BNB has become one of the best performing cryptocurrencies since its launch, surging from an issuance price of $0.15 during the ICO to its current position of more than $20.
Every fiscal quarter, Binance burns (i.e., destroys) an amount of BNB that correlates to the quarterly profit of its exchange platform. Burning of the BNB token will continue until 50 percent (~ 100 million) of the initial supply is terminated.
The current circulating supply of BNB is slightly more than 141 million at the time of this writing.
The Multiple Utilities of BNB
The BNB coin factors into a significant portion of Binance’s enormous success as a crypto-to-crypto exchange platform and has been attributed by many observers as one of its most prudent business moves. Binance consistently remains among the largest exchanges by adjusted trading volume, in large part fueled by the incentive design of the BNB coin.
The primary utility cases of BNB include:
- Reduced fees on trading, listing, and other fees when paid directly in BNB.
- BNB is a crucial base asset and functions as ‘gas’ on the new Binance DEX.
- Increasing ROI from BNB quarterly burns and rebate via trading fees.
Importantly, on the Binance exchange platform, trading fee rebates via BNB diminish on a yearly basis according to the following schedule:
- 1st year -- 50 percent
- 2nd year - 25 percent
- 3rd year - 12.5 percent
- 4th year - 6.75 percent
- 5th year - No discount
Binance officially migrated the BNB token, which was originally an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, to its native Binance Chain on April 23rd, 2019. Binance no longer supports the withdrawal of ERC-20 BNB tokens on the exchange, but continues to support the token swap from ERC-20 token to the Binance native chain. Binance Chain BNB tokens fall under the BEP-2 token standard for the blockchain.
Binance Chain is explicitly designed as a high-performance trading engine, with its DEX as the centerpiece of the new model, which does not take control of user assets.
Binance Chain and The Future of BNB
Binance, led by CEO ChangPeng Zhao (aka CZ), initially was domiciled in Hong Kong before moving into the crypto-friendly haven of Malta in 2018. Notably, Binance does not list fiat currency pairs and has instead relied on a combination of cryptocurrency base pairs, including its BNB token, as well as stablecoins such as Tether (USDT).
With the transition of BNB to the Binance Chain, BNB is poised to play a significant role in the Binance DEX as its gas. Wallets that will be supported by the DEX out of the gate include Ledger, TrustWallet, Enjin, Coinomi Wallet, and more.
Full control over their own assets is rapidly becoming a dominant trend among mainstream cryptocurrency users as they begin to better understand the gravity of the phrase -- ‘not your keys, not your Bitcoin.’
DEXs have failed to gain meaningful volume thus far, but Binance’s BNB token may end up playing a prominent role in sparking the further adoption of the Binance DEX where users control the keys to their crypto assets.