BNB Chain Launches $100M Program to Bootstrap Liquidity for Its Native Projects on Centralized Exchanges

BNB Chain BNBUSD has launched a $100 million program designed to bootstrap liquidity for its native projects on centralized exchanges (CEXs).

BNB Chain, a leading blockchain network, has launched a $100 million program to bootstrap liquidity for its native projects on centralized exchanges (CEXs).

The network is allocating $100 million in incentives, primarily in the form of its native BNB tokens, to projects that successfully list on any of 11 major CEXs specified by BNB Chain.

The initiative aims to further enhance BNB Chain’s ecosystem liquidity and foster project growth by incentivizing exchanges to list native BNB Chain tokens.

“We are pleased to announce a new liquidity incentive program to support BNB Chain projects in expanding their reach and engaging a wider audience,” said BNB Chain. “This program builds upon our previous efforts to drive adoption and use cases within the BNB Chain ecosystem.”

Earlier this year, BNB Chain launched two smaller liquidity incentive programs, allocating two tranches of $4.4 million in February and March to incentivize CEX listings for memecoins and other ecosystem projects.

The latest program will be executed on a first-come, first-served basis and will initially run for a three-month trial period.

Only projects with at least a $5 million market capitalization and $1 million in daily trading volume, among other criteria, are eligible.

The largest rewards — $500,000 in permanent liquidity — are reserved for projects that list on major CEXs such as Binance and Coinbase. In some cases, rewards will be limited to non-withdrawable BNB token liquidity and in others, they will also include purchases of project tokens to create two-sided liquidity.

Lagging competitors

BNB Chain has a total value locked (TVL) of approximately $5.4 billion, according to data from DefiLlama.

It ranks fourth among blockchain networks in TVL, lagging behind leading smart contract platforms Ethereum and Solana, which have TVLs of about $46 billion and $7 billion, respectively, according to DefiLlama.

BNB Chain is affiliated with Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that entities affiliated with US President Donald Trump were in talks to buy Binance.US, an independently-operated US crypto exchange.

The report also claimed that a deal to sell Binance.US was contingent on Trump pardoning former Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao following his conviction on charges of violating the Bank Secrecy Act.

However, Zhao has denied many of the reports’ claims.

In 2023, Binance agreed to pay a $4.3 billion penalty and for Zhao to plead guilty to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act for shortcomings in Binance’s Anti-Money Laundering program.