Original author: BroLeon Aus (X: @BroLeon Aus )
Under Trump's rule, crypto compliance has ushered in an unprecedented "Age of Discovery". In addition to the darling stablecoins, I believe that CEXs, which were once the core of the crypto industry, are also gearing up.
Last time I wrote about how @star_okx painstakingly bet on IPO, this time I will talk about Binance. Although there is relatively little information about the layout of the capital market, there are some clues to follow by analyzing the actions of Binance and cz. Some of them are my personal speculations, which may not be accurate. I hope @cz_binance will forgive me if I am wrong.
In addition to its aggressive expansion in the traditional crypto world through Alpha, Binance is also quietly advancing a more ambitious layout in the capital market:
Upgrade BNB from an "exchange platform currency" to a global financial asset, and use it to build a cross-chain, cross-national, and cross-market capital landscape.
This is not only a game of currency prices, but also Binance’s bet on the “new global financial order”.
This article will systematically analyze Binance's layout path in the capital market, from national strategic reserves, BNB micro-strategy diffusion, to ETF exploration, and IPO possibilities, gradually outlining its greater ambitions.
1. National-level cooperation: BNB is a tentative attempt as a sovereign asset
In the past few years, the cooperation between Binance and some countries has gradually shown the characteristics of "quasi-sovereign cooperation". Among them, @cz_binance has interacted with Bhutan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and other countries. These all happened in 2025, which can be seen as part of CZ's new strategic direction.
Among them, Bhutan’s Gelephu Mindfulness City (New Special Administrative Region) announced plans to include Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH) and BNB in its strategic reserves, aiming to enhance economic resilience and expand participation in Bitcoin mining.
In essence, this is an attempt by Binance to embed BNB into the sovereign financial system, laying the foundation for its future transnational identity and legitimacy. At present, it has become popular for small countries to include $BTC as digital gold in their national reserves. If $BNB can break through the threshold of "national use", its asset narrative will be completely reconstructed.
2. Micro-strategy diffusion: the leverage engine of BNB’s financial narrative
In the past two days, CZ said that many companies are preparing "micro-strategies" built around BNB and plan to list on the US stock market, including:
• A $100 million BNB fund led by former Coral Capital Holdings executives (now called Build & Build Corporation)
• The hot spot that detonated the market yesterday $NA Nabit publicly announced that it will purchase 5%-10% of the BNB circulation in the future.
These companies are imitating the MicroStrategy model of US stocks, obtaining valuation premiums and financing capabilities through "listed shells + crypto assets."
Of course, these plans are not entirely credible - some companies seem to be using MicroStrategy and BNB narratives to harvest the market and engage in topic marketing.
But it is undeniable that BNB has begun to possess the financial attributes of being packaged, issued, and speculated by the mainstream capital market. This means that BNB is moving from an "on-chain functional asset" to an "off-chain investment tool."
3. $BNB ETF in progress: Double attempt to turn around compliance
On April 2, 2025, asset management company VanEck registered the VanEck BNB ETF in Delaware, becoming the first ETF application for BNB in the United States.
On May 2, 2025, VanEck officially submitted an S-1 registration document to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), clearly proposing to issue the VanEck BNB ETF, which aims to track the spot price of BNB and become the first ETF in the United States to directly hold BNB.
The timing of the application is related to VanEck CEO Jan van Eck’s meeting with @cz_binance at the Token 2049 conference in Dubai in April 2025, where CZ said that the success of the Bitcoin ETF would “spill over” to other crypto assets, which may be a catalyst for VanEck to accelerate its application.
If this action is successful, it will not only mean that the compliance channel has been opened, but also that passive funds (such as pension funds and asset management funds) can legally allocate BNB, which may push up demand and prices.
However, since the beginning of 2025, the SEC has received more than 70 alternative currency ETF applications (including Solana, Dogecoin, etc.), so the final decision may take months or even years.
4. Binance.us’s listing mystery
Will Binance go public? After OKX was revealed to be going public on the US stock market this year, this is the topic that many people are most concerned about.
After collecting the information currently available on the Internet, I can feel that CZ's thinking has changed.
In July 2020, CZ made it clear that Binance had no plans to go public, but instead wanted to be more decentralized.
But in 2021, CZ said Binance.us was moving towards an IPO and planned to complete the listing within three years. In 2022, there were also rumors in the market that Binance.us was seeking financing at a valuation of US$4.5 billion.
Although these plans were stranded in regulatory conflicts, in May 2025, the SEC officially withdrew its lawsuit against Binance.us, opening the window of possibility for a listing again.
In the context of OKX's clear promotion of listing in the United States, if its listing is successful, it will be equivalent to an icebreaker. If Binance chooses to reactivate the listing plan of Binance.us, it will most likely reshape the US exchange landscape, especially in the political environment of Trump's administration, which may be the most relaxed external environment. After all, its USD1 is hand in hand with Binance.
5. What is the relationship between listing and us crypto players?
It matters a lot, and it has actually been reflected.
If Binance wants to further embrace the capital market, it must deal with the question of whether BNB is a security. In the previous article on OKX, I talked about how Star used a method similar to self-disarmament to ensure that it could pass the Howey Test (the standard for securities identification).
From the changes in the past year, we can roughly see some policy shifts of Binance:
• Launchpad: The “BNB IPO” feature, which once had the most securities attributes, has been completely abandoned;
• Launchpool: The frequency of rewards has dropped significantly, and the “Holder retroactive airdrop” model has gradually replaced the “Pool’s coin holding airdrop” model;
Compared with OKB being directly "banished to the cold palace", Binance has adopted a more gentle and implicit adjustment path. The reason behind this is that BNB has a large volume, many holders, and many ecological stakeholders. Any radical adjustment will shake Binance's fundamentals.
Therefore, Binance chose a "gentle and gradual" approach to gradually weaken the securities attributes of BNB without causing panic, paving the way for its compliance and long-term legitimacy.
Of course, I don’t think $BNB will be abandoned, otherwise we wouldn’t see CZ working so hard to promote BNB everywhere. He should just be looking for a more reasonable balance. As for $BNB reaching four digits, I remain optimistic.
Conclusion: From a platform currency to a national asset, BNB is reconstructing its financial identity
We can see that Binance’s strategy in the capital market is far more than “charging listing fees” or “occupying other companies’ plates”, but rather trying to build a three-dimensional system with BNB as the core anchor, linking the on-chain ecology and off-chain capital, and connecting national resources and financial markets.
This layout is still in progress. Whether BNB can truly realize its transformation into a financial asset in the future will depend on:
• Whether the ETF is approved;
• Whether Binance.us will actually restart its IPO;
• Questions about whether BNB has completely escaped from the “security attributes”;
• Whether the market gives it a consensus pricing of “non-Bitcoin long-term assets”.
Regardless of the outcome, Binance has quietly made its move in this capital game, and its momentum is growing. Opportunities to watch:
1. Subsequent BNB Micro Strategy Stock Secondary Opportunities
2. BNB ETF is beneficial to BNB price
