Binance coin is a token (BNB) issued by one of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges Binance. Founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao and Roger Wang, Binance was initially headquartered in Shanghai, but after a ban from the Chinese government, it moved to Japan and then to Malta.
The initial coin offering (ICO) in July 2017 introduced a total of 200 million BNB tokens. Twenty million was offered to angel investors, 80 million to the founding team, and 100 million to any investors and participants, raising over $15 million through the ICO process.
Almost half the funds raised were intended to be used for marketing, while only one-third - to build the platform itself. Launched in early 2017, it became the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by April 2018. It can handle 1.4 million orders per second, which makes Binance one of the fastest cryptocurrency exchanges in the world. It deals exclusively in cryptocurrencies with no fiat currencies option.
At first, it was similar to Ether and was even based on the Ethereum blockchain with the ERC-20 standard, but eventually, Binance coin migrated to proprietary blockchain - Binance Chain. This blockchain does not support smart contracts and uses the Tendermint consensus mechanism, byzantine-fault-tolerant (BFT).
The main function of the BNB coin is to fuel all operations on the Binance exchange platform. It includes, but not limited to, paying for exchanging, trading, and listing fees on the Binance exchange. Naturally, like any cryptocurrency, BNB can also be traded or exchanged.
While you can pay your fees on Binance in the cryptocurrency you’re exchanging, Binance offers handsome discounts if you choose to pay your fees in BNB. First-year users receive a 50% discount for each transaction completed with BNB, but then, the discount percentage reduces by half each year. It means that the second-year discount will amount only to 25%, the third-year discount - 12.5%, the fourth-year discount - 6.25%, with no discounts afterward.
Since discounts decrease every year, the value of the Binance coin is expected to fall over time. That’s why the Binance platform destroys BNB tokens over time, which should counteract the effects of depreciation.
Binance coin price
As of writing, the Binance market cap stands at $1,676,390,359. The cost of 1 Binance coin is equal to $11.29. And there are 150 Million BNB in circulation.
