The bank's analysis shows that BNB trades as an 'unweighted index' of Bitcoin and Ethereum 'in terms of both returns and volatility'.
Standard Chartered forecasts that BNB will reach $2,800 within four years.
Standard Chartered Bank, a financial institution worth $800 billion, headquartered in London, UK, published a research report on Tuesday predicting that BNB, the cryptocurrency powering the BNB chain ecosystem, will gradually increase in price over the next three years, reaching approximately $2,775 by the end of 2028.
Despite relative obscurity, BNB is currently the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, excluding stablecoins. It debuted through an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017 as part of the Binance launch. Now, Binance is the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, and BNB's market capitalization has reached $84.5 billion, according to Coinmarketcap. Despite significant centralization, high fees, limited use cases, and a modest developer base (currently less than 50), the token remains relevant due to its connection with Binance.
The research division of Standard Chartered describes the BNB chain as a 'centralized version of Ethereum, supported by Binance', and as an 'old-fashioned' platform, frozen in 2021, primarily used by decentralized exchanges, lending protocols, and liquidity stakers. However, since 2021, the bank states that BNB trades as an unweighted index of Bitcoin and Ethereum and is poised to offer 'stable returns', reaching a price of $2,775 by the end of 2028.
'BNB is unusual. Although it is the fourth largest digital asset excluding stablecoins (after BTC, ETH, and XRP), it will not be at the top of most people's lists,' explained Jeffrey Kendrick, head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered. 'Nonetheless, this old school nature and the fact that BNB trades almost like an unweighted basket of BTC and ETH (in terms of both returns and volatility) makes it very interesting as a benchmark for digital assets in a broader sense, in my opinion.'
