.
• Builder fund: Easy Labs announced a $1B builder fund dedicated to projects building on BNB Chain.

Memes as Social Layer and Cultural On-Ramp (CC, Forming)

• Narrative moment: BNB Smart Chain (BSC) is having a top-down-free, bottom-up narrative shift driven by culture and community, not just trading. Users are creating as well as trading.
• Forming’s mission: Leverage memes as the social layer of BSC—onboard new users, foster shared identity, and transform participation in culture. Since mid-2024, Forming reports millions in daily on-chain volumes/revenue, validating how humor/community and liquidity reinforce each other.
• Cross-cultural exchange: Notable East/West blending—Western users learning Chinese (e.g., Duolingo screenshots), Chinese-character memes (e.g., “Bianren Sheng,” “ByteDance life”) gaining traction.
• Infra readiness: Forming supports Chinese characters/emojis and built infra to handle volume spikes and user inflows, aligning with the current meme-driven momentum.

DEX Liquidity and Perps: Aster (Leonard)

• Scale vs Hyperliquid: Host cited Hyperliquid’s ~$288B perps volume; Leonard reported ~30-day total trading volume around “900” (transcript suggests roughly 3x Hyperliquid’s figure), and a 100M day on Oct 5 surpassing Binance’s perps that day. He cautioned against obsessing over competitors, focusing instead on the broader trend: over time, DEXs can outpace CEXs.
• Market evolution: Recent 30-day perps volume across products tripled, signaling a secular shift toward decentralized trading.
• Multi-chain and collateral: Early support for multiple chains (BNB Chain, Solana, Arbitrum, Ethereum), plus multi-asset collateral (no need to convert to stables before trading), improving accessibility and capital efficiency.
• Trust Wallet native perps: Rolling out a native perps trading experience in Trust Wallet (mobile), expanding reach to its large user base. Roadmap includes spot and earn products, with Aster as liquidity infrastructure while front ends like Trust Wallet serve UX.
• Memes integration: Coordinating listings for meme tokens (including fair launches on Forming), and deeper integration into the meme-launch process.
• CZ’s perspective on Aster’s surge: Acknowledged generous airdrops (Season 2; Stage 3 planned) as a bootstrap mechanism akin to transaction mining; emphasizes ultimately strong product+users (retail/institutional) matter. Correlation with Binance for hedging/liquidity on smaller pairs is normal and ubiquitous.

Spot Market Trends: PancakeSwap (Chef)

• ATH volumes and diversification: PancakeSwap’s spot volumes hit all-time highs. Comparing last October’s weekly ~$2–3B to this October’s daily ~$20B (per transcript), volume is up ~20x.
• Reduced concentration: Top-5 trading pairs’ share fell from ~70% to <40%, indicating broader participation, healthier market structure, and resilience.
• Implication: More builders launching, more users with on-chain trading needs, and a more prosperous, diversified BNB Chain ecosystem.

Trust Wallet Strategy and Bridges (Aaron)

• Distribution layer: As the front end of the stack, Trust Wallet’s mission is to integrate and simplify access to BNB Chain’s full suite (DEX spot, perps, meme trading) and bridge users across ecosystems.
• Deep ecosystem collaboration: The BNB ecosystem’s unusually tight coordination enables rapid joint initiatives (example: organizing this Space within ~48 hours). Comparable ecosystems collaborate but not typically at this depth.
• Native integrations: PancakeSwap spot, Aster perps, and meme trading will be natively supported—no manual dApp connection flow, improving conversion and reducing drop-off.
• Newbie-friendly UX: Simplifying trading and following narratives while abstracting gas. Leveraging BNB Chain protocol improvements (referenced “VIP-220/Samsung O2” in transcript) and enabling gas payment in stables/TWT; gas-free experiences for users in select flows.
• Security: Enhanced risk detection; ~$460M of user funds prevented from being sent to known scam addresses this year.
• Early-stage support: More proactive collaboration with early projects—using Trust Wallet distribution to test PMF, paving paths to incubation, investment, and listings.
• Bridging flows: Since BNB Chain’s recent surge, Trust Wallet saw ~100% growth in Solana→BNB swap volume (and vice versa at times), underscoring bridges’ role in opportunity access.
• TWT program: Upcoming VIP program where Trust Wallet experiences earn points/rewards; TWT perps will be tradable on Aster, helping tie product, rewards, and community together.

Prediction Markets (Feroc to CZ)

• CZ’s view: Prediction markets (event futures) are large and underpenetrated; money-backed predictions outperform media narratives and propaganda. Expect increasing adoption around major events (elections, sports, wars) and specialized forecasts (weather, markets, politics). Early stage but high conviction.

RWAs and AI: Potential and Obstacles (Mario to CZ; follow-up to Leonard)

• CZ on RWA:
  • Potential is vast (tokenize everything), but adoption hinges on liquidity and volatility—thin order books and low volatility reduce trading interest.
  • Regulatory complexity: Security classification differs by jurisdiction; on-chain KYC/whitelisting may be required.
  • Strategy: Support builders with infra and legal resources; user pools are not lacking—getting product right is the main challenge.
• CZ on AI:
  • Crypto lacks strong AI-native projects so far; the space is early. AI could eventually drive orders-of-magnitude more transactions, with crypto as settlement rails.
• Leonard on RWA in Aster:
  • Aster listed a stock index product; usage is “less than expected” and less talked about than used.
  • Adoption needs 10x better UX/value vs legacy, given migration costs. Tokenized assets face arbitrage/liquidity constraints and insufficient volatility for broad retail liquidity.
  • Aster continues experimentation with issuers; expects progress over multiple cycles.
• Outlook:
  • CZ: If crypto user growth slowed, decentralized solutions would steadily win; with ~90%+ of the world still not using crypto, CEXs remain key on-ramps. Over time, migration toward DEX will continue. Predicts possible tipping in the next 4-year cycle but cautions uncertainty.
  • Leonard: Hard to predict timing; open systems (Web3) iterate faster than closed TradFi, so he’d bet on blockchain figuring it out sooner than many expect.

BNB vs Solana: Posture and Strategy (Feroc to CZ)

• CZ reaction to a viral “sad songs” reply: Prefers avoiding adversarial memes; encourages chain-agnostic, open tooling and collaboration—growth in Solana benefits BNB (and vice versa). Tools like Trust Wallet should support many ecosystems; openness increases total addressable users.
• Focus areas for builders: Capture momentum, build open tools for as many people as possible, maximize ease of use, and protect users (filter scams).

Market Outlook and Regulatory Context (Mario to CZ)

• Bull cycle: CZ does not believe we’re near the end; this is a prime time to build and focus on UX.
• BNB’s prior underinvestment implies upside:
  • BNB Chain was long a “neglected child”: Binance’s revenue eclipsed BNB Chain for years; US legal battles pushed the ecosystem away from the US market; institutional exposure is low (~0.4% of holdings relative to market cap).
  • Now: growing institutional interest, developers, users, memes, and cross-chain bridging—a strong position with room to run.
• US policy stance:
  • Last administration: anti-crypto; current administration: pro-crypto—beneficial globally.
  • Over time, as crypto adoption increases and becomes integral, anti-crypto positions become politically costly. The tech is irreversible, and CZ expects a bipartisan pro-crypto consensus to emerge, while acknowledging inherent uncertainty.

Giveaways and Community Activation

• Trust Wallet and partners hosted live giveaways totaling >$9,000 (including 5,000 TWT and $1,000 USDT courtesy of Forming). Six winners announced under the Space.
• Culture activation: Trust Wallet launched a campaign to tag Elon Musk daily to buy 1 BNB, leveraging community engagement similar to past efforts with CZ.

Closing Notes

• Builders across BNB Chain are collaborating with unprecedented speed and depth—native integrations, cross-ecosystem bridges, and shared incentives.
• The “BNB Super Cycle” is a culmination of years of building, not a short-term play. With less than ~1% of the potential market penetrated, the opportunity is vast.
• Action items for readers:
  • Follow the speakers and their projects (Trust Wallet, BNB Chain, Forming, PancakeSwap, Aster).
  • Watch for: Trust Wallet native perps (Aster), spot and earn expansions, TWT VIP program, further infra upgrades (broadcast limit, AI tools), and new incubation/incentive programs.
  • Participate responsibly: Embrace cross-chain openness, mind UX and security, and stay vigilant against scams.