BNB Chain (BNB) price shows relative resilience, trading only 10% lower than the previous cycle's all-time high

Altcoins have lagged Bitcoin year-to-date, but BNB price shows relative resilience, trading only 10% lower than the previous cycle's all-time high.

Altcoins have largely lagged Bitcoin year-to-date, but the BNB price shows relative resilience, trading only 10% lower than the previous cycle’s all-time high. BNB Chain also shows robust activity, consistently ranking third in daily transactions, active addresses, and TVL, while leading in the number of DApps. The blockchain’s weakest point is its revenue, which still lags compared to competitors.

Altcoin price action has been underwhelming for much of the 2023-2026 cycle, pushing many crypto traders to focus primarily on Bitcoin.

However, with moderate optimism returning to the markets, a closer look reveals that not all altcoins are struggling. In fact, the total altcoin market cap remains solidly above $1 trillion — $1.17 trillion, to be exact — and its 9% surge over the past week offers a glimmer of hope.

Among the major altcoins, BNB Chain (BNB) stands out for its relative strength and stability. Currently ranked as the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, behind BTC, ETH, USDT, and XRP, BNB is valued at around $89 billion.

Some analysts, like João Wedson, the founder of Alphractal, see it as one of the most resilient altcoins in the current cycle. Using data from the cryptocurrency drawdown heatmap, Wedson highlights that while most major coins started the year with 50% to 70% drawdowns from their previous cycle highs, reached in late 2021, BNB is the only coin to return to positive territory.

For Wedson, this resilience isn’t just about price action — it’s also backed by solid foundations, such as BNB Chain’s well-developed ecosystem and BNB’s rising role in DeFi. He calls BNB “one of the rare altcoins with real utility, strong fundamentals, and growing adoption, making it the strongest-performing altcoin alongside BTC.”

Is BNB really the most resilient altcoin?

Looking solely at price performance among top smart contract platforms’ coins tells a more nuanced story. BNB has indeed reached a new all-time high during this cycle, but so have XRP (XRP), TRX (TRX), and SOL (SOL) — though in Solana’s case, the new high barely surpassed its 2021 peak by just 1%.

When comparing current prices to their previous cycle highs (mostly from May or November 2021), BNB is now down only about 10%. That’s significantly better than ETH (ETH), which is down 63%, and Solana, down 40%. However, XRP (+19%) and TRX (+49%) have performed even better.

One of BNB’s monetary advantages lies in its low dilution risk. According to Messari’s Market Cap/Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) ratio, 96.51% of BNB’s supply is already in circulation. That’s in line with Ethereum (99.93%) and TRX (99.96%), indicating a relatively low risk of future token inflation. In contrast, Solana (86.33%) and especially XRP (58.33%) could face significant future dilution.

While BNB’s price performance has been relatively strong, it alone doesn’t entirely justify its reputation for resilience; fundamentals offer deeper insight.

BNB Chain activity drives the altcoin’s value

Beyond speculation, BNB’s value is defined by its use in BNB Chain — an umbrella term now used to define both BNB Smart Chain (the original blockchain) and the Beacon Chain (used for governance and staking). BNB Chain specializes in gaming, DeFi, launchpads, and other large-scale consumer DApps. More recently, it also got into the memecoins game, soaking up some of Solana’s volume. Being the key altcoin on the leading centralized exchange also helps.

According to Messari, BNB Chain processes around 4 million daily transactions on average, ahead of Ethereum (1 million), XRP Ledger (1.8 million), but behind Tron (5.5 million) and far behind Solana (54 million non-vote transactions daily).

In terms of daily active addresses, BNB Chain also performs well with about 1.1 million, beating Ethereum (384,800) and XRP Ledger (55,600), but trailing Tron (2.4 million) and Solana (3.7 million).

Where BNB Chain really shines is in the number of DApps. According to DappRadar, BNB Chain supports 5,686 DApps — more than Ethereum (4,987), with Polygon (2,402) trailing in third. This reinforces Wedson’s assertion of a “massive” BNB ecosystem and places BNB Chain in a strong position to lead the charge once Web3 fully matures.

BNB Chain also ranks 3rd