There's a controversial crypto token quietly smashing everything else in the market

• Binance Coin is one of the market's best-performing cryptos this year.
• The token is up 129% in the past year, outpacing gains in bitcoin and ethereum.
• Some have grown skeptical of its rally, however.

If you think bitcoin is having a good year, you might want to check out the world's third-largest cryptocurrency.

With little fanfare, BNB has quietly been beating other major cryptos. The token, which is the native crypto issued by Binance, is up 129% in the last year, soaring past bitcoin's 97% return and ethereum's 84% gain over that time frame.

The run-up has been especially pronounced in the last month. BNB is up 29% since the start of October, with the coin's market cap swelling by over $41.7 billion over that timeframe, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

What's driving the rally

1. Growing adoption

Binance has gained momentum in the last year as crypto trading surges amid the latest rush to all-time highs for major coins.

The largest crypto exchange by trading volume, Binance said it had 290 million users and drew $14.8 billion in inflows the past quarter.

Activity on BNB Chain has also risen. The blockchain ecosystem drew $5.5 million in network fees in the 24 hours leading up to October 8, according to data from DeFiLlama.

2. Aster

Changpeng Zhao, the former CEO of Binance, launched a multi-chain decentralized exchange called Aster in late September.

The exchange was intended to rival Hyperliquid, a top decentralized platform for futures trading. According to DeFiLlama, it briefly surpassed all other exchanges of its kind in trading volume late last month. The DeFi data aggregator has since delisted Aster due to concerns about data integrity.

Aster's surge in popularity was likely responsible for some of the attention that's been shed on BNB lately, Zack Shapiro, a digital assets policy expert at The Bitcoin Policy Institute, told Business Insider on Wednesday.

3. Crypto treasuries

Crypto treasuries, companies that hoard large amounts of crypto on their balance sheets, have also been buying BNB.

CEA Industries, a vape producer, said it had $611 million worth in BNB on Tuesday. The company first announced plans to raise money to establish a BNB treasury this summer.

B Strategy, a digital assets investment firm, said in August that it would partner with Yzi Labs to launch a $1 billion Binance Coin treasury.

Internet skeptics wonder what's behind it all

Some have been skeptical of the surge.

In posts on social media, crypto enthusiasts have doubted the coin's rally and what's been behind it, speculating that the rapid rise could be the result of manipulation.

Binance did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Concerns about market manipulation are probably not relevant to most people who have been piling into the token, Shapiro said. Instead, BNB's rise might be better explained by the level of froth in markets broadly, with risk assets and safe-havens alike soaring into year-end.

"I think this is people chasing a hot ball of money," he said, attributing most of BNB's rally to speculation. "We are at the part of the market cycle where everyone's trying to figure out, 'Alright, what is the next asset everyone else is going to buy?'"

The crypto market has been on fire since President Donald Trump, who branded himself the "crypto president" on the campaign trail, began his second term as president and promised a more crypto-friendly stance from his administration.

According to CoinMarketCap, the total value of the crypto universe has climbed nearly $1 trillion this year, and major coins have marched steadily higher to hit a string of records.

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, was trading around $124,000 on Wednesday, down slightly from this week's all-time high above $125,000.

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