What is BNB and BNB Chain?

BNB is the native cryptocurrency of BNB Chain, a blockchain network that grew out of the Binance crypto exchange. If you are asking what BNB crypto is, the short answer is that it is the coin used to pay fees, stake and vote on BNB Chain. It started in 2017 as a token for Binance users and later moved to its own blockchain.

What is BNB coin and where did it come from?

BNB was sold in an initial coin offering, or ICO, that ran from June 26 to July 3, 2017. At first it was an ERC-20 token, meaning it lived on the Ethereum blockchain. The original supply was 200 million coins. On April 18, 2019, BNB moved to Binance's own blockchain through a token swap.

Today the coin powers a wider ecosystem that BNB Chain says has more than 5,000 decentralized applications.

What is BNB Chain?

BNB Chain is an umbrella name, adopted in 2022, for several connected networks. According to BNB Chain, it has three main parts:

• BNB Smart Chain (BSC), the main layer-1 blockchain, which runs smart contracts.
• opBNB, a layer 2 network built to handle more transactions at lower cost.
• BNB Greenfield, a network focused on decentralized data storage.

Users must pay fees in BNB to use BSC and opBNB.

What is BNB Smart Chain and how does it work?

BNB Smart Chain launched in 2020 as Binance Smart Chain and was renamed in 2022. It is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, or EVM, so many apps and wallets built for Ethereum can work on it with few changes.

BSC uses a system called Proof of Staked Authority. It mixes proof of stake with a small, elected set of block producers. BNB holders stake and vote for validators. The BSC docs list an active set of 45 validators and a mainnet block time of 0.45 seconds. There is no mining reward. Validators earn mainly from the gas fees users pay.

What is the BNB burn?

A burn sends coins to an address no one can spend from, removing them from supply. BNB has two main burn methods.

The first is the Auto-Burn. It happens each quarter, and the amount depends on the BNB price and the number of blocks produced on BSC during that quarter. The second is a real-time burn under a rule called BEP-95, which destroys part of the gas fees collected on each block. When it was proposed in 2021, the share was set at 10%, and it can be changed through governance.

Both aim to reduce the total supply to 100 million BNB, half of the original amount. A smaller supply does not guarantee a higher price, since demand also matters. Our guide to tokenomics explains why.

How is BNB linked to Binance?

BNB began as a token for Binance exchange users, and it is still used on the exchange today. In November 2023, Binance pleaded guilty in the United States to Bank Secrecy Act and related violations, and agreed to pay more than $4.3 billion. Its founder, Changpeng Zhao, stepped down as chief executive. A separate SEC civil case filed in June 2023 was dismissed in May 2025.

Crypto prices are volatile and a token can lose most of its value.