BNB Enters Price Discovery After Record-Breaking Rally, Dominates Exchange Tokens

Last week, crypto analyst Ali Martinez set X ablaze when he reminded everyone why BNB still matters: “BNB can’t be ignored! It’s a piece of Binance, the native token of BNB Chain, and it’s crushing the entire exchange token sector, with 81% of the total market cap. Now in price discovery after hitting a new ATH, with one of the strongest YTD performances. Don’t sleep on this one!” If you’ve been watching, you haven’t slept on it. BNB just pushed into uncharted territory again.

Today, BNB is hovering right around $773, down about 1.9% over the past 24 hours after a brief pop to $778 earlier in the day. Trading volumes remain healthy (north of $2 billion in daily turnover), and while many altcoins are treading water, BNB has managed to keep its head above water. On the books, the token is only about 8.7% below its all-time high of $858.34, reached on July 26, quite a feat when peers in the exchange-token space are still nursing 30–60% drawdowns/

Why All the Buzz?

As Martinez pointed out, BNB still represents roughly 81% of the exchange-token sector’s market cap, a commanding lead over rivals like FTX’s FTT or OKX’s OKB. That firewall of dominance hasn’t been breached in months, and it acts like a self-fulfilling moat: traders pile in because everyone else piles in.

Looking back to January 7, BNB was trading near $729. That means a +6.4% gain year-to-date, which, in a year when most layer-1s and trading tokens are flat or negative, reads like a standout performance. Behind the scenes, Binance continues shipping features: BNB Chain gas fees have crept down, staking yields remain competitive, and the quarterly burn mechanism is still nibbling away at supply. Plus, whispers of new DeFi launches and NFT drops on BNB Chain keep the community engaged.

Nothing climbs uninterrupted. Technical models suggest a corrective groove could take BNB back toward the $740–$760 area if it fails to close convincingly above $780 in the next few sessions. A pullback there might actually be healthy, digesting gains before the next leg up. On the flip side, if buyers defend support and drive BNB above $800, the next psychological wall sits near $900, with $1,000 looming as the crowd’s next big target.

Martinez isn’t just cheering on hype. BNB’s mix of market dominance, steady YTD gains, and a pipeline of product updates gives it a real shot at writing fresh milestones. That doesn’t mean you should leap in without a plan, watch your risk points around $740, and keep an eye on volume. But if you’ve been sidelined, now’s the time to tune in: BNB’s next chapter could be its most exciting yet.