BNB flips XRP while BNB Chain prepares mainnet upgrade 

• BNB Chain’s fees and revenue have been declining for several weeks. 
• Though BNB flipped XRP, the former’s market indicators were not bullish. 

BNB Chain [BNB] has witnessed a decline in its gas amount over the last few months. The decline was also reflected in its captured value, which followed a similar falling trend. However, despite this, BNB managed to flip Ripple [XRP] to become the fourth largest crypto by market capitalization. 

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Will BNB Chain’s update change the scenario?

Dune’s data revealed that BNB Smart Chain’s gas amount has been on a declining trend. As activity declined, the blockchain’s captured value declined as well. For instance, BNB’s fees and revenue plummeted.

Things in the DeFi space were also concerning as its TVL went down. The decline in usage was also revealed by its active addresses and transactions, which also sank. 

BNB Chain recently announced a new update for its BNB Smart Chain, which can have a positive impact on the blockchain’s declining metrics. The blockchain announced the release of version 1.2.9 for the BSC mainnet.

The release will introduce both Plato and Hertz (Berlin, London) hard forks.

Read about our latest upgrades 👀https://t.co/gTMYf9vVYc

— BNB Chain (@BNBCHAIN) August 4, 2023

The first update will be released on 10 August while the second will be pushed on 30 August 2023. An important change that the update will bring is in the chain’s gas metering. Apart from gas metering, other changes include restrictions on contract deployment, a new EVM opcode, and new transaction types. 

The changes will happen according to BEP 225 and BEP 230 under the Berlin upgrade.

BNB reclaims its spot

As developers prepared for the upgrade, BNB bulls entered the market, helping the coin increase its value marginally. This also allowed BNB to flip XRP in order to reclaim the fourth spot on the list of cryptos by market cap.

Thanks to this, BNB’s social volume spiked, and positive sentiment around it improved, as evident from its weighted sentiment. Its funding rate was also green, reflecting its demand in the futures market. 

Realistic or not, here’s BNB’s market cap in BTC’s terms   

According to CoinMarketCap, at the time of writing, BNB was trading at $241.42 with a market cap of $37 billion. However, investors might have to wait for a bull rally. This seemed likely as the MACD revealed an on-going battle between the bulls and bears.

BNB Chain’s Relative Strength Index (RSI) also moved sideways at the neutral mark. Its Chaikin Money Flow (CMF) remained in the bears’ favor as it registered a slight downtick.