Top Projects Building on Binance Smart Chain in 2022

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, so 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: 478,000
Daily Transaction Volume: $262.8M
Total Value Locked (TVL): $2.61B
Daily Active Users: 156k

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.

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 — say, BNB to ALPHA — you just find a BNB/ALPHA pool that has enough liquidity. Then, you deposit your BNB tokens and automatically receive the correct amount of ALPHA based on the most recent exchange rate.

However, 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 also 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.

SecondLive

Number of Transactions: 7.8k
Daily Transaction Volume: $178.15
Total Value Locked (TVL): 575.15
Daily Active Users: 6.9k

SecondLive is a metaverse platform built on the Binance Smart Chain. In November of 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, such as 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 a second, parallel life.

Bomb Crypto

Number of Transactions: 2.9K
Daily Transaction Volume: $314.26
Total Value Locked (TVL): $112.85k
Daily Active Users: 843

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

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

MOBOX

Number of Transactions: 21K
Daily Transaction Volume: $401.5k
Total Value Locked (TVL): $38.9M
Daily Active Users: 7k

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 throughout the game. Users can also partake in liquidity mining and stake NFTs to earn a variety of rewards.

XWorld Games

Number of Transactions: 22.5K
Daily Transaction Volume: $3.15k
Total Value Locked (TVL): $1.15M
Daily Active Users: 21.6k

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

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

XWG is XWorld Games’ native cryptocurrency, built on Binance’s BEP-20 standard.

Investor Takeaway

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 considerable resources toward wooing developers, with the goal of attracting more 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 seriously BNB’s tagline: “Build ‘n’ Build.”