The bank’s analysis says that BNB trades like “an unweighted index” of bitcoin and ether “in terms of both returns and volatility.”
Standard Chartered Forecasts BNB to Hit $2,800 Within Four Years
Standard Chartered Bank, the $800-billion financial institution headquartered in London, England, published a research report on Tuesday predicting that BNB, the cryptocurrency powering the BNBchain ecosystem, will gradually appreciate over the next three years, reaching approximately $2,775 by the end of 2028.
Despite its relative obscurity, BNB is currently the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, stablecoins excluded. It made its debut via an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017 as part of Binance’s launch. Binance is now the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and BNB’s market cap has swelled to $84.5 billion according to Coinmarketcap. And despite significant centralization, high fees, limited use cases, and a paltry developer base (currently less than 50), the token remains relevant due to its relationship with Binance.
Standard Chartered’s research arm describes BNBchain as a “centralized version of Ethereum backed by Binance,” and an “old-fashioned” platform stuck in 2021 used mostly by decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, and liquid stakers. But since 2021, the bank says BNB has traded like an unweighted index of bitcoin and ether and is poised to offer “steady returns” culminating in a $2,775 price by the end of 2028.
(BNB forecasts / Standard Chartered Research)
“BNB is unusual. Despite being the fourth largest non-stablecoin digital asset (after BTC, ETH and XRP) it wouldn’t be on the top of most people’s radars,” Geoffrey Kendrick, head of digital assets research at Standard Chartered, explained. “However, this old school nature and the fact that BNB trades almost exactly like an unweighted basket of BTC and ETH (both returns and volatility) makes it very interesting as a benchmark for digital assets more broadly, in my view.”