2017: a discount coupon on Ethereum
BNB launched through a public offering that opened on July 1, 2017, selling 100 million coins, half of a fixed total supply of 200 million, priced in three rising phases that worked out at roughly $0.15 each (source: Binance Whitepaper). The 2017 whitepaper set that maximum as a strict limit, never to be increased.
At launch it was a token on Ethereum, so it had no chain of its own and no purpose beyond one: holders who paid trading fees on Binance with it received a discount. It was a loyalty scheme with a market price.
Two things from this period still matter today. The 200 million maximum has held ever since, with nothing issued in the years since, and the allocation split of half to the public offering, 40% to the founding team and 10% to angel investors is where all present-day holdings ultimately trace back to. BNB tokenomics covers how that original allocation was structured.
2020: the coin becomes fuel for a network
The decisive change came on September 1, 2020, when BNB Smart Chain launched as a public network with BNB as its fee currency (source: BNB Chain Docs).
The significance of that date is easy to understate. Before it, demand for BNB came from people trading on one exchange. Afterwards it came from anyone transacting on a public network, whoever they were and wherever they had bought the coin, which is a completely different and much larger source.
The network was built to be compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, so contracts written for Ethereum ran on it unchanged and existing wallets worked once the network was added. That decision let an ecosystem form quickly, and low fees drew the applications that needed them. BNB Smart Chain explained covers how the network operates today.
For a while the project ran two chains together. Beacon Chain handled staking and governance while BNB Smart Chain handled applications, with a bridge between them.
2022: the rebrand
On February 15, 2022 the project renamed both itself and its networks. BNB stopped standing for Binance Coin and was redefined as Build and Build, Binance Smart Chain became BNB Smart Chain, and Binance Chain became BNB Beacon Chain.
Holders had nothing to do, because a rename changes labels while leaving the blockchain, the balances and the contract exactly as they were. The ticker stayed BNB throughout, which is why the change was almost invisible to anyone holding the coin.
What the rebrand reflected was a shift that had already happened. A coin named after an exchange had spent eighteen months as the fuel for a network, and the name had stopped describing it accurately. The rebrand covers what changed and what did not.
The abbreviation BSC survived, which is why documentation and wallets still say BSC while meaning BNB Smart Chain. That abbreviation counts as current usage instead of a older from the old name.
2024: consolidation onto one chain
The two-chain structure was eventually simplified into one. Staking and governance moved from Beacon Chain onto BNB Smart Chain under a proposal titled BSC Native Staking after BC Fusion (source: BEP-294), and Beacon Chain itself was shut down at block height 385,251,927 on December 3, 2024 (source: BNB Chain Docs).
Removing the cross-chain bridge removed a category of complexity and risk with it, which was much of the reason for doing it. Coins held on BNB Smart Chain were untouched throughout the whole process.
Two practical consequences of that shutdown survive. Addresses beginning bnb1 belonged to Beacon Chain, so anything showing one points at a network that stopped producing blocks, and coins sent there arrive nowhere. And tokens left on Beacon Chain in the older BEP2 format need recovering through a specific process. The Beacon Chain sunset covers both the dates and the recovery route.
What carried across every change
Three things stayed constant through all four phases, and they are the useful summary of the whole history.
The supply cap has held at 200 million since 2017, with nothing issued since, and burning has taken the circulating total down to roughly 133 million as of September 2026 (source: CoinGecko). The ticker has read BNB at every point in the story. And holders have never had to swap, migrate or convert anything, in any of the transitions.
That last point is worth carrying, because it is the one scammers exploit. Real migrations do happen in crypto and are announced through a project's own channels, and BNB's transitions were not among them. Any page offering to convert Binance Coin into BNB is describing an event that never occurred. BNB scams and fake tokens covers how those fake migrations are set up.
Reading the price record against this
The history changes how the chart should be read. Prices from 2017 and 2018 describe a discount coupon traded on a handful of venues, and prices after September 2020 describe the fee currency of a public network. Treating the whole line as one continuous story overstates the continuity considerably.
The recorded extremes span that whole period, from roughly $0.04 in October 2017 to $1,369.99 in October 2025. Early figures also vary between data providers, because the coin traded thinly on few venues at the time, so precise prices from that period are best treated as approximate. BNB price history covers why those early sources disagree.
What the record supports is calibration rather than prediction. It shows how far this asset has fallen in past downturns and how long recoveries took, which is a more useful thing to know than any target drawn from it. What moves BNB price covers the drivers operating now.
Frequently asked questions
When was BNB created?
It launched through a public offering that opened on July 1, 2017, selling 100 million coins out of a fixed total of 200 million, at an effective price of roughly $0.15. At the time it was a token on Ethereum whose only purpose was a discount on trading fees at Binance. It became the fee currency for its own network when BNB Smart Chain launched in September 2020.
What was the most important change in BNB's history?
The launch of BNB Smart Chain on September 1, 2020. Before that, demand came from people trading on one exchange, and afterwards it came from anyone transacting on a public network. That shift is what turned a loyalty token into the fee currency for one of the more heavily used blockchains, and it is a bigger change than the rebrand that followed.
Did holders ever have to swap or migrate their BNB?
No swap was needed in any of the transitions. The 2022 rebrand changed names while leaving balances untouched, and the 2024 Beacon Chain shutdown left coins on BNB Smart Chain unaffected. The only holders needing to act were those with tokens still sitting on Beacon Chain in the older BEP2 format, and a specific recovery process exists for them.
Why is BNB Smart Chain still called BSC?
Because the abbreviation predates the rebrand and simply stuck. BSC stands for Binance Smart Chain, the network's name before February 2022, and both refer to the same network identified by wallets as chain ID 56. Documentation, wallets and developer tools all continue to use it, so treat it as current shorthand rather than an outdated label.
What happened to BNB Beacon Chain?
It was shut down at block height 385,251,927 on December 3, 2024, with staking and governance moved onto BNB Smart Chain beforehand. The consolidation removed a cross-chain bridge and the complexity it carried. Addresses beginning bnb1 belonged to that network, and coins sent to one now have nowhere to arrive.
Has BNB's supply always been 200 million?
Yes as a maximum, fixed in the 2017 whitepaper and never increased. The number in existence has fallen steadily since, to roughly 133 million by September 2026, because a share of transaction fees is destroyed in every block and a quarterly program removes more. Nothing has ever been issued beyond the original 200 million.
Researched and written by the BloFin Academy editorial team with AI-assisted drafting. Updated September 2026. Primary sources include BloFin's Help Center, Corporate Finance Institute, the BNB Chain documentation, BEP-294 and CoinGecko. All facts independently verified against cited documentation current as of September 2026.
This article is educational and general in nature, not financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrencies like BNB carry real risks, including price volatility, venue risk, smart-contract exploits in ecosystem applications, issuer and chain risk, and the chance of losing funds sent on the wrong network. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. Do your own research, and consider speaking with a licensed professional before making financial decisions. BloFin does not provide investment advice.