What is Binance coin (BNB)

Biance was the world's largest crypto currency exchange by volume back in 2018 in the wane of the first crypto currency boom. However, due to many issues, they are no longer allowing trades on the platform in many countries, notably the United States. However, fear not because the Binance Smart Chain coin and blockchain are a very important alternative to Bitcoin and Ethereum. In this article, we'll get into the history, the tokenomics, the historical pricing data, the technology behind the coin and more!

Background

Binance stands for binary finance. It was founded by Changpeng Zhao in 2017 after a year of working in finance for Bloomberg and later Fusion Systems. After getting into crypto currency while working at Fusion Systems he became head of blockchain technology and then founded his own company called BijieTech in 2015. One thing that sets Binance apart from the rest is that it works on developing technology that supports blockchain development. For example, Binance has spread its services out and entered several different spheres. Furthermore, Binance stated that it wishes to become an infrastructure services provider for the entire blockchain industry. Binance also created the BEP20 token, which is an extension of Ethereum's ERC20. BEP20 tokens are the standard from which altcoins are created from BNB's chain. BEP20 is popular among the creation of meme tokens, and DeFi swaps such as pancake and pancake bunny swap.

The Regulatory Problems

One of the biggest problems with Binance was lack of proper anti-moneylondering policys, poor enforcement of existing policies and a lack of know your customers registrations-there were a lot of anonymous users using the exchange.

Binance has become emblematic of governments' attempts to tame the crypto sector. Top regulators in the United States and Britain have called on lawmakers to grant them greater powers over the industry.

While Binance's business boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with retail and institutional investors alike warming to crypto, over a dozen national regulators issued warnings about the firm. Some said it was operating without a license in their jurisdictions. Others cautioned people against using its services. Britain's regulator said in mid-2021 that a UK unit of Binance was 'not capable of being effectively supervised,' after it refused to answer questions about the exchange's global business.

Zhao told Reuters in an interview in October of 2021: 'We have never intentionally withheld information from regulators.' The Binance spokesperson said, 'it is categorically false to claim that Binance is knowingly withholding information about its corporate structure from inquiring regulatory bodies.'

While Zhao stated that they didn't withhold information the damage was already done and many regulators banned Binance Exchange in the United States, United Kingdom, and Italy. Even if they manage to reverse the damage done by bad press and the bans, it seems that the ghost of all this will continue to haunt them and they many never fully recover. Also, as noted earlier, it might be an example set by the US Government that it does have the power and the determination to control the 'wild west' of crypto and the days of anonymous transactions and tax-free profits are at an imminent end.

We have already seen a major crack down on crypto profits by tax regulating bodies all over the world. A notable mention is the United State's Internal Revenue Service (IRS) setting new rules for exchanges to issues 1099 forms for users that have had more than $20,000 USD pass through the exchange or if they had more than 200 transitions in a calendar year.

Tokenomics

There are actually 2 tokens when we get down to business, one is BNB and the other is BSC or Binance Smart Chain, which allows the coin to swap to other coins with smart contracts but it uses BNB as the payments. BSC was created to be an extension of BNB so that it would be able to interact with smart contract based coins. They are exchanged always at a 1:1 ratio. This was done so that the BSC transactions don't interfere or slow down transactions on the original BNB chain.

There is an initial maximum supply of 200 million BNB coins of which there are more than 168 million of them in circulation. ​​BNB can't be mined using the proof-of-work or proof-of-stake protocol. Instead, it relies on the Byzantine Fault Tolerance consensus method, where validators are involved, who earn the BNB tokens by verifying blocks on the network. It is similar to proof-of-stake but doesn't qualify as that method because all of the tokens have been pre-mined. Additionally, BNB is going through a massive burn program and BNB intends to burn 50% of all tokens over time.

Burn baby burn

Binance spends some of its revenues each quarter to purchase back and burn BNBs, totally eliminating them. Binance has continuously performed quarterly burns since 2017.

Binance will continue burning BNB coins every quarter until it has purchased and destroyed 100 million BNBs, or half of its original maximum supply. The process decreases BNB's supply and affects its rarity, which can potentially affect the asset's value. Is it possible that with a reduced apply, the price could go up? It could but it utility of the coin will still need to be important for it to increase in value. If there is no utility, then there can't be value.

Binance also has something called the BNB Pioneer Burn Program, which evaluates certain instances in which BNB holders unrecoverably lost BNB, and repays them, deducting the amount from the next BNB burn.

Historical Price Data

BNB was relatively stable for it's first 4 years. When BNB debuted on 26 July 2017, it was $0.10. At the end of 2017 on 31 December, it shot up to $8.41, which if you bought it at 10 cents would have been a massive gain! Throughout 2018, a year known for the big crypto bust, the price per coin remained relatively stable. For the first half of 2018, the price went from $6 to $33 by June! It then reversed course and went from a high of $37.13 down to $13.69 by New Year's Eve 2018. Despite the decline in the latter half of the year, the coin did very well in the first half considering how poorly the crypto market did overall during that bust. 2019 didn't see much action at all, with the price hovering in the teens and low 20s for the entire year. It wasn't until 2020 that BNB started to see some lift at the end of the year. 2020 started off strong until the Corona Virus Pandemic was announced and pushed the price down from the mid-20s down to about $9 in March. During the worst part of the pandemic the price gradually rose up. By the end of September the BNB price was just shy of $30. Throughout the last quarter of 2020 we saw the price hover in the mid-20s. It was not until the end of December that that price started to tick upwards, hitting $37 by the end of year. It turned out that 2021 was going to be BNB's big year.

In 2021, the build up was already underway since mid December 2020. By February, the price was on fire and on its way up to the moon! BNB started at $52 at the start of February and by the end of the month the price had shot up to $239!! There was a peak just before the end of the month at $332! Almost a $100 difference. This decline was investors taking profits of course. In April, we saw the price spike the most and hit an all time high of $675.98 on 2 May 2021. That high did not last long, as it triggered a sell off that started on 11 May. In 20 days since its high on 2 May, the price crashed down to $262, giving up more than half of its value in only 20 days. For the next few months, the price swung up and down between a range of $262 and $427. It continued on like this until August when it finally gained support and some upward momentum and by the end of the month got up to $500 again and hovered around there for a few days. The price has of course slid down like the rest of the crypto market, and it is currently trading at just above $300. Now that you plan to buy some BNB you are going to need a secure place to store it. Look no further than to Atomic Wallet, for a multifunctional wallet that will allow you to store your assets safely.

Atomic BNB Wallet

Atomic Wallet offers you a great place to store your BNB tokens. Besides just being a wallet for storing, sending, and receiving, you can do much, much more with an Atomic wallet. Atomic Wallet has some great features such as having a built-in decentralized exchange/swap where you can buy more than 300 crypto currencies and have them securely stored in your Atomic Wallet. What's more is that you can stake a number of tokens right in the Wallet! On top of that, for each transaction you make in Atomic Wallet, buying, selling, or swapping, you are eligible to get up to 1% back per transaction paid out in Atomic Wallet's native token, AWC.

Do you still have some more questions or are you looking for resources with more information? Then look no further! Check out the FAQ and Resources section below!

FAQ

What can I use BSC for?

You'll need to use the Binance Smart Chain for transacting on decentralized marketplaces and exchanges like Pancakeswap. Since they are decentralized, you do not need to have an account with them. All you need is a wallet with your BSC. Connect your wallet to the exchange and do your transaction. You will send your BSC and then get your desired coin in return. The exchange will send your new coin back to your wallet and you will see it appear there after the exchange is complete. It is as simple as that. Remember that if you have BNB in your wallet you'll need to first exchange your BNB to BSC before you can use a Dapp or DeFi exchange. BNB to BSC is always 1:1.

Why Can't Binance be used in the United States?

Binance was banned by the United States for Regulatory issues. This led the company to create a so-called separate exchange for use in the US, called binance.us. However, even binance.us faces regulatory issues and is not available in all US states. This is due to the company being under investigation for tax fraud and money laundering. Some seedy practices also lead the United Kingdom and Italy to ban them from operating in those countries. To top it off there have been some warnings issued from Japan and Hong Kong.

What else can BNB and BSC be used for?

Besides the obvious for making payments and sending money to others' accounts, the BNB coins are primarily used to pay for trading fees on the Binance's exchange. With crypto currency, there is always a fee involved when buying, selling, or sending crypto currency and if you use Binance then you will need to pay fees in BNB. Most exchanges have their own native token that is used to pay fees for transitions in that local, exchanged based token.

What benefits do users of Binance's exchange have?

For one thing, Binance claims that it has the lowest fees in the industry and while that might be right, due to all the claims and cases filed against Biance, it may be a bit risky to use its exchange on the ground that so many companies are aiming to or have banned it already. While we are on the topic, Atomic Wallet does not offer any financial investment advice of any kind. So please be sure to conduct your own research before investing.

Is the BNB/BSC transaction ledger transparent?

Yes, it is transparent. That means if you have a wallet address, you may look at all the transactions that have been conducted on the blockchain explorer. You can see all the wallets and their transactions, but you are not going to know what is going one unless you know which wallet address belongs to whom. While it is totally anonymous the transactions are available for all to see. You should just be cautious on who can associate you with your wallet address.

Resources

Atomic Wallet

Learn more about what Atomic Wallet has to offer on the official website.

Get started with Atomic Wallet

Learn how to get started using Atomic Wallet.

Atomic Wallet Asset Status

Learn more about the status for each crypto currency that Atomic Wallet has on the asset status page.

Atomic Wallet Academy

Learn more about crypto currency on Atomic Wallet's Academy.

Binance-US Official Site

Learn more about NEAR Protocol on the official website

Binance Official Site

Here is the official website, if you live outside the United states

‍