Odaily Interview with BNB Chain’s Nina Rong: Where Will the Next Billion Users Come From?

Author｜jk

While most emerging public chains are still struggling with cold starts, BNB Chain faces a different challenge: how to activate a mature ecosystem that already has a massive user base?

In the second half of 2025, Nina Rong took on this challenge. As the new Head of Growth at BNB Chain, the core question she needs to answer is: When the infrastructure is already in place and the user scale is already formed, what’s the next step?

This is not an easy position. Competition in the public chain arena has long evolved from “who is faster” to “who can truly retain users.” The battle over technical specifications is gradually giving way to the contest of ecosystem experience, and the latter is often harder to quantify and replicate.

In this conversation, Nina did not shy away from the industry’s real dilemmas: user education costs remain high, there is an information gap between quality products and users, and developers’ understanding of public chains often lags behind the iteration speed of the technology itself. But she also brought a clear methodology: rather than making users “learn how to use blockchain,” it’s better to make blockchain as invisible as cloud computing, allowing users to “end up on-chain just by using it.”

Odaily recently sat down with Nina to discuss BNB Chain’s growth strategy and future direction. The full interview is as follows:

Q1: Nina, your onboarding has garnered a lot of attention on Twitter; what motivated this career shift? What is the core advantage of BNB Chain that most attracted you?

Nina Rong: Many people might think I “jumped ship to BNB Chain,” but that’s not actually the case. I left Arbitrum in March this year and had about half a year of rest in between. The opportunity at BNB Chain came after that, and frankly, it was extremely attractive to me.

In my view, BNB Chain is one of the few public chains in the current market that still possesses huge, untapped potential. Its fundamentals are very solid. It possesses all three key elements simultaneously: user scale, institutional resources, and a developer ecosystem. Among the new L1s or L2s launched in the past 12 months, not many projects can meet all three points.

From a longer-term perspective, it will only become increasingly difficult to rebuild such a fundamental base in the future. Therefore, I believe BNB Chain already has all the conditions needed for success. The key now is whether we can release these advantages through efficient, restrained, and consistent execution.

Q2: How do you تحديne the growth focus for BNB Chain over the next one to two years?

Nina Rong: From a vision perspective, BNB Chain’s goal is very clear – to truly bring the next billion Web3 users on-chain. Therefore, users are always the most important part.

But at the same time, we are very clear that BNB Chain is essentially a to-developer infrastructure product, not directly targeting end-users. The connection between users and us is mostly indirect, achieved through wallets, DeFi applications, and various on-chain products.

So in terms of growth strategy, we will advance two things simultaneously: on one hand, continuously improving the activity level and overall scale of users on BNB Chain;

On the other hand, attracting more excellent developers and teams to join the ecosystem, enabling them to build products that are truly used by users on BNB Chain.

Q3: At the developer ecosystem level, will BNB Chain have a clearer focus on specific sectors?

Nina Rong: From an ecosystem perspective, we won’t “close the door” on any opportunity. But if I had to highlight areas we value more, I believe trading and AI are two very important sectors.

AI is still in a relatively early stage. This isn’t just BNB Chain’s assessment; the entire industry, even human society as a whole, still needs time to mature. But in the medium to long term, its potential is very clear.

In the trading field, we have already seen very clear Product-سوق Fit. The definition of trading itself is very broad, encompassing Memes, NFTs, as well as more traditional asset forms like stocks and RWAs. Essentially, applications and infrastructure built around “value exchange” have always been the core of the public chain ecosystem, which is why we place high importance on the trading sector.

Q4: In the process of “guiding the next billion users on-chain,” what is the biggest bottleneck currently? How will BNB Chain address it?

Nina Rong: Compared to one or two years ago, the overall bottlenecks in the industry are gradually decreasing. Regulatory uncertainty has seen very significant improvement over the past year, which is a positive signal.

However, the core problem that remains is: user education costs and the barrier to entry for Web3 are still relatively high. In terms of user experience, the entire industry has not yet achieved a state where “ordinary users with absolutely no background” can enter seamlessly.

From BNB Chain’s perspective, we don’t want users to “realize they are using blockchain.” Ideally, blockchain should become an invisible infrastructure, just like cloud computing. Just like when using a mobile app today, users don’t care which cloud server the app runs on.

Therefore, we will work very closely with developers in the ecosystem to help them make their products more user-friendly, thereby bringing more people on-chain without increasing their cognitive load.

Q5: As Head of Growth, what are the “first three fires” you plan to ignite in your new role?

Nina Rong: The first thing is definitely talent acquisition. You might have seen my recruitment posts on Twitter. I hope people who are interested in blockchain and align with our vision can join the BNB Chain ecosystem. This doesn’t necessarily mean joining BNB Chain itself; it could also mean joining projects within the ecosystem. We have many opportunities, and I hope to be a bridge connecting talent with the ecosystem. Only by attracting more excellent talent can this ecosystem develop sustainably.

The second thing is better developer services. I believe truly good developer service is about enabling developers’ products to be discovered by high-value users. There’s a common problem in the industry now: many good products lack users, and users also struggle to find good products. As the ecosystem side, we can become a bridge for showcasing and connecting, allowing projects that are diligently building to receive timely market feedback.

Q6: What is your view on developers’ current perception of BNB Chain? Regarding developer experience, are there any new plans for BNB Chain that you can reveal in advance?

Nina Rong: Actually, many people don’t realize that BNB Chain’s core developers are not very keen on being in the spotlight. They prefer to work quietly and don’t do much public speaking.

What I hope to change is to have more technical personnel come forward to clearly explain BNB Chain’s underlying technology. Over the past five years, BNB Chain’s performance has improved tremendously. We are about to achieve a blocktime of around 450 milliseconds, which is among the top tier for Layer 1. But many people’s perception of BNB Chain still lingers around 2020 or 2021.

I hope more technical personnel can communicate directly with frontline developers, quickly gather feedback, and iterate on the product. Since we are serving developers, we must truly understand their needs.

For example, recently Etherscan shut down Free API for some chains, and the developer community has been discussing it. Free API is infrastructure for developers, so BNB Chain quickly launched its own Free API. We want developers to be able to build with peace of mind, not get stuck by these basic issues.

Simultaneously, we currently have a Kickstarter program. Projects building on BNB Chain can apply for support like cloud service credits, audit fee reductions, etc. For early-stage developers, we encourage participation in hackathons; for relatively mature projects and entrepreneurs, they can participate in the YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs) One Billion Builder Fund.

Between hackathons and the fund, I hope to build a platform where developers can test products in a low-risk environment, gather user feedback, and allow users to discover interesting new applications, rather than treating them as investment targets.

Q7: What is your view on the role of Memes in the public chain ecosystem?

Nina Rong: I believe Memes are an asset class with real PMF (Product-Market Fit), and public chain ecosystems should not close their doors to them.

But at the same time, we are very clear that public chains should not participate in the issuance of Memes or judge their success or failure. Which Memes succeed and which don’t should be entirely decided by the market. Part of the charm of Crypto comes from its grassroots nature and uncertainty, and this randomness is something no individual or team can, or should, control.

Q8: How will your successful experience at Arbitrum influence your work at BNB Chain?

Nina Rong: This is a question I also asked myself before joining. But after two or three weeks on the job, I gave up on that idea (laughs).

I prefer to return to first principles rather than replicate past successful paths. The fundamentals, resources, and community culture of different projects are all different; relying on past paths would actually limit judgment. So I focus more on the goals themselves and then break down what needs to be done.

Of course, industry knowledge and connections have been a great help to me personally, but not limited to this job; it’s for my entire career.

Q9: How do you define BNB Chain’s core product value compared to other L1s/L2s?

Nina Rong: I believe BNB Chain’s most core value lies in: a large-scale user base that has long-term trust in the ecosystem.

This kind of trust is not easy to build and will only become increasingly scarce in the future. The BNB ecosystem has been deeply involved in the industry for five to six years, forming a very strong systemic foundation. Developers are willing to build here, and users are willing to continuously use products within the ecosystem. This is an extremely important and difficult-to-replicate advantage.

Q10: How would you describe your leadership style?

Nina Rong: I prefer to be an enabler. My core responsibility is not to micromanage execution but to provide a platform, resources, and space for more specialized people to leverage their respective strengths.

In a public chain ecosystem, BD, marketing, and technology are highly intertwined. No important task can be completed independently by a single team. Therefore, I place great importance on cross-team communication mechanisms, hoping for seamless collaboration and free exchange of ideas between different functions.

Q11: What kind of ecosystem do you hope BNB Chain will become in two years?

Nina Rong: I hope BNB Chain can become an ecosystem that is extremely friendly to retail users. Users can seamlessly enter and easily use applications built on BNB Chain, while also being able to very easily find products that truly suit them.

If I had to summarize with one label, I hope BNB Chain becomes this industry’s “invisible yet indispensable infrastructure.”

Q12: If you could go back to 2021 when you first entered the تشفير industry, what advice would you give yourself?

Nina Rong: I would tell myself: do more research, observe more. In this industry, a person’s ceiling largely depends on their understanding. And once in a specific role, one’s time is often occupied by a lot of execution work, making it hard to sit down and do systematic research. So now I cherish the time I have for independent research; it’s extremely important to me.

Q13: For young people wanting to enter Web3 today, what career advice do you have?

Nina Rong: The most important point is: the ability to learn proactively.

Web3 is a field where textbooks can never catch up with industry development; there’s no ready-made path to copy. Everyone must find the information acquisition method that suits them best—some through reading research reports, some through communicating with people, some through hands-on practice. The key isn’t the method, but whether one is continuously and proactively building their own cognitive system.

Q14: During industry downturns, how do you stay motivated?

Nina Rong: For us, bear markets are actually very exciting times. During bull markets, the initiative lies with the market, and teams are often overwhelmed just coping. Bear markets give people time to review, reflect, and plan directions. Bear markets are the real time to build.

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