Key Takeaways
- BNB’s daily transaction count has risen close to its all-time high.
- A reduction in gas fees has fueled an increase in transactions on BNB-based dApps.
- Aster has been accused of artificially inflating its trading volumes.
BNB’s on-chain activity has soared in October, setting new records for daily transactions and gas fees.
However, critics are questioning how much of that activity is legitimate following allegations of wash-trading on Aster, BNB’s new decentralized perpetual futures exchange.
Record-High Activity on BNB Chain
On-chain activity on BNB started climbing on Oct. 5, with the number of daily transactions rising to above 31 million on Wednesday, Oct.9.
The figure stands just short of the blockchain’s all-time high, set in December 2023, when BNB was flooded with a wave of BRC-20 “inscriptions” (JSON strings encoded into transaction call-data, equivalent to Ordinals on Bitcoin).
The transaction surge increased network gas usage, with a record high of over 5 trillion gwei (50 BNB) spent on Oct. 8.
What’s Fueling Transaction Surge?
The latest rise in BNB’s on-chain activity can be partially attributed to Four Meme—a Pump.Fun-style memcoin launchpad that has witnessed a surge in activity since the start of October.
After the platform’s daily transaction count jumped more than 500% in seven days, Four Meme has climbed up the ranks of BNB decentralized apps (dApps) to take second place behind PancakeSwap.
Other BNB-based dApps have also exploded in recent days. Transactions routed via the trade automation platform Mizar went from around a thousand a day in September to more than 90,000 on Oct. 8.
Increased transactions on BNB-based dApps follow the introduction of a new standard gas fee of just 0.05 Gwei ($0.0014) on Oct. 1.
The new gas configuration, which has now been adopted across the ecosystem, could explain why activity on BNB dApps has increased across the board, with few exceptions.
Aster’s Impact on Network Activity
Since it completed a token migration and platform upgrade in September, Aster has emerged as one of the most popular perp DEXs and a potential contender for the top spot previously occupied by Hyperliquid.
However, the multi-chain platform’s impact on BNB activity remains negligible, having never surpassed more than 34,000 transactions in a single day.
By volume, on the other hand, Aster is one of BNB’s top performers. But the platform has been accused of artificially inflating its trading volumes.
The allegations were highlighted by DeFiLlama’s pseudonymous founder, 0xngmi, who flagged a suspicious correlation between perp volumes on Aster and Binance.
DeFiLlama subsequently removed the DEX from its dashboards, and 0xngmi said it wouldn’t be relisted until they could verify whether any wash-trading occurred.
ASTER Volatility
Amid all the controversy, Aster’s token has been plagued by volatility. In the wake of the wash-trading charges, ASTER fell from over $2.26 to around $1.80. Although it bounced back after Binance announced it would list the token for trading, those gains proved to be short-lived. As of Oct. 9, ASTER had fallen back to the $1.80–$1.85 range.
Even if it turns out Aster’s trading volume was artificially inflated, the platform still sits at the convergence of two powerful crypto narratives—decentralized perpetual futures trading and a thriving BNB ecosystem. As these trends play out, it would be unwise to rule out an “Uptober”ASTER rally.
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James Morales is CCN’s blockchain and crypto policy reporter. He has been working in the news media since 2020, writing about topics such as payments, banking and financial technology. These days, he likes to explore the latest blockchain innovations and the evolving landscape of global crypto regulation.
With an educational background in social anthropology and media studies, James uses his platform as a journalist to explore how new technologies work, why they matter and how they might shape our future.
