Thomas Chen Joins BNB Chain as Chief Business Officer

BNB Chain has appointed Thomas Chen as Chief Business Officer, a new leadership role focused on revenue strategy, institutional partnerships, and long-term value accrual for the BNB Chain ecosystem.

Chen brings 15 years of career experience, including more than seven years building teams across digital asset infrastructure. His background covers custody, market structure, and institutional sales, working with institutions in both traditional finance and DeFi.

He joins from Function, a Bitcoin yield protocol that scaled to $1.6 billion in total value locked, where he served as CEO. Previously, he was Managing Director and Global Head of Sales at BitGo, where he grew assets under custody to more than $100 billion and helped set the company’s course toward an IPO.

Thomas Chen, Chief Business Officer at BNB Chain, said: “My focus is making sure that activity settles here - more volume, deeper markets, and the institutional infrastructure serious capital requires before it moves onchain.”

In his new role, Chen’s remit covers four areas:

• Institutions and capital markets: Working with asset managers, banks, custodians, and real-world asset issuers, alongside the confidentiality and compliance infrastructure regulated institutions require before transacting onchain.
• Stablecoins and settlement: Developing issuer partnerships, cross-border payment infrastructure, and payment flows for AI agents.
• Trading and liquidity: Working with market makers, exchanges, and trading venues to deepen market quality and onchain volume.
• Ecosystem and distribution: Working with protocols, wallets, and market infrastructure to connect builders with distribution across the ecosystem.

Chen will apply his experience to BNB Chain’s focus on bringing more stablecoin issuers, real-world asset platforms, and institutional capital onto the network.