BNB is the native coin of BNB Chain, a family of networks led by BNB Smart Chain, a blockchain that works with Ethereum's tools. Every transaction fee on BNB Smart Chain, and on its layer 2 network opBNB, is paid in BNB. Holders can also delegate their coins to validators and vote on proposals that shape the network.
The coin is older than the chain it now runs on. BNB was launched in a token sale in 2017, just before the Binance exchange opened, and 100 million tokens were offered to buyers. In those early days its main use was paying fees on Binance at a discount. It started out as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum and later moved to BNB Chain; BNB Smart Chain itself went live on 1 September 2020.
The network runs on what its developers call Proof of Staked Authority. Anyone who puts up at least 2,000 BNB of their own can register as a validator, but only the 45 with the largest stake are active, and 21 of them take turns producing blocks in each epoch. Validators earn the transaction fees; no new BNB is created.
Instead, the supply shrinks. Each quarter an Auto-Burn sends BNB to an address that nobody controls, in an amount set by a formula based on the price and the number of blocks produced. A share of the gas fees in every block is destroyed as well: since the BEP-95 proposal introduced that mechanism, it has removed roughly 291,000 BNB, according to BNB Chain in July 2026. The stated goal is a total of 100 million BNB. After the burn of 15 July 2026, the total stood at about 133.17 million.
Binance is not in our comparison: when we checked on 13 October 2026, ESMA's register of authorised crypto-asset service providers had no entry for it. Our page on Binance alternatives in Europe explains what that means. BNB itself trades in euros on several licensed platforms. Nothing props up its price: BNB can lose a large part of its value in a matter of days.
Official website: www.bnbchain.org