The BNB Chain made a significant move on November 1, 2024, executing its 29th quarterly burn and removing over 1.7 million BNB, equivalent to approximately $1.07 billion, from circulation.
This substantial burn, announced by the BNB Foundation and detailed in a blog post, not only reduces the circulating supply but also addresses past issues and reinforces the chain’s commitment to its “Build and Build” philosophy.
As highlighted by Wu Blockchain on X, this burn and future ones will occur directly on the BNB Smart Chain (BSC), with the tokens sent to a “black hole” address, ensuring permanent removal from circulation.
The 1,772,712.363 BNB burned comprises two main components. The majority, 1,710,142.733 BNB, resulted from the established Auto-Burn mechanism, a process designed to gradually reduce the total BNB supply to 100,000,000. This mechanism dynamically adjusts the burn amount based on BNB’s price and activity on the BSC, providing transparency and predictability.
A smaller portion, 62,569.63 BNB, addressed a previous issue involving lost BTokens (tokens bridged by Binance onto BSC). These tokens were inadvertently sent to inactive addresses and subsequently reimbursed through the Pioneer Burn Program. This portion of the burn rectifies a previous accounting oversight where these reimbursed BTokens, originally calculated as BNB, were excluded from an earlier Auto-Burn.
This burn leaves 43,533,387.84 BNB remaining to be burned, with a current circulating supply of 144,099,981.1 BNB. The substantial reduction in supply, coupled with BNB’s utility within the BNB Chain ecosystem, is designed to create positive pressure on the token’s value. Despite the significant burn, however, BNB experienced a price decline of 3% in the 24 hours leading up to the announcement, mirroring a broader downturn in the cryptocurrency market.
BNB, the native token, serves as the fuel for the BNB Chain, powering transactions across BSC, opBNB Layer 2 solutions, and the BNB Greenfield blockchain. Its functionality extends beyond transaction fees, as it also functions as a governance token, allowing holders to participate in on-chain decision-making.
The BNB Chain’s commitment to its “Build and Build” philosophy underscores its ongoing development efforts. The chain continuously expands its ecosystem with new platforms and features, aiming to solidify its position in the evolving Web3 landscape. This burn further reinforces this commitment, as it directly impacts the tokenomics of the BNB chain and potentially increases the scarcity and value of BNB.
The burn also highlighted the BNB Chain’s commitment to transparency and accountability. The independently auditable Auto-Burn mechanism, coupled with the public disclosure of the burn transaction ID, allows for independent verification of the process. This transparency is crucial in building trust within the cryptocurrency community, especially given the complexities and occasional controversies surrounding token burns.
In addition to the quarterly Auto-Burn, BNB also utilizes a real-time burning mechanism based on gas fees. BSC validators determine a portion of the gas fees collected in each block to be burned at a fixed rate. This real-time burn, implemented through BEP95, has already burned approximately 242,000 BNB since its inception.
