On the surface, the cryptocurrency market appears to be bustling, but the true competition is still rooted in the underlying infrastructure.

The recent 2025 review published by BNB Chain is less of a summary of achievements and more of a showcase of how it has gradually built a competitive barrier in the public chain space.

**Qualitative Change in Performance**

Last year, BNB Chain underwent three major hard fork upgrades, with Maxwell being the most notable — it directly cut block time from 1.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds, meaning transaction confirmation has truly entered the sub-second realm. Overall network efficiency increased by 20%, and the median Gas fee dropped to $0.01 per transaction.

This is not just impressive numbers; it translates into real improvements in user experience. Lightning loans in DeFi and meme coin trading opportunities that occur within milliseconds — transaction delays and costs in these scenarios have been significantly alleviated.

**New Approaches to Lower Participation Barriers**

Even more interesting is BNB Chain’s introduction of a no-Gas fee transaction mechanism. Users can now pay fees directly with BEP-20 tokens, and through a "sponsored transaction" mode, achieve completely Gas-free transactions. For new users, this greatly reduces the entry barrier.

Security has not been overlooked either. The addition of MEV protection mechanisms and private mempool ensures fairness in high-frequency trading scenarios.

These cumulative upgrades are the fundamental reasons why the ecosystem can truly attract high-frequency traders.