How Many Binance Coins Are There and How Many Are Left?

Salomon Kisters

Aug 30, 2022

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‘‘Binance’’ is one of the most discussed names in the cryptocurrency space today. The exchange ranks as the world's largest cryptocurrency by trading volume. The platform hosts almost 30 million users.

Interestingly, the exchange has launched a cryptocurrency named Binance Coin (BNB), which acts as the native coin for its ecosystem.

Thanks to Binance’s already established name in the industry, BNB has managed to become the third-most-popular crypto token in the world, after only Bitcoin and Ethereum.

However, in order to figure out if this cryptocurrency has a bright future, we need to answer questions like how many Binance Coins are there in total and how many are left, as supply and demand are basic functions that determine value.

What is Binance Coin (BNB)?

Binance Coin is a native crypto token for the Binance exchange and its ecosystem. The coin trades by the symbol BNB. It was initially launched as a utility token to offer discounts on trading fees to Binance users.

However, the cryptocurrency has come a long way since then. In 2022, the Binance Coin has multiple use cases in various industries, including online payments, subscription payments, booking tickets, etc.

Binance Coin was released in 2017 through an initial coin offering (ICO) that went on from June 26 to July 5 – eleven days before Changpeng Zhao launched the Binance exchange. During the ICO, the crypto token was sold at the price of 2,700 BNB for 1 ETH or 20,000 BNB for 1 BTC. About 100 million BNB tokens were put on sale in the ICO.

The ICO raised $15 million, and it is the only funding the company has raised ever since. About 50% of these funds were allocated to be used for branding and marketing purposes; 35% were intended to be spent on upgrading the Binance trading platform, while the remaining 15% were kept aside to be used in case of any emergencies or mishaps.

By the start of 2018, Binance had already become the number one cryptocurrency exchange platform by trading volume and has maintained the spot ever since. For almost two years, BNB had very limited utility, i.e., to get trading fee discounts and invest in ICOs on the Binance platform. Moreover, it was initially created on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 token.

However, in April 2019, the company launched the Binance Chain (aka Binance Beacon Chain and BNB Beacon Chain). The Binance Coin was relaunched as a Bep-2 token and became the native cryptocurrency for the blockchain.

In October 2020, Binance launched its second blockchain, named the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). It runs parallel with the Binance Beacon Chain and also uses the Binance Coin as the native token for its ecosystem.

Binance Blockchains

As mentioned already, Binance has launched two separate blockchains, each with its own consensus mechanism and token standards. It is to be noted that, unlike most blockchains that are operated and developed by two or more foundations, Binance is the only entity behind both its blockchains.

Binance Beacon Chain

Binance Chain, later rebranded as Binance Beacon Chain and then more recently to BNB Beacon Chain, was launched in April 2019, promoting the company’scompany’s position from a cryptocurrency exchange to a cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Binance Chain is compatible with decentralized applications (DApps), such as decentralized exchanges (DEXs). Binance DEX was the first DApp to be deployed in the ecosystem.

Binance Beacon Chain used a combination of Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) and delegated Proof-of-Stake (dPoS) mechanism to achieve consensus. Developers can get new tokens issued on the blockchain using the Bep-2 token standard. Moreover, the blockchain can be used to transfer, mint, burn, freeze, and unfreeze tokens.

Binance Smart Chain

Launched in October 2020, Binance Smart Chain (now BNB Smart Chain) is the second blockchain developed by the company, which runs parallel to Binance Beacon Chain.

However, it is an independent chain and will continue to function if Binance Chain ceases to operate. It was created due to some complex programming limitations of the former blockchain.

Binance Smart Chain is an EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) and smart contracts compatible chain, which increases its functionality. EVM means that developers can program and migrate applications, tools, and other elements of the Ethereum ecosystem to the Binance Smart Chain with ease and proficiency.

Binance Smart Chain uses the proof-of-staked-authority mechanism to achieve consensus. It is a combination of the Proof-of-Stake and Proof-of-Authority models. It allows participants to stake their BNB tokens to contribute to network security and earn the right to vote on community governance protocols.

How does Binance Coin Work?

Binance Beacon Chain was created by using an open-sourced blockchain framework named Cosmos SDK. It is the reason for its limited functionality. However, it helps the blockchain become extremely fast, enabling it to process about 10,000 transactions per second. This fast speed is partly because of the significantly centralized nature of the blockchain.

Though most Proof-of-Stake blockchains have at least a hundred validators to maintain decentralization, Binance Chain functions with only 21. However, all validators are run by independent cryptocurrency companies.

As far as staking limits are concerned, there is no minimum limit to stake BNB on the blockchain. However, in order to become a validator, one must stake about 750,000 BNB ($231 million according to the current BNB price). It must be noted that this limit can vary with time. Luckily, the blockchain allows delegation staking. All validators and delegators must stake their Binance Coin for a minimum period of 7 days to receive rewards.

The second Binance blockchain, Binance Smart Chain, also uses the same 21 validators as Binance Beacon Chain to process transactions.

How Many Binance Coins are there in Total?

Binance Coin has a fixed maximum market supply, which means the total number of Binance coins ever to exist has been predetermined, and the number cannot be changed. This makes the cryptocurrency deflationary, unlike fiat currencies which have an unlimited supply. Moreover, it is a pre-mined cryptocurrency, meaning that validators cannot mine or mint new BNB tokens.

A total of 200 million BNB tokens were minted at inception. Out of the total supply, 100 million BNB were put up for public sale during the 2017 ICO. The tokens were sold for 15 cents per coin. About 80 million BNB were given to the founding team, while 20 million BNB were spared for angel investors.

Out of the total 200 million token maximum supply:

• 50% was allocated for public sales
• 40% was allocated to the founding team
• 10% was allocated to angel investors

How Many Binance Coins are Left?

Interestingly, the initial total supply of 200 million BNB tokens has reduced considerably. At the time of writing this article, only about 161 million coins are left in circulation. This is because of Binance’s buyback and burn policy. According to this policy, every quarter per year, Binance burns a certain amount of tokens which is based on the price of the token and the number of blocks produced during that quarter.

On top of that, a fixed percentage of gas fees received from transactions taking place on the platform is also burned in each block. The ratio is decided by the validators on the network. This real-time burning mechanism was introduced in BEP-95.

As a result of these two burning mechanisms, a total of 38,915,854 BNB tokens have been burnt to date. This helps to push the price further, making BNB a more valuable asset with time.

What are the Uses of Binance Coin?

Every promising cryptocurrency has some real use-cases which help to increase its demand. Following are some of the popular ways you can use Binance Coin.

Discount on Trading Fees

Every trade at the Binance exchange incurs a trading fee. Users have two options to pay this trading fee: pay it using the cryptocurrency they are trading or pay it using the BNB token. The latter option will get you a special discount. Hence, the offer is really beneficial if you are a high-volume trader on Binance.

For Online Payments

A number of companies and online service providers now accept BNB as a payment method. You can use the cryptocurrency to book travel accommodations through sites such as TravelbyBit, Trip.io, and Travala.com. Online service providers, like BitTorrent, Canva, and Storm, also accept the token for payments. Moreover, it can also be used on several decentralized financial service platforms.

Invest in ICOs

Binance users can also use the BNB token to invest in different ICOs that are listed through the Binance Launchpad program.

Conclusion

The Binance Coin is one of the most popular virtual assets in the blockchain world. The cryptocurrency underwent a major rally, rising almost 1,200% in price. It hit its all-time high of $669 back on May 3, 2021.

However, it has been moving downward since November 8, 2021, due to the widespread crypto crash. Right now, BNB is being traded at around $308 and has a market cap of almost $50 billion, even in this bear market.

The Binance Coin is among the few cryptocurrencies with the strongest fundamentals today. Moreover, its ecosystem is extremely diverse and rich, facilitating several kinds of decentralized applications and projects. The network is expected to grow even further in the coming years.

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