BNB (Build and Build) is the native cryptocurrency of the BNB Chain ecosystem, originally launched by Binance, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. It was first issued as an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain in July 2017, but was later migrated to Binance Chain in 2019. Today, BNB powers both BNB Beacon Chain (for governance) and BNB Smart Chain (for smart contracts), collectively known as BNB Chain.

BNB was initially designed to be used for trading fee discounts on the Binance exchange, but its utility has since expanded significantly. It is now used across a wide range of applications within the BNB ecosystem, including:

Paying gas fees on BNB Smart Chain

Participating in token sales on Binance Launchpad

Staking and liquidity provision in DeFi apps

Making payments with supported merchants and payment platforms

Governance participation on BNB Beacon Chain

BNB maintains a deflationary supply model through quarterly auto-burns and a real-time burn mechanism introduced in 2021 (BEP-95), which permanently removes a portion of BNB from circulation based on network activity. These burning mechanisms help increase BNB's scarcity and long-term value.

Over time, BNB has grown into one of the top 5 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, driven by its broad utility, Binance’s global ecosystem, and the widespread adoption of BNB Chain as a low-cost, scalable alternative for decentralized applications.