BNB gains despite a wider crypto market downturn as memecoin prices plummet

BNB has posted gains, even as the broader cryptocurrency market struggles. Major tokens like bitcoin and ether have fallen by 1.5% and 1.3%, respectively, over the past 24 hours, following a new CPI report that showed inflation picked up for the fourth consecutive month in January.

The latest CPI data regarding U.S. inflation rattled the broader markets. U.S. consumer prices rose 3% year-over-year in January, up from 2.9% in December. This was the largest increase since June and exceeded economists' expectations. On a monthly basis, prices increased by 0.5%, the largest jump in two years, compared to 0.4% in December.

Rising food and energy costs contributed to the increase, potentially signaling slow progress in curbing consumer price inflation as President Trump rolls out new import tariffs.

Despite the downturn, BNB rose by over 2% in the past day and has gained approximately 12% over the past week, according to The Block's Price Page . In contrast, major memecoins like Dogecoin, Pepe, and Official Trump have dropped by 3%, 4%, and 5%, respectively. The overall memecoin market cap now stands at $74.9 billion, down 1.9% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko data .

In light of BNB's recent gains amid wider volatility, Nansen analyst Aurelie Barthere highlighted how BNB Smart Chain (BSC) has been experiencing strong growth in on-chain metrics.

"BSC's fees surged 114% over the past 7 days, while blockchains like Solana, Ethereum, and Base have seen negative growth," Barthere told The Block. "One potential catalyst for this growth could be the recent 60-day pause in Binance's legal battle with the SEC, announced two days ago."

Binance and SEC file joint motion to halt legal dispute for 60 days

On Monday, Binance and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission jointly requested a U.S. court to pause their legal proceedings for 60 days. The court filing stated that the request to stay the case was made with consideration of the SEC’s new task force for developing a clear regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.

In addition to these developments, Barthere also pointed to how Binance revealed its 2025 roadmap on Wednesday, focusing on AI and enhanced transaction speeds. The roadmap outlines BNB Chain's aim to achieve sub-second block times and process up to 100 million transactions per day. The blog post on Binance cited BNB Chain's commitment to leveraging artificial intelligence, with over 60 AI-related projects launched, ranging from AI-driven applications in gaming to decentralized finance.

"The roadmap includes plans to integrate native AI agents into wallets to assist users with trading, spending, and even booking travel," Binance said in its blog post .