BNB BNB traded in a narrow range on Sunday, reflecting resilience amid low volatility as the BNB Chain community gears up for a significant infrastructure upgrade, according to CoinDesk Research’s technical analysis model.

The Maxwell hard fork upgrade scheduled for June 30 is poised to enhance the performance of the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) mainnet by cutting block times from 1.5 seconds to 0.75 seconds—doubling the chain’s throughput potential.

This upgrade builds on earlier milestones like the Lorentz fork, which reduced block time from 3 seconds and introduced enhanced network stability. Maxwell moves BSC into sub-second block speeds, helping it compete more directly with faster chains such as Solana.

The hard fork will be powered by three protocol improvement proposals: BEP-524, BEP-563 and BEP-564. These measures overhaul key components of validator coordination and consensus mechanics. Notably, validators will now serve longer block proposal turns (16 blocks per turn), and the epoch length is being extended from 500 to 1,000 blocks — changes expected to stabilize performance even under accelerated conditions.

To avoid network congestion and excessive state growth, the per-block gas limit will be halved from 70 million to 35 million. Improvements on the networking side are also expected, with faster block propagation among validators — within 400 milliseconds —and improved range synchronization for lagging nodes.

Named after physicist James Clerk Maxwell, the upgrade is designed to balance speed with stability, aiming to elevate BNB Chain’s standing across DeFi, GameFi, and enterprise blockchain sectors. By delivering more responsive block finality and smoother validator participation, the Maxwell hard fork could help drive future adoption and developer growth across the ecosystem.

Technical Analysis Highlights

• Between June 28 15:00 UTC and June 29 14:00 UTC, BNB climbed from $646.29 to $650.25, a 0.61% gain with a $5.75 (0.89%) trading range.
• The price found key support at $647.11 during the 02:00 UTC hour on June 29, with above-average volume of 10,034 units.
• Resistance emerged at $651.30 during the 12:00 UTC hour, capping further gains.Notable volume spikes at 07:00 and 09:00 UTC (18,696 and 22,494 units, respectively) confirmed persistent buyer interest above $648.
• From 13:05 to 14:04 UTC on June 29, BNB dipped slightly from $650.85 to $650.25, posting a 0.09% intraday loss.
• Price briefly hit a session peak of $651.07 at 13:23 UTC before rejecting lower, with a volume spike of 957.81 units at 13:25 UTC.
• As of 21:24 UTC, BNB traded at $648.37, paring earlier gains and holding below resistance near the $651 level.

Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.

Shares of Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) rose 43% this month, making the firm the top performer in the S&P 500 since it joined the index at the end of last month.

June’s run is already the stock’s best since November and caps three straight monthly gains. Coinbase’s shares reached their highest level since their public debut.

COIN hit a $382 high this week before enduring a slight correction, ending the week at $353 and seeing a slight 0.7% drop in after-hours trading to $351.

The wider S&P 500 index rose roughly 5% in June as geopolitical tensions eased.

Washington’s progress on the GENIUS Act, Congress’s first rulebook for dollar-pegged stablecoins, helped shift investor focus from trading fees to stablecoin revenue.

The bill brightened the outlook for Circle, whose shares hit a record high and saw its market cap near that of Coinbase this week.

Coinbase keeps all yield on USDC balances held on its platform and nearly half of other USDC income, equal to about 99 percent of Circle’s revenue, giving shareholders indirect exposure at no added cost, CNBC reported Friday, citing analysts including Citizens’ head of financial technology research Devin Ryan.

Trading, however, remains subdued. Average daily volume on Coinbase has drifted lower since April.

Robinhood (HOOD) has introduced micro futures on bitcoin (BTC), solana (SOL) and XRP in the United States., expanding its existing crypto futures offering for its nearly 26 million funded accounts.

Micro contracts need far less collateral than full-size futures, letting traders take directional positions while committing a smaller slice of capital.

The contracts offer traders more flexibility to bet on a cryptocurrency’s future price direction or hedge current positions given their smaller size.

The launch rounds out a futures suite that began with BTC and ETH in January. It also comes weeks after the firm closed its $200 million purchase of Bitstamp and finalized a $179 million deal for Canada’s WonderFi.

Robinhood’s data shows that crypto notional volumes have exploded upward over time, reaching $11.7 billion in May. The figure marks a 36% rise month-over-month, and a 65% growth year-over-year.