BNB Network’s Economic Value Jumps 54% to $54.2 Million in Third Quarter
Key Facts
BNB Network’s real economic value, which includes transaction fees and maximum extractable value (MEV) payments, reached $54.2 million in the third quarter of 2026, up 54% from $35.2 million in the second quarter, according to Blockworks’ BNB token holder report. The total comprised $49.1 million in transaction fees and $5.1 million in MEV payments. The report attributes the rise in network fees to increases in both transaction count and average fees, and names GMGN as the largest single contributor to fee growth. The quarter’s figures, however, do not reflect broader growth across all usage metrics: transaction count rose, while average daily active addresses fell. This points to growth in value collected alongside a decline in this measure of user activity.
BNB Smart Chain processed about 1.51 billion transactions in the third quarter, up 7.5% from 1.41 billion in the second quarter. But average daily active addresses fell 14% to 2.10 million, compared with 2.43 million in the previous quarter, according to the report. Activity metrics thus moved in opposite directions: more transactions, but fewer active addresses on average. Blockworks’ explanation for fee growth points to the effect of higher transaction counts and average fees, with GMGN the largest single contributor to the increase. The report does not directly link that increase to tokenized stock trading, despite strong growth in that activity over the same period.
Aggregate trading in tokenized stocks on BNB Chain reached about $25.6 billion in the third quarter, compared with $2.4 billion in the second quarter, according to Blockworks. Decentralized exchanges accounted for $24.4 billion of the quarter’s total, while Ondo Global Markets added about $1.2 billion. On the supply side, the network ended the quarter with $1.13 billion in tokenized stocks, up from $560 million at the end of the second quarter. BNB Chain’s share was estimated at about 39% of the $2.89 billion in total public tokenized stocks across the networks tracked by the report, with about 1.8 million holders. Blockworks describes the network as having the largest supply among the chains it tracked, a defined scope that does not establish overall leadership across the entire market.
Binance Research’s findings point to broader activity in the on-chain tokenized stock category beyond BNB Chain data alone. On-chain transfers of tokenized stocks exceeded $100 billion in the third quarter, compared with $6 billion in the first quarter, according to the research. The share of tokenized stock value used in decentralized finance also rose from 1.8% to 6.3%. In a separate report published in September, Binance Research said monthly trading volume rose from $237 million in January to $7.9 billion in August. Market turnover reached 3.32 times in July before falling to 2.14 times in August, putting the surge in volume in the context of a peak that came before the quarter ended.
Binance Research pointed to a shift in trading concentration among tokenized stock issuers: bStocks and Robinhood’s share of observed issuer volume rose from 0.8% in June to 82.3% in August, then to 87.8% in September through the report’s publication date. Active total value locked in tokenized decentralized finance stocks also rose to $289.1 million by September 9, from $21.6 million at the start of the year. Over the same period, the share of this locked value in active market capitalization increased from 2.2% to 7.2%. Binance defines bStocks tokens as BEP-20 tokenized securities on BNB Smart Chain that provide 1:1 price exposure to a listed U.S. stock held by a regulated custodian and can be traded against USDT around the clock. These metrics show growth in trading and use, while concentration of activity among a limited number of issuers remains an area to monitor in sector data.
In lending, deposits on BNB Chain rose to $3.57 billion at the end of the third quarter, up 42% from $2.51 billion at the end of the second quarter, while outstanding loans climbed 33% to $0.94 billion. The network’s Pasteur upgrade went live on mainnet on August 25. Within a week of its launch, the new block-building path was producing about 98% of blocks, with average gas per block 28% higher than on the previous path, according to the report. On the supply side, BNB Chain announced on October 19 that its 37th quarterly burn was complete, removing 1,646,196.44 BNB and leaving a total remaining supply of 131,512,085 BNB at the time the figures were announced. The network said its Auto-Burn mechanism aims to gradually reduce supply to 100,000,000 BNB, with the burn amount calculated based on the token’s price and the number of blocks produced on BSC during the quarter.
Blockworks’ report identifies four indicators for the fourth quarter: whether tokenized stock trading will broaden after July’s peak and move beyond concentration around QQQB; whether the technical roadmap will lead to further increases in gas limits; and the use of Agent Studio and the stablecoin supply trajectory after the zero-fee program ends on October 31. In its research on tokenized stocks, Binance Research said metrics to watch include user retention, trading turnover comparisons over matching periods, market depth, net flows, use of tokenized stocks in decentralized finance and shifts between products. These indicators put volume growth in the broader context of tracking whether activity continues and how it is distributed. They also focus on whether use will extend to decentralized finance applications and other products. These remain performance indicators to monitor in the next quarter, not an estimate of BNB’s price movement.