has upgraded and relaunched its cross-chain protocol, enabling connections between its BNB Smart Chain and other blockchains.
Previously, the original BINANCE Bridge only supported tokens listed on Binance.com. However, in addition to new features and a makeover, Binance Bridge 2.0 now supports some tokens not even listed on Binance’s exchange. According to the announcement, the bridge allows these unlisted tokens onto the BNB Smart Chain as wrapped BTokens, which are pegged on a 1:1 basis to the underlying asset, and can be redeemed back to the original asset at any time.
“Binance Bridge 2.0 introduces a new way to bridge listed and selected unlisted tokens from Ethereum to BNB Smart Chain as BTokens,” the announcement read. For instance, users can wrap their tokens to receive BEP20 BTokens, with which they can then stake with protocols running on the BNB Smart Chain. Almost all Ethereum-native tokens will be supported on Binance Bridge 2.0, thus enabling direct access to BNB Smart Chain dApps, such as the current global leader PancakeSwap
The announcement highlights the ability for users to do this directly from their Binance account as the most important update. Rather than having to utilize third-party wallets, users can store their listed tokens directly in their Funding or Spot Wallets. For unlisted bridged tokens, a new self-custody (SCW) will be available through the Binance app, which will also guide new users through the process. According to the announcement, the main advantage for users to have their own SCW is exclusive access to their private keys.
Smart Chain prevails
Meanwhile, Binance Smart Chain has continued to see a surge in NFT sales volume since the beginning of the year, despite a decline in NFTs’ overall sales volume. According to Be[In]Crypto Research, the chain has approximately 1,180% in NFT sales volume since the close of January 2022. In January, the total sales volume generated reached approximately $94,325, which proceeded to spike 1,109% by the end of February 2022 to $1.14 million.
