Binance Coin (BNB) is the official cryptocurrency of the Binance exchange platform. It was released in July 2017 after Binance completed its ICO phase. Binance Coin runs natively on the Ethereum network using the ERC20 token standard.
BNB’s primary purpose is to pay for the various fees charged on Binance, such as exchange fees, withdrawal fees, listing fees, and any other fees that may be added in the future. To incentivize the coin’s adoption, Binance gives BNB users significant discounts on trade fees. Here is a breakdown of the discounts available over the next five years:
- First year – 50% discount
- Second year – 25% discount
- Third year – 12.5% discount
- Fourth year – 6.75% discount
- Fifth year – no discount
Binance Coin Value, Market Cap and Volume
Binance is only issuing 200 million BNB. Out of the total available coins, 50% was awarded to ICO investors, 40% was given to the founding team, and 10% went to angel investors. As of November 2017, there were 99,014,000 coins in circulation with a market cap of $188,224,624.
Every quarter, the Binance team will use 20% of their profits to buy back BNB and burn them. They intend to buy and destroy 50% (100 million) of all coins in circulation, leaving only 100 million coins in existence. The quarterly buy-back transactions are publicly announced by the team.
In the fall of 2017, the Binance team bought back and burnt 986,000 BNB coins based on the profits they made in that quarter. Their ultimate goal is to create a truly decentralized exchange where the remaining BNB is a key base asset as well as the gas that fuels the network.
Binance Exchange
Binance — which is a portmanteau of “binary” and “finance” — is a Chinese crypto-to-crypto exchange that predominantly caters to the Asian crypto market, but is open to users from anywhere in the world. It supports all major coins (BTC, LTC, ETH, NEO) and features an order-matching engine capable of matching 1,400,000 orders per second, making it one of the fastest crypto exchanges on the market.
While Binance is still fairly new, it has managed to generate a lot of buzz because of its robust ICO listings and low trading fees. In just a few months, it has risen to become one of the top 10 exchanges in the crypto space by daily volume. The platform likes taking on new coins, and unlike other top exchanges, it features a lot of coins that are popular in the Asian market.
The Problems They’re Trying to Fix
Binance was designed to address many of the problems commonly found in existing cryptocurrency exchanges, such as:
Poor technical architecture – A lot of exchanges are put together quickly by developers who have little or no experience in finance or running an exchange. Their platforms work fine at first, but then start to show strain as traffic grows. Binance was engineered from the ground up with special considerations for efficiency, speed, and scalability.
Security – Hundreds of exchanges have been forced to shut down after they were hacked. Binance’s core developers have experience in building financial systems that are secure. The platform regularly receives audits and penetration tests.
Poor market liquidity – An exchange with a shallow orderbook will have trouble attracting traders, miners, investors, and regular users. The team behind Binance has years of experience in the crypto and finance world. They have worked on and operated several exchanges, and have built a large network of partners along the way who are crucial in keeping the platform’s orderbook diverse.
Poor language support – Blockchain technology knows no borders, but most exchanges tend to focus on only one country and one language. Binance has a multi-lingual team with experience in Asia, Europe, and North America.
Bad customer support – Unlike regular websites where customer support staff can take their time responding to queries, currency exchanges need to be able to offer instant help. After all, people’s money is on the line. The Binance team collectively shares support responsibilities, so when a trader reports a problem, they will get an answer from someone who knows the system and not someone reading from a script.
In addition to building a platform that’s challenging some of the biggest players in the crypto exchange market, the Binance team has also set up a fund for backing pre-ICO projects that show potential. Their goal is to promote high-quality ICOs and build a thriving ecosystem on Binance that is powered by BNB.
How Binance Plans to Use ICO Funds
Here is how the Binance team plans to use funds received from the ICO, according to the Binance whitepaper:
35% will be used to provide updates to the system, recruit and train new team members, and further development the platform.
50% will be used for branding, marketing, and education to help Binance become popular among investors, and to attract active users to the platform.
15% will be kept in reserve for emergencies or any unexpected situations that may come up.
Acquiring and Storing Binance Coin
BNB can easily be bought or traded for other coins on Binance. All you have to do is create a user account on Binance.com, deposit your BTC, ETH, or any other supported currency into the new address, and then make a trade to acquire BNB. The exchange does not support fiat currency deposits at this time.
The Binance exchange supports several digital currencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Gold, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Dash, LiteCoin, NEO, Zcash, Ripple, and many others. Here’s a comprehensive list of all the cryptocurrencies currently supported on the platform.
Since BNB runs on the Ethereum blockchain, it can be stored on any wallet that supports ERC20 tokens. Some popular options include MyEtherWallet, Mist, or Parity. Hardware wallets like the Ledger Nano S or Satoshi Labs’ Trezor may also be used to store BNB.
Liquidity of Binance Coin
BNB is highly liquid and can have a 24 hour trading volume of anywhere from $40 million to $500 million. BNB coins can easily be traded for other cryptocurrencies directly on the Binance exchange and it is offered in a variety of currency pairs. Binance does not plan to ever support fiat currency, however, so don’t expect to trade your coins for cash on the platform. Instead it must be traded for other cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum or Litecoin and converted to fiat.
