BNB Chain (Binance Smart Chain) - Technical Overview
High-Level Architecture
Transaction Flow
Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA) Consensus
EVM Architecture & Smart Contract Execution
BNB Chain Ecosystem Components
Gas Fee Structure
Network Participants
Security Model
Key Facts (2025)
Network Performance
- Block Time: ~0.75 seconds (after Maxwell hardfork, June 2025)
- Finality: ~6 seconds
- Block Gas Limit: 140M (4.6x Ethereum)
- Average Transaction Fee: < $0.10
- Daily Active Users: 3.6M (highest among L1s)
- Monthly Active Users: 58.9M
Validators & Staking
- Active Validators: 45 (21 Cabinets + 24 Candidates)
- Consensus Validators per Epoch: 21 (18 Cabinets + 3 Candidates)
- Minimum Self-Delegation: 2,000 BNB
- Fee Burn Rate: 10% (BEP-95)
- Validator Reward: 90% of gas fees
DeFi Metrics
- Total Value Locked (TVL): $7.1B+
- 30-Day DEX Volume: $163B+ (June 2025 - #1 chain)
- PancakeSwap TVL: $1.9B
- PancakeSwap DEX Share: 91.8%
Ecosystem
- Total dApps: 5,600+
- Block Builders: 36 (via PBS/BEP-322)
- Builder API Adoption: 98% of blocks
Layer 2 (opBNB)
- Transaction Cost: < $0.0001
- Current TPS: 5,000-10,000
- Target TPS: 20,000 by 2026
- TVL: $25.21M
Market (October 2025)
- BNB Price: ~$1,330
- Market Cap: ~$170-184B
- Ranking: #3-4 by market cap
Major Upgrades Timeline
| Date | Upgrade | Key Changes |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 2024 | Feynman | Increased validators from 40 to 45 |
| May 2024 | Builder API | PBS implementation (BEP-322) |
| Apr 2025 | Lorentz | Block time reduced to 1.5s |
| Q1 2025 | Pascal | EIP-7702 wallets, BLS12-381 crypto, gas abstraction |
| Jun 2025 | Maxwell | Block time halved to 0.75s |
Token Standards
| Standard | Chain | Description |
|---|---|---|
| BEP-2 | BNB Beacon Chain | Native token standard |
| BEP-20 | BNB Smart Chain | ERC-20 equivalent for BSC |
Use Cases
- DeFi Trading: PancakeSwap dominates with 91.8% of DEX volume
- Tokenized Securities: Ondo Global Markets for stocks/ETFs
- Gaming: opBNB for high-frequency gaming transactions
- NFTs: Low-cost minting and trading
- Cross-chain DeFi: Bridge assets between chains
- Decentralized Storage: BNB Greenfield for data economy