What is BNB?
BNB is the native asset of BNB Chain, the blockchain ecosystem built around Binance - the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume. Launched as an ERC-20 in 2017 to fund Binance's ICO, it migrated to its own chain the following year and is now used across both the BNB Smart Chain (EVM-compatible) and the BNB Beacon Chain.
BNB started as an exchange utility token - holders received trading-fee discounts - and evolved into a gas token, governance asset and participant in Binance's quarterly burn program that permanently retires BNB until supply reaches 100 million.
How does BNB Chain work?
BNB Smart Chain (BSC) is a Proof-of-Staked-Authority EVM chain. A rotating set of 41 active validators produces blocks every three seconds, and a larger set of candidate validators can rotate in based on stake. This design trades some decentralization for high throughput and low fees - transaction costs typically sit under a cent.
Because BSC is EVM-compatible, it runs essentially every Ethereum-tooled application: dex aggregators, lending protocols, perps platforms, NFT markets. This compatibility was a major driver of BSC's growth during the 2021 bull market and keeps it a primary hub for Asia-Pacific liquidity today.