Binance Coin, or BNB, is the native cryptocurrency of the Binance exchange platform for trading cryptocurrencies, which was created on the Ethereum blockchain using the ERC20 standard. Binance issued a maximum of 200 million BNB. The coin was launched in July 2017, through an initial coin offering (ICO) that allocated 20 million BNB for early investors, 80 million for project contributors, and the remaining 100 million for various individuals who participated in the ICO. The funds raised from the sale of BNB were used to develop the Binance platform, branding, and marketing. A percentage of the investment was also spent on adding necessary upgrades to the Binance cryptocurrency trading platform.