BNB Returns to Pre-SEC Lawsuit Price Levels

The price of BNB has recorded a growth of 10% over the past 7 days and nearly 50% over the past month, trading back around $300 after 6 months since the SEC lawsuit.

BNB Returns to Pre-SEC Lawsuit Price Levels

The cryptocurrency market in the early days of 2024 is witnessing positive reactions as the spot price of Bitcoin on Binance reaches $45,879 - a new high since April 2022, before the LUNA-UST crash.

Moreover, the price of the world's largest cryptocurrency on the US CME derivatives exchange soared to $47,049 on the morning of January 2, driven by momentum from the futures market and expectations of a Bitcoin ETF. Thanks to Bitcoin's upward momentum, many altcoins have also seen double-digit growth over the past 24 hours.

Notably, the BNB token, representing the BNB Chain ecosystem, has returned to trading around $300, marking an increase of over 10% in the past 7 days and about 50% over the past month.

3D chart of BNB/USDT trading pair on Binance. Photo taken at 06:25 PM on 03/01/2024

Significantly, this price range was where BNB was trading before Binance and CEO Changpeng Zhao were sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for alleged securities law violations, causing the exchange's native coin to drop to around $202. The entire cryptocurrency market at that time also witnessed a significant dump.

Despite six months passing, the SEC has not relented on Binance, despite the exchange previously reaching settlements with the Department of Justice and CFTC. Additionally, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao announced his resignation, paying a $50 million fine, being banned from holding management positions at Binance for 3 years, and facing potential imprisonment in the US.

This information partly contributed to BNB losing its position as the top 3 market cap cryptocurrency to Solana (SOL) at one point. However, shortly after losing the position, the native token of the BNB Smart Chain quickly regained its top 3 spot on the rankings.

Top 10 based on market capitalization. Screenshot from CoinMarketCap taken at 06:30 PM on 03/01/2024

The resurgence of BNB could be attributed to Binance continuously announcing launchpools over the past 2 months featuring projects like Memeland (MEME), Fusionist (ACE), NFPrompt (NFP), Sleepless AI (AI), and most recently Xai (XAI).

Moreover, the BNB Chain ecosystem has also been working diligently to achieve its major goals in 2023, including BNB Greenfield (decentralized data storage blockchain), BNB Beacon Chain (staking and governance layer of the BNB Chain ecosystem), BNB Smart Chain, opBNB (mainnet launched in September 2023), and zkBNB (a Layer 2 network based on Zk-Rollups).

Furthermore, the ongoing lawsuit between the SEC and Binance is revealing positive developments, as the exchange argues that the SEC lacks the authority to reach settlements with the Department of Justice to accuse them. As of now, the SEC has yet to provide any evidence that Binance.US has committed any wrongdoing but continues to assert that the exchange is "under pressure."