BNB Sets All-Time High Against Bitcoin As Binance Buys FTX

The native token of crypto exchange Binance — Binance Coin (BNB) — has set a fresh all-time high against bitcoin since word of Binance’s unexpected FTX buyout broke on Tuesday.

BNB hit 0.0197 BTC ($390.75) per token this afternoon, breaking its previous bitcoin (BTC) price record — set less than a week ago on Nov. 4 — by more than 14%.

The token serves as the native asset for Binance, awarding holders discounts on trading fees alongside exposure to regular token burns, which reduce overall supply. FTX, like other prominent exchanges, has its own in-house digital asset, FTT, which has sunk 60% against the dollar over the past day.

BNB is still 45% below its peak in terms of raw US dollars. The token traded as high as $686.31 last May, per CoinGecko, which means it would need to rise more than 86% from here.

Still, its surging price reflects that markets consider BNB a thermometer for the overall health of Binance. Against the dollar, BNB is up around 10% over the past day, as of 12:30 pm ET — FTX’s FTT is down more than 27% over the same period.

BNB has since retraced but this chart shows its new price record

Earlier today, Binance CEO Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao tweeted details of a deal that would see his crypto exchange totally acquire one of its primary rivals in FTX. The acquisition is pending due diligence and terms agreement, and it’s unclear whether regulatory hurdles could come into play — especially pending the outcome of the US midterm elections.

The platform had been dogged by insolvency rumors ever since the balance sheet of its sister organization Alameda Research — a proprietary trading and venture capital firm also owned by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried — were reported by CoinDesk last week.

The sheet showed outsized exposure to FTT and other tokens close to Bankman-Fried, culminating in Zhao pledging to offload hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the token to reduce its market risk. Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison pushed back on aspects of the reporting, saying the accounting didn’t reflect offsetting hedges the company had in place.

Of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins, BNB is now the best performing asset against bitcoin for the year to date — by far. It’s up 69% against BTC while second-best XRP has only risen 23%.

Ether, on the other hand, has lost 4% of its value against bitcoin so far in 2022 and cardano has shed 29%. Solana, while now outside of the top 10 digital assets, has collapsed a whopping 62% against bitcoin over the same period.

BNB is still down 35% against the dollar this year, echoing performance right across the digital asset market. Bitcoin over the same period has lost more than half of its value.

Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.