BNB, also known as Binance Coin, is a cryptocurrency created by the popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Binance was founded by Changpeng Zhao in July 2017, and the Binance Coin was created as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain that same month.
The initial purpose of Binance Coin was to serve as a utility token on the Binance exchange. Users could use BNB to pay for trading fees on the platform, which gave them a discount. The discount rate started at 50% in the first year, and gradually decreased over time.
In February 2019, Binance announced that it would be launching its own blockchain, Binance Chain, and that Binance Coin would be migrated from the Ethereum network to Binance Chain. This move was completed in April 2019, and Binance Coin became the native token of Binance Chain.
Since then, Binance has continued to expand its ecosystem and use cases for BNB. In addition to using it for trading fees, Binance users can now use BNB to pay for other services on the platform, such as listing fees for new tokens, and Binance has also launched a decentralized exchange, Binance DEX, where BNB can be used for transaction fees.
Binance has also introduced Binance Launchpad, a platform for launching new cryptocurrency projects, and BNB is used to purchase tokens during these initial coin offerings (ICOs).
BNB's value has fluctuated since its creation, but has generally trended upwards. As of March 14, 2023, the price of BNB is approximately $467 USD, with a market capitalization of over $77 billion USD.