BNB (also historically known as "Binance Coin") (BNB) is the native gas and staking token of BNB Chain (formerly Binance Smart Chain / BNB Smart Chain, a BEP-20 environment). It launched in 2017 as an ERC-20 token before Binance built its own chain.
Legacy or bridged instances also exist on Ethereum, Solana (Wormhole-wrapped), and as a Hyperliquid perpetual contract, but the BNB Chain native coin is the canonical, liquid asset. As of 2026-08-31, BNB trades at approximately $686-687, with a market capitalization near $91.4 billion.
BNB Chain differentiates itself through the scale of its real usage rather than novel token mechanics. As of 2026-08-31, it processes roughly $444,380 in daily network fees, holds about $9.46 billion in ecosystem total value locked, and serves roughly 38.4 million monthly active addresses.
BNB captures this activity directly, since it is required to pay gas and is partially burned from transaction fees via BEP-95, tying token scarcity to network throughput rather than external emissions.
BNB functions as both a utility and a governance-linked token on BNB Chain. Holders use it to pay network gas fees, receive discounts on Binance exchange trading fees, and stake it toward network validators to help secure the chain.
Circulating supply is approximately 133,162,406 BNB as of 2026-08-31. BNB originally launched in 2017 with a supply cap of 200,000,000 BNB, but net emission is now deflationary.
BNB launched via an Initial Coin Offering in July 2017, raising $15 million within three weeks. It launched initially as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum with an original supply cap of 200,000,000 BNB, before migrating to Binance's own native Binance Chain and later BNB Smart Chain (today's BNB Chain).
BNB Chain (formerly Binance Smart Chain / BNB Smart Chain) uses a Proof-of-Staked-Authority (PoSA) consensus mechanism. A limited, rotating set of 21 active validators stake BNB to produce and validate blocks, with a 450ms block time.
Legacy or bridged BNB instances also exist on Ethereum, Solana, and Hyperliquid, but BNB Chain is the asset's native deployment.
Binance, the organization behind BNB, was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao ("CZ"), who had a background in high-frequency trading and exchange technology, together with Yi He.
CZ pleaded guilty in November 2023 to a Bank Secrecy Act violation as part of Binance's $4.3 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, paid a $50 million personal fine, and served roughly four months in prison. He stepped down as Binance CEO in November 2023 and received a full pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump on October 23, 2025.
BNB is issued by and associated with Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, founded in 2017. BNB Chain's protocol development and validator ecosystem are stewarded by BNB Chain, a structure that operates somewhat separately from the centralized Binance.com exchange while sharing its brand and origin.
Binance itself settled with the U.S. Department of Justice for $4.3 billion in November 2023 over anti-money-laundering and sanctions-compliance failures.
BNB holders gain governance influence over BNB Chain proportional to the amount of BNB they stake with the network's active validators. Protocol upgrades, such as the mandatory "Pasteur" hard fork activated August 25, 2026, require coordinated adoption across validator nodes running the updated client.
BNB Chain activated the mandatory "Pasteur" hard fork on August 25, 2026, tightening cross-chain bridge voting checks and validator key-rotation security and adding an optional builder-transaction route. The upgrade kept the existing 450ms block time unchanged, required all mainnet nodes to run client v1.7.7, and demonstrated throughput of 2,324 transactions per second in controlled tests.
On October 4, 2022, attackers exploited a bug in the BSC Token Hub bridge to steal about 2 million BNB (~$570 million). It remains one of the largest bridge hacks in crypto history; all 21 validators briefly halted the chain, and the community discussed a bug-bounty program of up to $1 million per critical bug found.
The August 2026 "Pasteur" hard fork later hardened bridge-voting and validator key-rotation security. Top 11 wallets reportedly hold over 55% of BNB supply, including one address holding about 20%.