Grayscale Investments has filed an S-1 registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch an exchange-traded fund tracking BNB.

According to a Form S-1 filed on Friday, the proposed product is titled the Grayscale BNB ETF. The filing seeks approval to offer a publicly traded ETF designed to track the price of BNB, the native token of the BNB Smart Chain ecosystem.

The fund is sponsored by Grayscale Investments and incorporated in Delaware. The registration statement notes that the offering would commence only after the SEC declares the filing effective, which is a standard requirement before shares can be sold to the public.

The preliminary prospectus outlines that the trust will issue shares representing fractional beneficial interests, with the value of those shares intended to reflect the performance of BNB.

As with other crypto ETFs proposed in the U.S., the product would not actively trade or use derivatives but would seek to provide passive exposure to the underlying digital asset.

Expanding the Scope of Crypto ETFs

The BNB ETF filing comes as asset managers continue to test the boundaries of U.S. crypto ETF approvals following the authorization of spot Bitcoin ETFs and, later, spot Ethereum products.

Market participants have increasingly viewed these approvals as a potential gateway for additional single-asset crypto ETFs tied to major blockchain networks.

BNB is among the largest digital assets by market capitalization and plays a central role in transaction fees, staking, and decentralized applications within the BNB Chain ecosystem.

Regulatory Context and Timeline

The SEC will review the registration statement for compliance with disclosure, custody, and market-integrity standards. The process can involve multiple rounds of comments and amendments, potentially extending over several months.

The prospectus shows that the ETF is “subject to completion” and may be revised before becoming effective. It also reflects standard risk disclosures, including price volatility, regulatory uncertainty surrounding digital assets, as well as operational risks tied to blockchain networks.

ETF Flows Pick Up

Digital asset investment products saw a sharp rebound in demand last week, recording $2.17 billion in net inflows, the strongest weekly total since October 2025, according to CoinShares data.

The bulk of those inflows arrived early in the week before sentiment deteriorated, driven by rising geopolitical tensions, renewed tariff threats, and fresh uncertainty around U.S. monetary policy leadership.

By Friday, flows had reversed, with crypto investment products posting $378 million in outflows following diplomatic escalation linked to Greenland and renewed concerns over global trade policy.

The post Grayscale Files S-1 to Launch BNB-Tracking ETF in the U.S. appeared first on Cryptonews.

• BNB Chain has completed a 1.37 million BNB token burn.
• The 34th quarterly burn sees total supply diminish to 136.36 million.
• BNB price hovered above $900 as the bulls look to target $1,000 next.

BNB Foundation announced on January 15, 2026, that BNB Chain has completed its first burn of the year, and the 34th quarterly burn overall.

The announcement came as BNB price hovered above $900 with fresh gains pushing the token up by nearly 8% over the past week.

BNB traded around $944 at the time of writing, just in the green on the day, as bulls targeted an upward continuation amid the latest BNB token burn.

A rally to $1,000 will strengthen a bullish outlook.

BNB Chain burns 1.37 million BNB

The successful completion of the 34th quarterly BNB token burn by BNB Chain marks the first burn of 2026, according to details BNB Foundation shared.

Burns of the token, currently the fifth largest cryptocurrency by market cap, continue the project’s longstanding deflationary strategy.

BNB Chain managed to permanently remove a total of 1,371,803.77 BNB from circulation.

The more than 1.37 million tokens account for BNB in two components: 1,371,703.67 BNB from the actual burn and 100.1 BNB in a pioneer burn. At the time of the burn, the destroyed tokens were worth about $1.27 billion.

Binance’s token burn utilises an Auto-Burn mechanism, which automatically calculates the amount based on BNB’s prevailing price and the number of blocks generated on BNB Smart Chain during the quarter.

“The BNB Auto-Burn provides an independently auditable, objective process. The figures are reported quarterly, and the mechanism is independent of the Binance centralized exchange,” the foundation wrote in a blog post.

Following the BNB Chain Fusion, quarterly burns now occur directly on BSC, with tokens sent to an irreversible “black hole” address.

BNB total supply falls to 136.36 million

BNB burns aim to gradually decrease the token’s total supply to 100 million BNB, with the latest cut leaving the total supply at roughly 136.36 million BNB.

In the market, a reduction to a token’s circulating supply often means enhanced scarcity and support for long-term value growth.

With BNB, regular burns towards 100 million tokens come amid rising network activity.

BNB Chain has witnessed notable milestones with upgrades and web3 applications, particularly as real-world assets come on-chain.

The price of BNB rose sharply in 2025 amid this growth, reaching an all-time high above $1,300.

Overall market sell-off, which also saw Bitcoin correct from a peak of $126,000, cascaded to BNB and saw its price fall to under $800. Gains mean the main target in the short term is a retest of $1,000 and the ATH.

The post BNB Chain completes 34th quarterly burn of 1.37 million BNB appeared first on CoinJournal.

• The Fermi hard fork will cut block times to 250ms, enabling faster DeFi and real-time apps.
• It will also introduce extended voting and partial indexing, leading to stability and lighter nodes.
• The experimental BAL showed ~18.6% execution gains in local tests.

BNB Smart Chain is preparing for a major protocol upgrade early next year.

The network’s upcoming Fermi hard fork, scheduled for mainnet activation in January 2026, signals a renewed push toward faster block times, higher throughput, and infrastructure designed for time-sensitive applications.

Notably, the upgrade follows months of testing and reflects broader efforts across the blockchain sector to close the performance gap with traditional financial systems.

BNB Smart Chain block times set for a major cut

According to a press release on GitHub, the Fermi hard fork is set to activate on the BNB Smart Chain mainnet on Jan. 14, after roughly two months of live testing on the Fermi testnet.

At the core of the upgrade is a sharp reduction in block times, which will fall to 250 milliseconds from the current 750 milliseconds.

This change places BNB Smart Chain firmly in the sub-second block time category.

It is designed to support applications that depend on rapid confirmation, including high-frequency trading tools, real-time gaming, and advanced decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols.

Shorter block intervals often come with trade-offs, especially around network communication and validator coordination.

To address this, the Fermi upgrade introduces extended voting parameters that help compensate for message propagation delays between nodes.

These adjustments aim to preserve consensus stability even as blocks are produced three times faster than before.

The result is a network that can process transactions more quickly without sacrificing correctness or security, a balance that has proven difficult for many layer-1 blockchains.

Currently, BNB Smart Chain ranks among the most actively used layer-1 networks, processing around 165 transactions per second, according to Chainspect.

This places behind L1 networks like Solana, which currently process up to 799 transactions per second.

With the Fermi hard fork, BNB Smart Chain aims for faster block production and reduced confirmation delays, especially during peak sessions, which would be important for DeFi applications.

The upgrade also introduces a new partial-ledger indexing mechanism. Instead of forcing users and node operators to download the full historical ledger, the new system allows participants to sync only the data they need.

This will significantly reduce storage and computing requirements, making it easier to run nodes and interact with the network.

Experimental gains point to future potential

Notably, the Fermi hard fork builds on recent experimental work aimed at improving execution performance, with one notable effort being the v1.6.4-feature-BAL7928 client release introduced late last year.

That experimental release implements a non-consensus Block-Access-List, or BAL, based on EIP-7928 and similar in design to BEP-592.

Rather than altering consensus rules, BAL data is shared through peer-to-peer block propagation messages, allowing for more efficient transaction execution when the data is available.

In local testing environments, the BAL implementation delivered an average performance improvement of roughly 18.6% in million gas per second.

Developers note, however, that real-world benefits depend on broad network adoption, as nodes only gain performance improvements when peers also support the feature.

As competition intensifies among layer-1 blockchains, these upgrades position the BNB Smart Chain network to better serve high-demand applications and growing user activity.

This will possibly support renewed interest in Binance Coin (BNB), thus spurring a price rebound from the three-month decline, where it has dropped to around $833.48 from its October 2025 peak of $1,369.99.

The post BNB Smart Chain’s Fermi hard fork scheduled to launch in January 2026 appeared first on CoinJournal.

• BNB Chain has introduced a stablecoin to enhance cross-chain liquidity.
• The token targets large-scale, high-volume usage across different sectors.
• Community buzzes as Binance founder CZ follows a new stablecoin named U.

BNB Chain is planning a massive step into the stablecoin industry.

The platform took it to X to introduce a new stablecoin set to launch soon.

The new token aims to integrate liquidity across different applications while catering to high-volume, large-scale utility needs.

While most existing stablecoins have payment and trading as their primary use cases, BNB Chain’s upcoming token aims to seamlessly integrate into different financial platforms, dApps, and other blockchain-linked systems.

The late Tuesday X post read:

A brand new stablecoin will officially launch on BNB Chain. The goal is to integrate liquidity across various application scenarios – designed specifically for large-scale applications.

BNB Chain is looking to unify liquidity from various application scenarios for users and developers to interact with several financial services without fragmentation challenges.

With that, the Chain can maintain its competitiveness as scalability and interoperability see impressive demand.

CZ’s interest drives community buzz

The announcement sparked debates among the Binance community across crypto forums and social media.

Enthusiasts rejoice as the new stablecoin could solve liquidity issues for projects that need large-scale transactions.

Binance founder Changpeng Zhao added to this excitement after recently following a new stablecoin project called U on X.

That has triggered speculation about a possible support and partnership.

The U stablecoin – designed for the next phase of digital finance

The new U stablecoin is a purpose-built asset designed to serve the changing needs of on-chain finance.

Its three core principles, Unified, Inclusive, and Fluid, underscore its goal to unify liquidity, support large-scale adoption, and ensure smooth integration across various platforms.

U will launch on December 18, and according to its X handle:

U is built on a comprehensive reserve management framework that prioritizes both security and liquidity – ensuring reliability at its core. Designed for individuals, institutions, and builders who demand unwavering stability.

Though without a formal confirmation, markets have interpreted CZ’s interest as a signal for possible future ‘U’ stablecoin integration on the Binance ecosystem.

Broad market context

The U debut comes as markets move to stablecoins that prioritize transparency, institutional-grade offerings, liquidity, and increased earning opportunities.

For instance, synthetic stablecoins have seen increased traction in 2025, outperforming giants like USDT and USDC in key metrics such as weekly volumes.

Stablecoins have been the primary gateway into the cryptocurrency market, allowing individuals to enter and exit anytime without the need for repeatedly converting to fiat.

Grayscale expects a boom in stablecoins in the coming year after the 2025 breakout that saw supply hitting $300B with $1.1 trillion average monthly transactions.

The report added:

In 2026, we expect to see the practical results: stablecoins integrated into cross-border payment services, stablecoins as collateral on derivatives exchanges, stablecoins on corporate balance sheets, and stablecoins as an alternative to credit cards in online consumer payments.

Binance is likely preparing to tap into this demand by integrating a new stablecoin into BNB Chain.

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