BNB Chain (BNB) has launched a $100 million program designed to bootstrap liquidity for its native projects on centralized exchanges (CEXs).

The network is allocating $100 million in incentives, primarily in the form of its native BNB tokens, to projects that successfully list on any of 11 major CEXs specified by BNB Chain, according to a March 24 announcement.

The program aims to “further enhance BNB Chain’s ecosystem liquidity and foster project growth by incentivizing exchanges to list native BNB Chain tokens,” the chain said in the statement. 

BNB Chain previously launched two smaller liquidity incentive programs, allocating two tranches of $4.4 million in February and March to incentivize CEX listings for memecoins and other ecosystem projects. 

Rewards vary based on the prominence of the exchange listing. Source: BNB Chain

The network’s latest liquidity incentive program will be executed on a first-come, first-served basis and will initially run for a three-month trial period, it said. 

Only projects with at least a $5 million market capitalization and $1 million in daily trading volume are eligible, among other criteria, BNB Chain said. 

The largest rewards — $500,000 in permanent liquidity — are reserved for projects that list on major CEXs such as Binance and Coinbase, it said.

In some cases, rewards will be limited to non-withdrawable BNB token liquidity and in others, they will also include purchases of project tokens to create two-sided liquidity, according to BNB Chain.

Chains by TVL. Source: DeFILlama

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Lagging competitors

BNB Chain has a total value locked (TVL) of approximately $5.4 billion, according to data from DefiLlama. 

It ranks fourth among blockchain networks in TVL, lagging behind leading smart contract platforms Ethereum and Solana, with TVLs of about $46 billion and $7 billion, respectively, according to DefiLlama. 

BNB Chain is affiliated with Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. 

In March, The Wall Street Journal reported that entities affiliated with US President Donald Trump were in talks to buy Binance.US, an independently-operated US crypto exchange.

Former Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao has denied many of the reports’ claims, including any suggestion that a deal was contingent on Trump pardoning Zhao following his conviction on charges of violating the Bank Secrecy Act.

In 2023, Binance agreed to pay a $4.3 billion penalty and for Zhao to plead guilty to one count of violating the Bank Secrecy Act for shortcomings in Binance’s Anti-Money Laundering program.

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