BNB sets all-time high against Bitcoin as Binance buys FTX

The native token of crypto exchange Binance – Binance Coin (BNB) – has set a new all-time high against bitcoin since news of Binance’s unexpected FTX acquisition 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 November 4 – by more than 14%.

The token acts as the native asset for Binance, giving holders discounts on trading fees along with exposure to regular token burns, which reduce the total supply. FTX, like other prominent exchanges, has its own internal digital asset, FTT, which has fallen 60% against the dollar in the past 24 hours.

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 has to rise more than 86% from here.

Still, the rising price reflects that markets consider BNB a thermometer for the overall health of Binance. Against the dollar, BNB is up around 10% in the last 24 hours, from 12:30 PM ET —- FTX’s FTT is down more than 27% over the same period.

Earlier today, Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao tweeted details of a deal that would see his crypto exchange completely take over one of its primary rivals in FTX. It awaits due diligence and agreement on terms, and it is unclear whether regulatory hurdles could come into play – especially pending the outcome of the US mid-term elections.

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

The sheet showed heavy exposure to FTT and other tokens close to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, culminating in Zhao promising to offload hundreds of millions of dollars worth of the token to reduce market risk. Alameda’s CEO Caroline Ellison pushed back on aspects of the reporting, saying the financial statements did not reflect the compensating 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 is 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 lost 29%. Solana, while now out 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, reflecting the performance across the digital asset market. In the same period, Bitcoin has lost more than half of its value.

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