BNB Steals the Show in October as Bitcoin Struggles
October is historically one of Bitcoin’s best performing months, but this year, BNB is taking center stage. The “Uptober” phenomenon, which typically describes Bitcoin’s bullish October months, started on a high note as the US government shutdown began. However, as the shutdown continued for over three weeks, optimism faded due to trade tensions and the aftermath of a historic liquidation event. Meanwhile, BNB, the native token of Binance’s BNB Chain, has reached new all-time highs twice this month, driven by a surge in memecoin trading and competition with Hyperliquid in the decentralized perpetual market through its Aster platform.
Despite retreating from its peak, BNB is still up about 6% since the beginning of October. However, these gains come amid increasing scrutiny over Binance’s alleged role in the recent market crash. The network’s memecoin frenzy, which started after Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao shared a post about a memecoin, has led to significant gains for some traders. A cryptocurrency wallet reportedly turned $3,000 into $2 million on October 4, coinciding with the start of the memecoin frenzy on the BNB chain.
BNB Chain’s Memecoin Season Drives Metrics Forward
Solana has long been the go-to network for memecoins, thanks to the token launchpad Pump.fun. However, in October, its dominance was challenged by a new wave of BNB chain-based tokens. As of October 1st, Pump.fun accounted for 93.3% of all memecoin launches between the two platforms. On the day of Zhao’s post, that share had dropped to 56.2%. A week later, on October 8th, the BNB chain’s Four.meme turned the tide with 83.9% of new token launches, while also surpassing Pump.Fun’s daily revenue generation. BNB hit a new all-time high above $1,300.
During Four.meme’s surge in early October, blockchain analytics platform Bubblemaps reported that 100,000 traders purchased new memecoins on the BNB chain, with a profit of 70%. The momentum has also improved the network’s broader metrics. According to Nansen data, BNB Chain led all blockchains in total fees last week, while it ranked second in active addresses and transactions despite declining on-chain activity across the industry.
BNB Chain DEX Aster’s Data Drama and Binance’s Technical Glitch
While BNB has had a historic month as Bitcoin struggles to recover from the recent liquidation frenzy, Binance is fending off growing allegations about its role in the crash. One of the main allegations relates to a price oracle malfunction that briefly showed Ethena’s synthetic dollar, USDe, losing its greenback peg to Binance, even as prices remained stable elsewhere. Trevor King, an analyst at Delphi Digital, said that Binance valued wrapped assets such as wBETH, BNSOL, and USDe based on the exchange’s own spot prices rather than their redemption values.
Subsequently, several X users reported suffering losses that day due to Binance’s system issues. One of the viral posts came from the 812.eth account, which quoted a “market maker friend” as claiming that orders on Binance were repeatedly rejected as prices fell, exacerbating losses. The post has since been deleted. Binance denied being the cause of the crash and attributed the selloff to general market conditions after US President Donald Trump threatened 100 percent tariffs on Chinese imports.
Conclusion
October was supposed to be the month of Bitcoin, but this year, the focus shifted to the Binance ecosystem. A burst of memecoin trading, new incentives, and the rise of Aster pushed BNB to record highs, defying a market weighed down by historic liquidations and international trading tensions. As Bitcoin experiences its worst October in more than a decade, network activity and BNB chain fee generation continue to rise. For more information, visit https://cointelegraph.com/news/bnb-uptober-binance-market-crash-scrutiny?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=rss_tag_altcoin&utm_campaign=rss_partner_inbound
