Comparison of BNB Chain with Other Public Chains

Since its inception in 2020, BNB Chain has evolved from an early high-performance, low-cost alternative to Ethereum into a large and vibrant multi-chain ecosystem. In the face of the ever-changing wave of Blockchain technology and intense market competition, BNB Chain has secured a significant position in the Web3 world through continuous technological iterations, strategic ecological layouts, and active community building. In 2025, BNB Chain completed a series of Depth upgrades: the core Hard Fork pushed performance to a new level, resources concentrated on the cutting-edge tracks of AI and RWA, while continuing to refine its traditional advantages in areas such as DeFi and GameFi.

In the context of the public chain track where “many compete for dominance,” BNB Chain faces competitors with unique characteristics from various levels.

Comparison with Layer 1 chains: Ethereum, Solana

Ethereum (Ethereum) VS. BNB Chain

Ethereum, as the pioneer of smart contract platforms and the origin of Decentralized Finance, possesses strong network effects, a large developer community, and higher asset security. Its competitive advantages lie in its “orthodoxy” and level of decentralization.

Product Matrix Ethereum is developing along a roadmap centered around Rollup, addressing scalability issues through numerous Layer 2 solutions such as Arbitrum and Optimism. Its product matrix presents an open and diversified pattern of “one mainnet + multiple Layer 2s.” In contrast, the BNB Chain's “BSC + opBNB + Greenfield” matrix has a more “official” tone, stronger synergy, but relatively weaker ecological diversity;

The Ethereum DeFi ecosystem has the highest TVL (approximately $70.8 billion) and the most abundant “Lego blocks.” Most top DeFi protocols and innovative paradigms originated here. Although the BNB Chain's ecosystem does not match Ethereum in TVL, it often surpasses Ethereum in user activity and trading volume, especially in the cost-sensitive retail user market. The BNB Chain is more like a “pragmatic” ecosystem that emphasizes the implementation of applications and user-friendliness.

Technical Route: Ethereum focuses on improving scalability through sharding (Danksharding) and Layer 2, while adhering to decentralization and security. BNB Chain, on the other hand, pursues extreme performance at the Layer 1 level, achieving sub-second block times through hard forks like Maxwell, which is unimaginable on the Ethereum mainnet. It can be said that BNB Chain has chosen a “performance-first” route, while Ethereum has chosen a “decentralization-first” route.

Solana VS. BNB Chain

Solana is known for its unique Proof of History (PoH) consensus mechanism and extremely high theoretical TPS (65,000), earning it the title of one of the “Ethereum killers.” Its competitive advantage lies in its extreme performance and low costs.

Product Matrix

Solana is a monolithic blockchain, meaning that all functions are completed on a single Layer 1 chain without relying on Layer 2. This makes its architecture relatively simple, but also makes it more prone to global performance issues when facing network congestion. The modular architecture of BNB Chain may be more resilient in handling extreme loads.

The Solana ecosystem experienced explosive growth between 2024 and 2025, especially in the fields of meme culture assets, DePIN, and high-frequency trading. Its TVL has surpassed BNB Chain, ranking second. The cultural ecosystem of Solana is more characterized by “geek” and “community-driven” colors. The BNB Chain ecosystem, on the other hand, has intricate connections with the Binance ecosystem, possessing unique resource advantages in project incubation, funding support, and user traffic.

The technical stack of Solana (such as PoH and Sealevel) is completely different from the EVM system, which is both the source of its high performance and a barrier to ecological migration. The EVM compatibility of BNB Chain allows it to seamlessly absorb the spillover effects of the Ethereum ecosystem. In terms of performance, although Solana has a higher theoretical limit, BNB Chain, through a series of upgrades by 2025, has already caught up with and even surpassed Solana in actual user experience (such as final confirmation time).

Comparison with competitor's native chain: OKX's X Layer

As a public chain supported by leading competitors, the Layer2 network X Layer launched by OKX is a direct competitor to BNB Chain, especially in the competition for existing users of trading platforms and emerging projects.

The product matrix X Layer is a zkEVM Layer2 network built on the Polygon CDK, directly established on Ethereum [18]. This means it inherently inherits the security of Ethereum and focuses on solving Ethereum's scalability issues. BNB Chain, on the other hand, is an independent L1 ecosystem, with its security and sovereignty guaranteed by itself. This is a fundamental distinction: X Layer is an “extension of the Ethereum ecosystem,” while BNB Chain is an “independent parallel universe.”

The X Layer ecosystem will launch its mainnet in April 2024, and the ecosystem is still in the early stages of development. OKX is attracting developers by launching a $100 million ecosystem fund [19]. So far, well-known protocols such as Curve and QuickSwap have announced their support. However, compared to the BNB Chain, which has been developed for five years, X Layer has significant gaps in the number of applications, user base, and TVL, while the first-mover advantage and ecological moat of BNB Chain are extremely strong.

The technical route X Layer adopts ZK-Rollup technology, which is considered superior to the Optimistic Rollup used by opBNB in terms of security and decentralization. However, the implementation difficulty of ZK technology is higher, and the ecological maturity is relatively lower. On the other hand, opBNB chose the more mature and ecologically compatible Optimistic Rollup route, achieving rapid deployment and quick startup of the ecosystem. This “OP vs ZK” technical route dispute will continue to unfold in the coming years.

Competitive Comparison Summary Table

A comparative analysis of BNB Chain's competition with other public chains. Image source: Web3Caff Research researcher Rosa redrawn based on BNB Chain official data [20], DeFiLama, DappRadar data (data update time: 2025/11/25)

This content is excerpted from the research report published by Web3Caff Research: “BNB Chain Ecological Track 25 Year Q4 13,000-Word Research Report: A Five-Year Journey of Advancement, How Will It Layout the Next 'Billion Users' Era?”

This report was written by Rosa, a researcher at Web3Caff Research, and it dissects how BNB Chain constructs the next phase of its foundational system through multichain, execution layer technology, and ecological growth. The key points include:

The multi-chain pattern takes shape, with BSC, opBNB, and Greenfield collaboratively driving performance and cost optimization;

The execution layer continues to evolve, enhancing overall usability from parallelization, state management to DA upgrades;

The ecosystem is entering an expansion period, with scenarios such as AI, RWA, and blockchain games continuing to scale up.

In a multi-VM and cross-chain competitive environment, BNB Chain maintains long-term potential with its performance and ecological matrix.

📊 The report includes a key point structure diagram and a representative project matrix, presenting the DePAI technology system and ecological trends.