Interview with BNB Chain's Executive Director of Growth: Why Am I Optimistic About BNB's Next Decade?
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Interview with BNB Chain's Executive Director of Growth: Why Am I Optimistic About BNB's Next Decade?
Follow Nina's sharing and step into the winning principles of growth in the crypto world.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: TechFlow
The theme for the 2025 Binance Blockchain Week (BBW) is: The Next Era.
Defined by the organizers as "the most ambitious edition to date," this BBW closely aligns its personnel appointments with the "The Next Era" theme:
Yi Jie, clad in a bright yellow battle robe, announced her appointment as Co-CEO, ushering in the era of dual CEOs at Binance alongside Richard Teng;
On the same day, Nina Rong, the new Executive Director of Growth at BNB Chain, took to the main stage for the first time representing BNB Chain, sharing how BNB Chain is driving the next wave of ecosystem growth.
After wrapping up the Abu Dhabi BNB Hackathon, TechFlow had the opportunity to engage in an in-depth conversation with our old friend Nina Rong.
Discussing the hackathon, which received enthusiastic community feedback, Nina said with a smile:
The first-place winner was a student team from a coding school in Abu Dhabi. This is a very important signal: developers outside the crypto space, with the help of AI and mentors, were able to quickly build a project on-site that was recognized by everyone and has potential for real-world application. This is a crucial signal.
The essence of a hackathon is a scenario for sparking inspiration. It's both a technical event and a super-effective social platform, bringing people together to discuss interesting and meaningful things for the industry.
As the Executive Director of Growth, the conversation inevitably circles back to "growth" itself. Transitioning from Arbitrum (a leading L2) to BNB Chain (a leading exchange public chain), Nina's career path spans two different ecosystem logics and growth models. According to the recent BNB Chain 2025 Year in Review: DAU remains stable at around 3.7 million, with a peak reaching 5 million, ranking first among all L1 blockchains; DEX trading volume surpassed $2 trillion; stablecoin supply increased to $14 billion.
Faced with already impressive achievements, how does one open the next chapter of growth? With her rich experience in growth, Nina offered a "back-to-basics" answer to this question:
A public chain, as an underlying infrastructure product, primarily serves three user groups: retail users, institutional users, and developer users. Therefore, the Growth Director is responsible for better serving these three groups.
The BNB technical team is excellent, and it also has a very large user base and very well-developed infrastructure. I think it will become increasingly difficult for future competitors to reach the scale that BNB Chain has today.
Finally, as a seasoned industry professional, Nina offered the most direct and sincere advice to community members wanting to join Web3 and BNB:
Cultivate a founder's spirit, possessing the determination and resilience to get things done; at the same time, never detach from the market, truly participate in trading to maintain a fresh perspective on the market and an awareness of trends.
In this issue, let's follow Nina's insights and explore the winning formulas for growth in the crypto world.
The following content is a transcript of our conversation. The podcast audio version is also available. You are welcome to subscribe to "Let's Flow" on Xiaoyuzhou.
Click Xiaoyuzhou link or scan the QR code in the image to listen:
A Successful Hackathon is an Efficient Social Connection
TechFlow: Congratulations, Nina, on your new role at BNB Chain. We've seen you busy with Binance Blockchain Week and the BNB Chain Hackathon these past couple of weeks. Can you share your recent work experience?
Nina:
Hello everyone, I'm Nina, currently serving as the Executive Director of Growth at BNB Chain. Thank you to my old friend TechFlow for the invitation, and I'm very happy to have this opportunity to communicate with everyone.
It has indeed been quite busy since joining the team, but I've also deeply felt everyone's enthusiasm. Especially at the recently concluded Binance Blockchain Week, I could personally feel the high level of attention and vibrant atmosphere from the community and developer groups.
The success of this hackathon also exceeded my expectations. It not only brought together many technical, product, and KOL partners, but also many industry friends I hadn't seen in a long time came to show their support. Overall, we could feel the vitality of the BNB ecosystem and the close-knit nature of the community.
For this hackathon, our Marketing team members were incredibly capable. I actually played more of a supporting role; the overall execution was primarily led by the Marketing team, fully demonstrating the team's professional ability—they can take a relatively small event and execute it to the extreme.
TechFlow: The BNB Chain hackathon was also very popular. Did you see any projects or ideas that particularly stood out?
Nina:
There were many outstanding projects at this hackathon.
The team that ultimately won first place was a student team from a coding school in Abu Dhabi. They themselves are not developers within the crypto space and are not familiar with blockchain technology—they are simply a group of students—yet they built their project in a short time.
There were also several mentors on-site who provided them with inspiration, such as "creating a Dashboard for on-chain DeFi mining APY," and they quickly built this product.
In my view, this is a very important signal: developers outside the crypto space, with the help of AI and mentors, can quickly build a project on-site that is recognized by everyone and has potential for real-world application. This is a very crucial signal for the entire industry.
TechFlow: May I ask, did the team have statistics on how many Web2 developers or students participated in this hackathon? What was the approximate proportion? Has it increased?
Nina:
We don't have specific statistics on the student ratio yet, but this hackathon was held at a coding school, which inherently brings it closer to student groups. In the coming year, we will also collaborate with many universities.
I believe hackathon activities shouldn't be forced to always produce exceptionally good projects; it's a probabilistic event, "a gift from the heavens." The essence of a hackathon is a scenario for sparking inspiration. As a public chain, what we can do is provide developers with as many and as good platforms as possible to explore more innovation.
Many ecosystem developments don't come from hackathon participants but from conversations between mentors and mentors, mentors and visiting friends, or other ecosystem teams, who start discussing collaborations again because of this opportunity. For example, some projects originally belonging to another ecosystem, after attending the BNB Chain hackathon and feeling the good atmosphere, might consider joining the BNB ecosystem.
So, a hackathon is both a technical event and a super-effective social platform, bringing people together to discuss interesting and meaningful things for the industry.
TechFlow: A side note: many people found the location choice for your hackathon quite interesting. Can you share the story behind the venue selection?
Nina:
The venue selection was actually because a member of our team happened to know the founder of this coding school. Additionally, the venue was a very good fit for the hackathon's theme, so it was a perfect match.
As for the "campus" comment, that was entirely a joke. Because the school is in Abu Dhabi, we took a bus from Dubai. When the bus was nearing the destination, some friends joked, "Hey, why does it feel like we're arriving at a campus?"
Haha, actually, I didn't know beforehand that its location would be this remote. But the school's internal facilities are very complete, helping everyone have a better experience during the hackathon.
BNB Chain Will Definitely Be Among the Public Chains That Still Exist in 10 Years
TechFlow: Was there anything you discovered after actually joining the team that differed from your expectations?
Nina:
Overall, the onboarding process went quite smoothly.
Perhaps the most unexpected thing was realizing I could still handle this much work. Maybe once you're actually in this position and see all the things that need to be done, you get a surge of energy and want to do everything well.
So for me, it's also a breakthrough in my personal capacity ceiling.
TechFlow: Many friends are unfamiliar with the title "Executive Director of Growth." Could you introduce your career background and explain what your main responsibilities are in this role at BNB Chain?
Nina:
Literally, the Growth Director is responsible for the growth of the public chain.
A public chain, as an underlying infrastructure product, primarily serves three user groups: retail users, institutional users, and developer users. Therefore, the Growth Director is responsible for better serving these three groups.
TechFlow: So previously at Arbitrum, you mainly focused on the ecosystem, whereas now at BNB Chain, this is a role covering all growth-related aspects?
Nina:
That's one way to understand it. Perhaps at Arbitrum, I wasn't responsible for as many market-related things; there was a dedicated marketing team for that. At BNB Chain, BD and Marketing-related work might both be involved.
TechFlow: Many people got to know you during your time overseeing the Arbitrum ecosystem. A few years ago, you witnessed the entire Layer2 sector explode, with Arbitrum being a standout. What considerations led you to join BNB Chain now?
Nina:
First, leaving Arbitrum and joining BNB Chain were two completely independent events. I left Arbitrum in March this year and joined BNB Chain around late September/early October. The two events are completely unrelated; when I left Arbitrum, I didn't anticipate I would join BNB.
Regarding joining BNB Chain, I see it as a normal career progression. If you stay in the same company, in the same role for too long, it might not be the optimal choice for either the individual or the company. Of course, my relationship with Arbitrum and the three founders remains very friendly, and I respect them greatly. But at the time, I wanted to take a break, and I also hoped that new forces would later join Arbitrum to help the project grow.
Personally, I believe BNB Chain is a public chain with immense potential. If we talk about which public chains will still exist in 10 years, I believe BNB Chain will definitely be one of them. It possesses very strong technical resources, institutional resources, and a user base. It can be said to have gathered all the necessary elements, which I find very rare in Crypto. I'm also honored to be able to join the team.
TechFlow: What differences do you see between the BNB Chain ecosystem and the Arbitrum ecosystem?
Nina:
I feel Arbitrum's overall positioning is more technology-driven; whereas BNB Chain has a larger user base. They each have different strengths and focuses.
Of course, the ideal state for an ecosystem is to have both users and developers. So if I were still at Arbitrum, I might prioritize user-side initiatives; now at BNB Chain, I prioritize developer-side initiatives, serving the developers within the ecosystem well. This is the focus of my work going forward.
TechFlow: We saw you also shared that listening to Yi Jie's talks is very rewarding, often finding new insights each time. What kind of person is Yi Jie in your mind? What inspiration or insights has she given you?
Nina:
Actually, my communication with Yi Jie hasn't been extensive so far. We invited her to speak at the hackathon this time, which was the opportunity to truly meet her. So, like many people, my understanding of her is more from a "fan" perspective.
Ordinary people may not have the chance to be in Yi Jie's position, where every word and action can even influence the entire industry. Therefore, her perspective on things and her approach to problem-solving are very different. But from my standpoint, I feel many of the viewpoints Yi Jie shares can resonate with you no matter what stage of life you're in. Many of the experiences she summarizes also make me feel inspired about my own life.
For example, one sentence from Yi Jie left a particularly deep impression on me:
God will keep dealing you the same hand until you find a better way to win with it; once you find the solution, God won't deal you that hand again.
I think this sentence gives strength to people facing challenges in life. If you encounter a great difficulty at the moment, since God is repeatedly dealing me the same hand, I'll take this opportunity to play the hand I have well, rather than give up and leave the table. Often, some of Yi Jie's viewpoints can inspire courage to face difficulties.
Technology, User Volume, and Mature Infrastructure: The Three Major Mountains New Public Chains Find Hard to Surpass
TechFlow: Talking about public chain competition, in the current market cycle (especially facing competition from Solana and Base), where do you think BNB Chain's untapped potential lies?
Nina:
I think the most underestimated aspect of BNB Chain is that BNB's technical team is excellent.
I specifically mentioned this in my speech at Blockchain Week: although BNB's technical team rarely appears publicly, they are all very capable engineers and researchers.
At the same time, I also hope that during my tenure, I can better represent them, conveying the results of our technical research to the industry, letting the outside world understand our contributions to the entire Crypto industry at the technical level.
TechFlow: In your opinion, do public chains have moats? Why? If so, where is BNB Chain's moat?
Nina:
I believe one of BNB Chain's significant advantages is that it has a very large user base.
For developers, they essentially follow the users. As developers, they might not care so much about what infrastructure their program is built on, but care more about whether there are users for their product. So, user volume itself is a kind of moat.
Another point is whether the public chain's infrastructure is mature enough to allow users to enter very easily. There's a lot of work surrounding this, such as integrating with exchanges, connecting cross-chain bridges, communicating with RPC service providers, improving developer tools, etc. Only by preparing a series of things in advance can we better empower developers and users. BNB Chain completed these five or six years ago.
Once the basic infrastructure is mature, at least the ecosystem's basic needs can be met. In the current highly competitive public chain landscape, new public chains need to spend heavily on infrastructure, leading to long-term financial strain. Many new public chains can't even provide developers with the most basic necessities. From the current perspective, BNB Chain doesn't have this problem.
Setting aside the term "moat," I think it will become increasingly difficult for future competitors to reach the scale that BNB Chain has today.
TechFlow: Do you think there's still opportunity for new public chains now?
Nina:
I think it's very hard for new public chains to emerge. As I just said, providing developers with basic necessities is already a very expensive endeavor. On top of that, if a new public chain cannot prove at the product level why it's better than existing public chains, then why would developers and users use it?
This is also why I didn't join a new public chain—because I couldn't convince myself that the market really needs another new public chain.
TechFlow: Previously, some directions have been observed where a project isn't a standalone public chain but provides certain services for public chains, yet it indeed has its own chain. Do you think this direction has opportunity?
Nina:
I don't think that counts as a public chain; it should be categorized more as an application-specific chain.
From that perspective, I think this direction has opportunity, including within the BNB ecosystem itself. BNB is actually three chains: BSC, opBNB, and the storage solution Greenfield.
As a public chain, if it's running smart contracts, it might not be suitable to simultaneously handle certain specific loads in particular scenarios. Those specific scenarios can be handed over to application-specific chains to solve. I think that's reasonable.
The Chinese-speaking Market is Our Strength; Focus Points Differ for Europe/America, Latin America, and the Middle East
TechFlow: A consensus among Chinese-speaking users is that Chinese-speaking users and developers constitute the majority on BNB Chain. Is this true? Is the proportion of Chinese-speaking users really that large? Are there any relevant profiles or data?
Nina:
Currently, I don't have particularly specific data on hand. Because blockchain itself is permissionless, it's actually very difficult to accurately determine which users or developers come from the Chinese-speaking market.
It can only be said that BNB is very popular in the Chinese-speaking ecosystem—this is an objective fact, and I believe it's an important advantage.
For me, BNB Chain as a whole is still in a relatively early stage. We still have many things to do, and the entire blockchain industry also needs everyone to work together to raise the ceiling and grow the pie.
In this process, the Chinese-speaking market is an extremely important user group. We won't abandon this advantage, and we will also continue to expand into markets like the US and Europe based on this, which will be a very important focus direction for us next year.
TechFlow: Regarding the growth of the BNB Chain ecosystem, where is your current work focus geographically or directionally? What growth strategies do you have?
Nina:
Europe/America, Latin America, and the Middle East will all be work priorities, but the focus points differ for each region:
In Europe/America, especially the US, we might focus more on institutional collaborations and university partnerships;
In Latin America, we might focus more on individual developers;
In the Middle East, where regulation is more relaxed and friendly, we might pay more attention to directions like RWA.
Each region will have different focus points, and we will also hire different talents to be responsible for different sectors.
TechFlow: For you personally, which growth metrics/data do you value most?
Nina:
Basically, the growth metrics for all public chains are similar, including TVL, trading volume, number of projects, number of tokens, etc.
TechFlow: How do you view the Chinese-speaking community and the East Asian community? What directions do you think are particularly worth paying attention to?
Nina:
Looking at the global market, the Chinese-speaking market is one of the very few regions that is strong in developers, strong in users, and strong in institutions. So we won't just focus on one point; we will exert effort on all fronts.
Regarding the Korean market, we also have community managers. Korea currently leans more towards community operations, doing more content and activities related to traders. But this isn't absolute; we also serve Korean developers. If in the future we see the number of Korean developers increase, we will also start doing more developer-related content. It's just that the demand we currently see is still primarily from traders.
Cultivate a Founder's Spirit, Never Detach from the Market
TechFlow: As a seasoned industry professional, what advice would you give to entrepreneurs who want to enter Web3 from scratch now?
Nina:
I think my career development has been witnessed by many friends, from a newcomer learning alongside everyone to where I am now. Thank you all for your support and kindness.
Over the past few years, I've consistently tried to introduce outstanding talent from outside the crypto space into Crypto, but not many have stayed. Many feel the Crypto industry is still relatively early-stage, already have decent jobs in Web2, and are unwilling to delve deeply into Web3.
Therefore, my first piece of advice is to give yourself a chance to try. Don't be overly concerned about gains and losses. Truly try it out—spend half a year or a year to see what kind of achievements you can actually make in Web3.
Second, I think Web3 is an industry that requires a lot of self-discipline and self-directed learning. This is one of its barriers. You also can't, like in Web2, obtain a certificate through some courses or exams and then get employed in Web3. Currently, people mainly look on Twitter; for example, some people will hear about this content today, while others won't. The industry currently lacks systematic education and summarization, so one's own learning ability is very important. If you really want to enter Web3, you must establish your own high-quality information flow as early as possible and ensure you have a set of efficient learning methodologies to keep growing alongside the industry.
TechFlow: Are there any important workplace experiences or professional insights you can share with practitioners currently building in the industry?
Nina:
The most core piece of advice is: never detach from the market.
I recommend all Web3 practitioners allocate a small portion of money, maybe even just $1,000, to truly participate in the market, trade, play with some new projects, to maintain a fresh perspective on the market and an awareness of trends. In the long run, this is quite helpful for career development and industry understanding.
TechFlow: We've seen many people online asking you "if they can join the BNB Chain team." What are your talent criteria? If someone wants to join the BNB Chain team or develop projects based on BNB Chain, through which channels can they contact you?
Nina:
Regarding BNB's talent recruitment standards, I believe there are two core points.
First, is Founder Spirit. Specifically, this means the determination and resilience to get things done, the drive for continuous self-improvement, the willingness to push projects forward in a highly uncertain environment, and even turning things that originally seemed impossible into possibilities.
Second, is an understanding of the industry's essence. The core is still what I just said about not detaching from the market when working. If you're in marketing, you must truly understand marketing: what effective strategies exist in the market? What kind of content or activities can drive users to interact? If you're in BD, you need a relatively deep understanding of the entire ecosystem landscape: which projects are competitive? Which are more suitable for deep collaboration? Who are the key players in different sectors? In recruiting talent, I particularly value candidates' insights into the industry and whether they can truly translate these insights into decisions and actions.
TechFlow: For ecosystem projects wanting to build within the BNB ecosystem, what channels are available?
Nina:
For ecosystem projects, you can submit information through a link set up on our official Twitter. Also, many of our BD partners have their own public accounts on Twitter; you can DM them directly.
For job applications, we are hiring for BD and Marketing positions. If interested, you can directly send your resume to me via private message. I read every private message and comment. If suitable, I will reply directly; if not, we'll meet again if fate allows, haha.
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