Wang Long Chai
February 23, 2026 02:11
According to Binance data, BNB holders who participated in Launchpool and airdrops from January 2024 to March 2025 earned $553 per token from an initial investment of $313.
According to new data released by the exchange, holding a single BNB token on Binance between January 2024 and March 2025 generated a total return of 177%. This amounts to approximately 11.8% per month, a figure that would be the envy of most traditional wealth managers.
The analysis tells an interesting story about passive cryptocurrency income. The price of BNB rose from $313 to $640 during that period, achieving a 104% increase in value on its own. But the real kicker came from layering Binance’s diverse rewards program on top.
Where additional revenue comes from
Just participating in Launchpool made a significant contribution. The program, which allows users to stake BNB to earn new project tokens before listing, has distributed over $1.75 billion in rewards across 21 events in 2024. Some standout pools have delivered impressive returns per BNB: Saga (SAGA) at $13.07, Ethena (ENA) at $10.37, and PIXEL at $9.47.
Launchpool’s average APY during the measurement period was 84%. This was calculated using the first day’s closing price rather than the all-time high preferred by some analysts.
The MegaDrop and HODLer Airdrop programs added an additional 19.7% in revenue for users who participated in all available drops. Combined with Launchpool farming, a single BNB generated approximately $226 in additional token rewards above and beyond the price increase.
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What makes this interesting for active traders is the rewards stack. It’s not a choice between price exposure and yield. You can get both at the same time without locking your capital in complex DeFi protocols.
More aggressive users can convert airdropped tokens back to BNB, creating a compound loop to increase the principal for future reward calculations. Taking BNB price risk and platform risk was not a free lunch, but it was mathematically advantageous.
Platform updates
Binance recently redesigned its Launchpool interface (currently app-only) and launched an integrated BNB information page. Changes include Simple Earn subscriptions directly on the Launchpool page, better visibility into airdrop allocations, and push notifications for new drops.
The timing coincides with Binance’s broader efforts to rehabilitate its image following the $4.3 billion settlement in November 2023. The exchange has grown its compliance team to 645 employees (up 34% from the end of 2023) and secured regulatory approvals in Germany and Japan throughout 2024.
What this means going forward
Past returns are obviously no guarantee of future performance. BNB’s 104% price rise benefited from the 2024 bull cycle, and Launchpool APY is entirely dependent on which projects Binance participates in and how those tokens perform post-listing.
However, the data shows why some institutional players are starting to take interest in exchange-native tokens with built-in reward mechanisms. Whether BNB can maintain these yield levels through a potential market correction remains an open question.
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