About
BNB is the native cryptocurrency of the BNB Chain ecosystem, originally launched by the Binance exchange as Binance Coin in July 2017. It began life as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain distributed through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) designed to fund the growth and operation of the Binance exchange. Over time, BNB’s utility expanded far beyond discounted exchange fees, evolving into a multi-purpose digital asset that fuels transactions, smart contracts, staking, and decentralized applications across the BNB Chain (including both BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain, now unified under the BNB Chain umbrella).
BNB plays a critical role in the Binance ecosystem: users employ it to pay trading fees with discounts on Binance exchange platforms; it serves as the gas token for executing transactions and smart contracts on BNB Smart Chain (an EVM-compatible blockchain); and it enables participation in staking, governance, DeFi, token launches, and cross-chain operations. Binance implements a deflationary supply model through quarterly burn events that permanently destroy tokens to reduce total supply and enhance scarcity. The ongoing token burns including predictive auto-burn mechanisms aim to shrink the supply toward a target of 100 million BNB from the original 200 million maximum, underpinning its scarcity narrative.
The BNB Chain ecosystem, powered by BNB, supports an expanding suite of decentralized applications (dApps), NFT platforms, decentralized finance protocols, and Web3 utilities, making BNB not only critical for Binance exchange operations but a foundational asset in one of the most active blockchain networks in the world. Its integration into payments, staking products, and cross-chain tools has helped BNB retain a top position in market capitalization and global adoption.
