On Apr. 19, following the highly anticipated debut of the Binance Chain mainnet, the price of Binance Coin (BNB) surged by 10 percent against the US dollar, becoming the second crypto asset (after EOS in May 2018) since 2017 to achieve an all-time high.

Other crypto assets that come close to BNB, digital assets created before 2019, are down about 20 to 50 percent against the dollar, with most other tokens down nearly 99 percent against the USD since the peak of the market in 2017.

How Binance Coin (BNB) is the First Crypto to Surpass ATH Since 2017

On Jan. 12th, 2018, Binance Coin achieved a record high at $24.46 after recording a 12-fold increase in value in a mere two months.

In the past 24-hours, BNB surged by 11.2 percent against the US dollar and hit $24.77 following the highly anticipated launch of the Binance Chain mainnet, recording a staggering 309 percent gain year-to-date.

The large increase in the value of BNB in a relatively short period of time suggests that investors in the crypto asset are confident in the long-term growth of the cryptocurrency, particularly in the decentralized exchange (DEX) and decentralized application (DApp) space.

After the launch of Binance Chain’s mainnet, several blockchain projects such as Red Pulse and Mithril moved from smart contract protocols such as Ethereum to Binance Chain.

$MITH will be one of the first projects to migrate tokens onto @Binance_DEX. Our community thank you for your support! https://t.co/zvG7tvtL2b — CZ Binance (@cz_binance) April 18, 2019

Other large-scale projects like Enjin, which reportedly secured a strategic partnership with Samsung, announced support for Binance Chain and BNB.

The Enjin Wallet will fully support #Binance Chain, including $BNB assets and @Binance_DEX exchange functions. We're excited to be a part of this @binance revelation and provide #EnjinWallet users with a convenient, secure, and precise trading platform.https://t.co/kP8zz6Vbht pic.twitter.com/vLhnEwpNLF — Enjin (@enjin) April 19, 2019

However, even before the build-up towards the mainnet launch of Binance Chain, BNB has performed strongly against both bitcoin and the US dollar throughout the 16-month bear market.

The solid performance of BNB throughout 2018 is mainly attributed to its coin burn mechanism—a process where profits generated by Binance, the crypto-to-crypto exchange—are used to buy back BNB from holders.

The momentum BNB established by the buyback mechanism was fueled by the launch of a decentralized exchange in the first half of 2019, accompanied by the launch of its own blockchain protocol.

In the upcoming days, Binance is expected to initiate the second largest token swap in the history of the cryptocurrency market, moving BNB which is currently based on Ethereum as an ERC20 token to Binance Chain.

Interesting, 2nd largest swap in history. Learn something new every day! https://t.co/SCPCHwC4c6 — CZ Binance (@cz_binance) April 19, 2019

BNB remains the most valuable token on Ethereum by a large margin with a market capitalization of $3.4 billion. Maker, the second most valuable token on the protocol, is valued at $620 million.

What BNB has to Prove Now

If the price of BNB performed well throughout 2018 due to the buyback mechanism and rallied again in 2019 in anticipation of the mainnet release, then Binance Chain may have to show real potential as a high throughput and large capacity blockchain to retain those outsized gains.

While the focus of Binance Chain is seemingly placed at supporting decentralized exchanges, it will have to demonstrate to investors that projects like Mithril and other blockchain platforms that plan to migrate to Binance Chain that they can function seamlessly on the protocol.

The eyes of investors are now likely placed on how the Binance team will move forward with its plans for further decentralization for its DEX.

Update Apr. 19 @ 7:40 pm PT: An earlier version of this article stated that BNB was the only coin to hit its all-time high since 2017, however, EOS hit its all-time high in May of 2018. The title and article have been updated to reflect this fact.

Binance Coin $24.19 12.54% Binance Coin, currently ranked #7 by market cap, is up 12.54% over the past 24 hours. BNB has a market cap of $3.41B with a 24 hour volume of $395.47M. Binance Coin Price Chart BNBUSD Chart by TradingView