Binance Coin (BNB) is the native utility token of the Binance ecosystem, introduced in July 2017 through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO). Initially, BNB was launched as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain with a total supply of 200 million tokens. In 2019, BNB transitioned to Binance's proprietary blockchain, the BNB Chain, which supports fast transactions, decentralised applications (DApps), and smart contracts. The BNB Chain consists of two key components: BNB Beacon Chain (formerly Binance Chain), used for governance and staking, and BNB Smart Chain (BSC), which supports smart contracts.

BNB has a maximum supply of 200 million tokens, but this number has been gradually decreasing through Binance's quarterly coin burns, a process that destroys a portion of BNB to reduce supply and potentially increase its value. A security breach in 2022, known as the BNB Chain Bridge Incident, resulted in the minting of an additional 2 million BNB tokens.

BNB is primarily used to facilitate transactions within the Binance ecosystem. Some key uses include:

• Reduced trading fees: Users can benefit from discounted fees on the Binance exchange when paying with BNB.
• Transaction fees: BNB is used for transaction fees on both the Binance DEX and the BNB Smart Chain.
• Payments: BNB can be used to pay for goods and services online and offline, via Binance Pay or the Binance Card.
• DeFi & NFTs: BNB is utilised in DeFi as collateral, staking, and liquidity provision, as well as for buying and trading NFTs.
• Travel: BNB is accepted by platforms like Travala.com for hotel and flight bookings.
• Token Sales: BNB is used on Binance Launchpad to participate in token sales and Initial Exchange Offerings (IEOs).