$BNB (Binance Coin) is the native cryptocurrency of the Binance ecosystem, originally launched as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain in 2017. It later transitioned to Binance’s own blockchain, Binance Chain. BNB is primarily used to pay for transaction fees on Binance exchanges (both Binance and Binance Smart Chain), but it also has a variety of use cases across the broader crypto ecosystem.

Some uses of BNB include:

- *Fee Discounts*: Users can pay for trading fees with BNB at a discounted rate.

- *Staking*: It can be used for staking on Binance Smart Chain.

- *DeFi*: BNB is widely used in decentralized finance (DeFi) applications and services.

- *Token Burn*: Binance periodically burns BNB tokens, reducing the total supply to maintain scarcity.

BNB has grown to become one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, playing a crucial role in the Binance platform’s ecosystem and beyond.