How did Binance Coin (BNB) come about?
Binance Coin, like Binance Smart Chain, was created by the technology team of the exchange of the same name, led by the company's CEO.
BNB emerged as a utility token on the Ethereum Blockchain under the ERC-20 standard in 2017. Its goal was to provide advantages to the exchange's users, mainly in trading fees.
The supply of BNB coins was limited to 200 million units, of which 10% (20 million) of the tokens were offered to angel investors (who invested in the project while it was still in its early stages), 40% (80 million) to the founding team and 50% (100 million) to ICO (Initial Coin Offering) participants.
Over time, BNB gained new features and ceased to be just a utility token in the ecosystem of the company that created it, to have its own Blockchain, the Binance Smart Chain.
The relatively more centralized development allowed the network to evolve very quickly, bringing greater malleability to its Blockchain, quickly reaching the top of cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
Despite having a limited supply of 200 million, Binance has committed to burning a certain amount of tokens tied to its profits, making the price of the asset somewhat tied to the company's performance, a fact that we will explain better throughout the text.