BNB Record-Breaking February

Dear Binancians, 

BNB, the native token of BNB Chain, is having a remarkable month. On February 2, BNB hit $50 for the first time, a new all-time high (ATH). A week later, on February 10, the cryptocurrency grew to its highest at $148, marking a rise of more than 150% for the token over the past week. After a period of market correction and steadiness at the $130 level, BNB rose once again to as much as $342.88 on February 19.

BNB’s Rise in the Bigger Picture of Crypto Emergence

This bull run for BNB is part of a bigger growth period for other major cryptocurrencies in 2021. Bitcoin (BTC), the world’s biggest crypto, showed a steady rise from $35,000 to $39,000 for most of the first week of February. But the sudden revelation of Tesla’s ownership of $1.5 billion in BTC has driven the crypto further up to as much as $48,000 around 24 hours since the announcement. BTC has recently set daily record highs for almost a week, from February 16 to 21, with the most recent ATH at $58,330.

See BNB vs BTC price comparison here.

Ethereum breached the $1,500 price point for the first time ever on February 2, and it has fluctuated up and down over the next few days, on its way to a new ATH of around $2,036 on February 20. We also saw the rise of several blockchain alternatives to Ethereum like Polkadot and inter-blockchain projects like Chainlink, both of which are setting record highs.

As for BNB, the native token of BNB Chain, two main forces drive growth: 

1. The increase in trading activity on the Binance platform, which was driven by the overall bullish crypto market and increased the utility of BNB in terms of trading, and

2. The emergence of BSC and its projects as viable DeFi infrastructure alternatives, offering lower fees and faster transactions while reaping the benefits of Ethereum compatibility.

"BNB has grown far beyond being the ‘discount coupon’ token of a centralized exchange. It has become a fully-fledged native coin on two blockchains. Its use cases have also expanded to hundreds of applications on numerous platforms and projects within the crypto ecosystem. These are reflected in its growing price,” 

Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao (CZ)

Milestones in BNB’s Rise

These are some of the highlights from the past few weeks that contributed to the rise of BNB:

1. Accelerated BNB Burn (January 19)

In January 2021, CZ announced that there would be an acceleration to the quarterly BNB burn process. Our commitment to burn 100 million BNB would take 27 years to achieve under the existing original BNB burn process. To address this, CZ said, “The current accelerated burn would put the trajectory to be around 5-8 years to finish the 100 million BNB.”

2. New Binance Launchpad Format (February 1)

BNB is used as the form of payment and basis of buying capabilities for token sales on Binance Launchpad. But a change in mechanics for the recent token sale of SafePal (SFP) opened up token sales to more participants, who were encouraged to buy and hold BNB to achieve a better position in the sale. Around 47,000 people who joined the SFP token sale benefited from SFP token price growth alongside the appreciation of the BNB they already hold.

3. Binance Pay Introduction (February 2)

During Binance Blockchain Week, CZ unveiled Binance Pay, a new payments system that seeks to introduce an easy way for people to use crypto, including BNB, for payments and money transfers. With Binance Pay, you can pay and be paid in BTC, ETH, SXP, BNB, BUSD, and even the Euro.

4. BSC Surpasses ETH in Transaction Volumes (February 10)

Launched in September 2020, BSC has grown into an ecosystem of Ethereum-compatible blockchain services that include decentralized finance (DeFi), decentralized apps (dApps), and more. With BNB transaction fees that are a fraction of the cost on the Ethereum network, as well as connectivity with various other blockchains, BSC has attracted many blockchain projects, which drove the number of daily transactions on the BSC network to more than 1.66 million as of February 10, 2021. A new daily transaction record and a figure that surpasses Ethereum’s transactions by 30%. 

5. BSC Community Lowers Fees (February 10)

One of Binance’s core values is listening to our users and always putting their interests first. We are happy to see that the BSC community also shares this value. In one recently approved proposal, the community decreased transaction fees from 15 Gwei to 10 Gwei. This has encouraged further growth for the projects developing on BNB Smart Chain.

6. PancakeSwap Becomes First $1B Project on BSC, Biggest DEX in the World (February 19)

Projects building on BSC can also be seen as the driving force behind BNB’s price growth. As these projects grow larger, they require more network capacity, thus paying more BNB for network fees. This translates into appreciating values for the native token of BNB Chain. One landmark achievement in this growth is the rise of PancakeSwap as the largest decentralized exchange in the world. As of February 19, PancakeSwap processed a 24-hour trading volume of $1.92 billion, surpassing Uniswap’s $1.16 billion.

"The longer-term vision for BNB is for it to become the native token on multiple application-specific blockchains. BNB was never intended to replace Bitcoin or Ethereum. To become a true mass-adopted application, BNB must be able to facilitate billions of transactions per day. In its current form(s), we still have a long way to go. We are working on it,” 

- Binance CEO CZ, on BNB’s momentum in the blockchain space.

Where to Use BNB

Even before these recent milestones, our team has strived to increase the utility of BNB. Once you learn how to buy BNB, you can immediately use it to:

1. Pay for trading and transaction fees on the Binance exchange at a 25% discount.

2. Spend at more than 60 million merchants worldwide through the Binance Visa Card.

3. Qualify for VIP benefits on Binance, depending on how much BNB you hold.

4. Commit to token sales on Binance Launchpad and join the newest token offerings.

5. Pool your holdings for earnings in new tokens offered on Binance Launchpool.

6. Earn additional BNB and other assets via BNB Vault, where you can hold BNB and get combined earning opportunities.

7. Pay for gas fees on BSC for your use of the many DeFi platforms and other dApps on the network.

8. Stake on BSC to earn blockchain rewards from your support of the blockchain network.

9. Donate to worthwhile causes on Binance Charity.

10. Provide liquidity on Binance Liquid Swap to earn additional assets.

11. Get extra rewards by participating in promotions and competitions on Binance

12. Book flights, hotel stays, and more through Travala

As of February 2021, there are more than 200 use cases for BNB, supported by more than 180 projects and companies inside and outside crypto. On Binance, people can purchase BNB using 46 local currencies via many payment methods like credit or debit cards, P2P, and bank transfers. 

We will continue to work on adding more use cases for BNB for the sake of our community, which has driven unprecedented growth for the token today.

- Binance Team

This story is condensed and updated from a special feature on BNB by BeinCrypto.