Founded in 2017 and up until now, Binance already has over 200 million registered users and an average daily trading volume for billions of dollars worth of crypto assets traded each day. The Binance Platform began as just another digital currency trading platform but quickly developed into so much more than expected, thanks to their use of the blockchain technology.
The BNB Coin is a token that plays a vital role in the ecosystem of this cryptocurrency exchange. This article below will give you all the details about what this token can do for its users and why it should be on your radar.
What is Binance Coin (BNB)?
Binance Coin (BNB) is a coin that was issued through an ICO by the Binance in July 2017 before Binance Exchange opened for trading. Built as an ERC-20 token, BNB was initially used as a transaction fee for users based on the BNBs they hold on the exchange.
The advantages of BNB are not much different from other exchange coin projects, but it does have its benefits over other high transactions fee coins such as GDAX. BNB offers decentralized trades, so there are no limits associated with trading volume at all.
How does Binance work?
The Binance infrastructure consists of multiple purposes ranging from providing a trading platform, DEX, research to charity and more,... To fully comprehend the use and value of Binance Token (BNB), we need to understand a few highlights within their ecosystem.
Binance Exchange
Binance is the world's first crypto-to-crypto exchange that focuses on international markets and rapid development. Binance grew tremendously over just a few months, especially when the early adoption of popular coins such as Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, or NEO made its trading volume rise quickly.
Binance’s operations have been expanding in various regional developments around the world. This exchange platform is looking to solve several problems of other exchanges:
- Poor technical architecture.
- Insecure platform.
- Poor market liquidity.
- Poor customer service.
- Poor internationalization and language support.
The Binance team is leading the future of cryptocurrency by building an ecosystem with their BNB tokens as the key to most of its activities.
Binance Chain
Binance Chain is a blockchain project initiated by Binance launched in April 2019, and has created a whole community of investors ever since. Binance DEX is the latest development on the Binance Chain to offer a fully decentralised exchange by implementing features on top of their blockchain.
There are multiple activities that Binance Chain and Binance DEX have to offer:
- Send and receive BNB.
- Issue new tokens to digitalise assets, and use Binance Chain as underlying exchange/transfer network for the assets
- Send, receive, burn/mint and freeze/unfreeze tokens.
- Submit on-chain governance proposals for Binance Smart Chain
In relation to these functions, BNB was migrated to the Binance Chain as BEP-2 token and turned into the blockchain’s native coin to be used for transactions and blockchain fees. By providing more features and empowering its blockchain, Binance has increased the usage of the BNB tokens through its blockchain features.
Binance Smart Chain
After creating Binance Chain, the team launched Binance Smart Chain (BEP-20) in 2020 to run alongside BEP-2 as two parallel blockchains and provide different services. The chain architecture integrates EVM compatibility and supports Cross-Chain transfer with 3 seconds block time. The engine empowers its users to build decentralised apps and digital assets fast and easily.
Despite being only a few months old, Binance Smart Chain (BSC) has grown steadily and gained massive attention from users. Ranging from token trading to the NFT market, users and developers can explore many other features such as:
- Send and receive BNB and other BEP2 tokens cross-chain.
- Stake your BNB to earn some block rewards.
- Issue new tokens to digitalise assets.
- Become a validator of BSC.
- Migrate existing DApps.
With over 1140 projects in total and 740 projects in DeFi only, the ecosystem is still growing in many different aspects. The Total Value Locked in BSC has already reached 21 billion so far.
BNB, the native token of the blockchain, has gained massive usage from users and developers via various features on two parallel blockchains and its exchange platform.
Detailed information about BNB coin
Key Metrics BNB
- Name: Binance.
- Ticker: BNB.
- Blockchain: Binance Chain & Binance Smart Chain.
- Token Type: Utility.
- Consensus: Tendermint.
- Initial Supply: 200,00,000.
- Total Supply: 168,137,036.
- Circulating Supply: 168,137,036.
- Contract Address: 0xb8c77482e45f1f44de1745f52c74426c631bdd52
BNB Token Allocation
Initially, BNB tokens are distributed to:
- ICO: 50% - 100,000,000 BNB.
- Founding Team: 40% - 80,000,000 BNB.
- Angel Investors: 10% - 20,000,000 BNB.
The BNB tokens are burned in a quarterly event whereby Binance buys back BNB using its profits then destroys the coins. The last recent event in July 2020, 1,296,728 BNB (390,855,150 USD) were burned by Binance. This activity will continue until the total burned amount reaches 100,000,000.
BNB Token Sale & Release Schedule
Investors can purchase BNB tokens on a first-come, first-served basis until 100 million are sold. The price will increase as the phases go by; angel investors and investors will receive their new coins within a few working days after the ICO ends.
However, the BNBs distributed to the Binance team will be fully unlocked in 5 years with 20% each year.
BNB Use Case
BNB token has many use cases in the Binance Ecosystem and elsewhere, such as:
- Exchange Fees: Binance tokens are used to reduce the cost of trading, margin, and other activities. The platform currently offers 10 Tiers for users based on the amount of their BNBs holding.
- GAS: BNB can be used to pay for GAS to use advanced features on Binance Smart Chain.
- DEX: BNB can also be used for trading fees on Binance DEX
- Staking: Binance also offers locked-staking activity. Users can earn up to 27% Annual Interest Rate for 15 days duration.
Users can stake BNB tokens with AIR up to 27%. - Binance Launchpad: For new listings on Binance Launchpad, participants are required to hold and commit their BNB to participate in IEOs.
- NFT Market: Recently, Binance has opened an NFT Marketplace, where users can explore and use native tokens to buy digital artworks and collectibles with their accounts.
- Merchant payments: People can pay for goods and services in BNB on TravelbyBit or Pundi X worldwide through merchant POS systems.
- Traveling with BNB: On travel booking platforms such as TravelbyBit and Trip.io, people can use BNB to pay for hotels and flight bookings.
- Virtual gifts: People can use BNB to pay for virtual gifts on websites such as Gifto.
- Buying property: Pay for real estate assets using BNB on property listing websites such as Propy.
- Charity: Donate on Binance Charity
- Referral Program: Binance rewards its users when they invite friends to join the Binance community.
- Earning in-game rewards: Another way to earn Binance tokens is by playing games and earning bonuses from platforms such as VIBEHub.
How to buy BNB coin
You can buy BNB on these listed exchanges:
- DEX: Uniswap, Pancakeswap, Sushiswap,...
- CEX: Binance, Huobi, OKEx,...
Alternatively, you can use Coin98 Exchange to swap other tokens to BNB using the swap function at the end of this article.
Learn more: How to use Coin98 Exchange
How to get BNB coin
Users can stake BNB tokens to earn rewards paid in BNB. APY can be varied and up to 27% annually.
How to store BNB coin
You can store BNB token on Coin98 Wallet with these below steps:
Step 1: Open Coin98 Wallet & click Receive on the home screen.
Step 2: Search BNB Token.
Step 3: Click on the correct result, copy the wallet address and send BNB to this address.
Roadmaps and Updates
Binance has been a pioneer in the crypto market, constantly adapting to meet its users’ needs. Their roadmap has been adjusted to keep them in the top position of this fast-paced industry.
2017 - 2019: Binance focused on its trading platform, introducing a range of new features and expanding its Binance Chain.
2020 - 2021: Binance has been focusing on expanding its ecosystem of products. The company wants to use these new features to attract more people and developers to the Binance platform.
2021 onwards: Binance aims to become a Cross-chain financial infrastructure, which will usher the internet of value. To achieve this enormous goal, Binance has a plan for several things below:
- It aims to strengthen its infrastructure and critical services and build critical services to protect/expand DeFi.
- It is enhancing security measures for the platform to achieve mass adoption.
- Binance encourages developers to create more applications in their ecosystem.
Team, Investors, and Partners
Team
Being one of the largest exchanges globally, Binance is also one of the most decentralized. The team includes members all across Asia, Europe, and the US.
They even have two leaders:
- ChangPeng Zhao (CZ) - Founder: Experience engineering high-frequency trading systems and working for other crypto startups such as BijieTech. Previously worked with Bloomberg LP and Fusion Systems.
- Yi He - a co-founder from China with over ten years of experience as an entrepreneur before working at Binance full-time since last year.
Other members who recently joined the team:
- Catherine Coley - former Head of XRP Institution and Sales in Morgan Stanley - joined the team as the CEO of Binance US.
- Colin Goltra - Director of Binance Southeast Asia: previously worked as Head of Cryptocurrency Program at Coins.ph.
Investors
Binance, the world's leading digital asset trading platform, is funded by 13 investors. The latest members to join Binance’s list of partners were Karnika Yashwant and Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India Ltd., who invested $1 million in seed funding in September 2020. This amount brought their total investment amount up to a hefty $35 million so far.
Sequoia Capital is one of the most influential investors in recent history with a rich, successful track record. They guide companies worldwide and have invested heavily in blockchain technology and other emerging industries. Their partnership will be an incredible asset for Binance's future success!
Partners
Binance is currently the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world with a dominant market share. They also have more partners than any other crypto exchange, including direct and indirect partnerships. The number of partners is expected to grow as the project is scaling up more and more as the industry leader.
As a leading crypto exchange, Binance is to announce their partnership with the FTX team. This collaboration will bring positive changes soon for all those who believe in blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies.
Is BNB a good investment?
This article has provided some of the main ideas related to the BNB token and its implications. Still, it is important to note that there are a few key points that investors should take into account before making investment decisions:
- Binance will burn BNB quarterly until the total supply reaches 100,000,000 tokens.
- Binance Exchange is the largest platform in the market, and CZ (Founder) is known as the forefront of driving trends within the industry.
- Binance Smart Chain was snowballing and considered the second most extensive ecosystem with a $21 Billion Total Value Locked in DeFi category.
- Binance is the only outside investor for the FTX Team.
- From 2021 onwards, the Cross-chain Infrastructure could be the must-have solution for almost every blockchain as we have seen the massive growth of Layer one blockchains in 2021.
Conclusion
Binance is a new blockchain and a cryptocurrency exchange. Its activities are not just for those who want to trade cryptocurrencies but also for people with little knowledge and no experience. Crypto derivatives trades are an advanced form of cryptocurrency trading that even experienced traders can learn.
Binance and its ecosystem have many features that appeal to more beginner or experienced users, including various innovative functions. The Binance team, especially CZ, can potentially help the crypto space snowball and diversify in the future with their motivation and professionalism.
