BNB (BNB) is the coin issued by Binance that serves as the core asset for fees and payments across Binance and BNB Chain.
BNB was first issued in July 2017 as an Ethereum-based ERC-20 token through an ICO, according to the Binance whitepaper. BNB was originally designed for trading-fee discounts and later migrated to Binance's own blockchain.
BNB, as of 2026, is a utility coin used for exchange-fee discounts as well as gas on BNB Chain, staking, payments and launchpad participation.
BNB Chain centers on BSC (BNB Smart Chain), an Ethereum-compatible (EVM) smart-contract chain, alongside the opBNB layer-2 scaling network and Greenfield decentralized storage. BNB Chain uses PoSA, a proof-of-stake-style consensus, aiming for fast and low-cost transactions.
BNB Chain is EVM-compatible, so existing dApps can be ported with relatively little effort. BNB Chain's low fees have made DeFi, games and memecoins active on the network.
Data provided by CoinGecko
BNB launched with 200 million tokens according to the Binance whitepaper, and its quarterly Auto-Burn aims to reduce total supply to a final 100 million. BNB Auto-Burn amounts are calculated automatically by formula from BNB's price and the number of blocks produced in each quarter.
BNB Chain's blog reports that the 34th burn in January 2026 destroyed about 1.37M BNB (roughly $1.28B at the time) and the 35th burn in April 2026 removed about 1.57M BNB. BNB's 36th burn in July 2026 destroyed about 1.62M BNB (roughly $932M at the time), leaving total supply at about 133.17M BNB as of July 2026 per BNB Chain.
BNB's total supply continued to shrink through 2026 as quarterly Auto-Burns proceeded. The Fermi hard fork on January 14, 2026 cut BSC block times from 0.75 seconds to 0.45 seconds, according to BNB Chain's official blog, following the 2025 Lorentz and Maxwell upgrades.
BNB's utility has broadened as well: Binance Pay lets users spend BNB on flights, hotels and retail, while Greenfield uses BNB to pay for data storage.
BNB is tightly linked to Binance the company, so the firm's regulatory and legal issues can directly affect the coin, which is a key difference from many other cryptocurrencies.
BNB continues to reduce supply through Auto-Burn, while opBNB and Greenfield are meant to extend BNB beyond an exchange coin toward payments, storage and DeFi infrastructure.
BNB's key long-term variable is regulation: how Binance coexists with rules around the world will heavily shape the direction of the BNB ecosystem.
BNB's main uses are Binance trading-fee discounts, paying gas on BNB Chain, joining launchpads for new tokens, and real-world spending via Binance Pay.
BNB is also widely used as the base asset across DeFi, NFT and gaming applications on BNB Chain.
BNB's biggest risk is dependence on Binance: with issuance and the ecosystem concentrated in one company, regulatory, legal or management issues can translate directly into price risk, which ties into centralization concerns. Binance agreed in November 2023 to pay about $4.3B to resolve anti-money-laundering and related violations, according to the US Department of Justice.
BNB is also exposed to tightening regulation worldwide and competition from other smart-contract chains. This overview is for information only and is not investment advice; always do your own research.
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