Author:Shenchao TechFlow

In 1606, the Netherlands issued the first stock in human history. Since then, a new form of public fundraising has created public value that can be shared by the public. Today's $3 trillion NVIDIA is its profound echo 400 years later.

Times have changed. Although the mainstream choice today is still the stock market, most and small countries are unable to participate in it. Cryptocurrency assets such as Bitcoin are more suitable for small countries to participate in the global mainstream asset pricing system. As far away as El Salvador and as recently as Bhutan’s official Next step is to participate in Bitcoin mining.

With Trump's return, in addition to the single currency and mining form of BTC, the United States and many countries are trying to establish cryptocurrency reserves. This is the first time in human history. This has long belonged to precious metals such as gold and silver and the US dollar. Role.

Coincidentally, CZ, who started again, also tweeted that Bhutan may include ETH and BNB into the Bhutan reserve. Following the trend, on January 8, the Bhutan GMC officially included BNB into the reserve along with BTC and ETH. However, compared with Digital gold and the unique value of “ETH is Money”, what does BNB actually stand for?

Needless to say, BTC gives value to cryptocurrencies and is the source of its legitimacy, while ETH has been proven its value by frequent purchases by retail investors and Trump, but BNB’s long-term success has been overshadowed by Binance’s halo. Its unique value in the on-chain ecology has not been explored for a long time.

Today, we start with Binance and look back at the spring, summer, autumn and winter of these eight long years. The value contained in it will affect the blockchain industry in the next few decades.

Origin: BNB is Binance

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto single-handedly created Bitcoin, opening up the Garden of Eden of decentralized value for mankind. Like the founder of stories in ancient civilizations, his face is always vague, but his influence is profound. The most important one is Transaction attributes, a peer-to-peer electronic currency naturally coincides with value exchange.

Ever since, starting from Mentougou, the era of thousands of wars has arrived, and the most important among them is Binance and Coinbase. The former represents the deep cultivation of the on-chain ecology and regards CEX as a stage leading to free value, while the latter embraces the existing system. , to go public.

In 2017, Binance, as a rising star in the exchange system, announced the role of BNB when it launched the exchange. It can be said that Binance has been implementing token economics, embracing blockchain, and embracing tokens from the beginning. underlying memory.

If you read Binance’s white paper, in addition to the usual exchange itself, it emphasizes the many functions of BNB, which can be divided into two major functions: transaction fee discounts and participation in platform governance . Among them, transaction fee discounts mainly refer to platform currency holdings. Investors can enjoy handling fee discounts within different currency holding ranges, which is equivalent to growing together with the platform and sharing transaction dividends.

Participating in platform governance mainly means that when the project party applies for currency listing, it needs to hold platform currency or pay a certain amount of platform currency as a guarantee , and platform currency holders can vote to select the project party to list the currency.

The price of platform currency needs to be strongly controlled by the exchange itself, as the minimum source of platform currency value. In addition, there are two main specific ways to implement it: combustion mechanism and expanded use scenarios.

In addition to its most basic function, the BNB burning mechanism has been operating efficiently. Every quarter, Binance will use its own profits to repurchase BNB and destroy it. The current circulation of BNB is about 145 million. According to the current destruction rate , its total amount will drop to 100 million in about four years.

Taking the most recent quarterly burn as an example, on January 23, the BNB Foundation conducted its 30th quarterly burn and publicly burned 1,634,200.95 BNB, with a market value of approximately US$1.16 billion.

More importantly, BNB and Binance's value discovery forms are closely integrated. From Launchpad, which was transformed by learning from traditional finance, to Megadrop, which is a reference to industry natives, Binance has always led the trend of Crypto asset discovery and issuance.

A closer look shows that Binance currently has Binance Launchpad launched in 2019, creating a new form of cryptocurrency crowdfunding, the familiar IEO method, which not only avoids disorder and fraud on the chain, but also creates opportunities for BNB holders. New “privileges.”

In 2020, Binance followed suit and launched Launchpool, which allows users to stake BNB to obtain new token rewards. When used with Launchpad, they can maximize the sharing of new token dividends.

In 2024, Binance conducted a total of 21 Launchpool activities. At the end of 2024, the total locked amount reached US$1.53 billion, with more than 6.1 million participants.

On the entire historical scale, Binance’s new ROI rate tops the list at 13 times, and BNB holders have also gained a lot.

But this is not the end. How to better link the on-chain ecology has become the next focus of Binance’s thinking. In 2024, Binance launched Megadrop, which seamlessly integrated Binance’s coin-earning products with Binance’s Web3 wallet, redefining the airdrop experience. .

Binance Selected Projects are looking for high-quality customers. The key point of scoring is the amount and time of locking BNB. The longer the subscription period and the larger the subscription volume, the more points will be obtained.

But this is not proactive enough. Binance also needs to be more proactive in reaching out to early-stage projects and discover alpha projects before they are released or launched. Binance Alpha is officially launched, mainly operating within the Binance wallet. If you go to Binance Alpha first, then there will be There is a certain probability that it will be listed on the Binance main site.

Binance’s original intention is to do a good job in asset discovery and issuance and lead the trend of industry change. During the period, there were also Binance financial products, creating a Binance financial system with BNB as the core, under the dichotomy of capital preservation and high returns. , BNB holders can choose from a variety of financial products and use BNB as principal to earn higher returns.

In addition to abstract scenarios and structures, the actual value of BNB is a kind of concrete "pragmatism". We will use Solv Protocol as an example to illustrate the seamless flow of BNB in ​​the Binance ecosystem and the correct approach of eating more from one fish. It is the Binance wallet that deposits BNB and continues to participate in on-chain staking and re-staking activities.

With the matching of abstraction and concreteness, Binance maximizes the potential of BNB. However, it must be admitted that the existence of centralized exchanges is not only the only way for human beings to achieve freedom, but it may also be an obstacle for people to get stuck in it. Different The choice is not a conflict, but more of a compromise based on the time and place.

Human beings yearn for freedom and decentralization, and also pursue efficiency and security. Yet development in the real world is always faltering and full of trade-offs. The comparison spectrum before people is never freedom or unfreedom, decentralization or centralization, but choosing the best among freedom, security, efficiency and ease of use.

The choice of different path priorities becomes a different Odyssey for each participant.

Odyssey: BNB is BNB Chain

In the long season, lonely travelers can only enter the western world without frameworks and rules. In the public chain war that started in 2021, exchanges have also joined in, but only three and a half, BTC/ETH, and BNB Chain have truly survived. , then called BSC, and half of Solana, were in a fierce battle with ETH.

As of now, the BNB public chain ecosystem after the renaming of BSC is collectively called oneBNB, which includes BSC, opBNB; and GreenField, which focuses on storage concepts.

BNB Chain is actually a very special product. It is different from the strategic alliance form of Solana and FTX, and it is also different from the self-entertainment of many exchange public chains. BNB Chain does achieve everything that a public chain should look like.

The serious side: AI First Chain

BNB is not simply backed by Binance Exchange, nor is BNB Chain. To be more precise, the BNB Chain ecosystem has huge on-chain users and transaction volume, as well as active developers.

In terms of on-chain transaction volume, BNB Chain and Tron are the only two public chains with real demand. Tron is mainly used for daily use of USDT, while BNB Chain is a new chain that follows the changes of the times.

BNB Chain currently has 5,607 Dapps, nearly one million active addresses (UAW), DeFi TVL of 3.6 billion US dollars, and many indicators are even ahead of Ethereum.

For example, after CZ retweeted Magic Eden’s tweet announcing that its platform would support BNB Chain, ME exceeded $4.4 in the short term, and BNB Chain’s wealth effect continued as always.

BNB Chain is also the most important DeFi market leader outside of ETH. In the BNB ecosystem, it is always a way of working to use what is urgent and think about what users want. It is through the accumulation of the past few years that BNB Chain has determined itself The latest positioning: to be a public chain in the AI ​​era.

From DeFi and NFT to today's Meme and AI, BNB Chain has always been a trend-setter of the times. Under the guidance of the AI ​​First thinking, BNB Chain has laid out the three basic components of computing power, data and models required by AI, and launched new products on this basis. Projects and new tokens complete their own business closed loop.

The most typical one is MyShell. As a veteran AI Agent project, Myshell has attracted a large number of users with its profound technical strength and was successfully selected into the MVB Season 6 Incubation Program of BNBChain and Binance Labs in 2023.

Although Meme has become weird, AI is very suitable for completion on the chain, such as using cheap labor for data annotation and completing salary payments in cryptocurrency, and BNB Chain's Greenfield can be stored, and everything can be completed within BNB Chain.

For example, DIN, the leading data annotation project in the field of BNB chain, is benchmarked against the giant ScaleAI in Web2. Currently, the project has received investment from Binance Labs.

In 2025, BNB Chain will implement the established thinking of AI first, empower existing infrastructure from all processes of AI circulation, and create the most active on-chain AI ecosystem.

Ecological prosperity is not a disorderly fire, but a unique value support for its own advantages. According to on-chain data, BNB DEX trading volume reached a high point in the past three years, with weekly trading volume exceeding US$17.74 billion.

For on-chain protocols and Dapps based on BNB, they will have stronger value support. In the mutual promotion of currency price and value, BNB has become a long-term value target.

Lively side: Happy-Sci &Desci

The ecological competition on the chain is both a battle for technology and a battle for traffic. However, in addition to technical terms such as AI and public chain, BNB Chain is still exploring more possibilities.

For example, the Happy-Sci event initiated by Binance Labs researcher @cyodyssey has sponsored 500 doctoral students and made small payments to them through Trustwallet to make the boring scientific research life more colorful.

During the operation of the project, rewards are distributed through BNB Chain. BNB Chain also received a lot of praise from PhDs for its efficiency, not only because BNB Chain funded the project, but also because of BNB's support for various assets, especially stablecoins. Support, PhDs live in different regions and use various financial systems, and stablecoins can maintain the fairness of US dollar pricing. With the high speed and low rates of BNB Chain, PhDs can be received directly in Binance or Binance wallet, whether with Binance Pay Spending or converting to legal currency will save huge time costs.

In addition to happy scientific research, the slightly serious DeSci (decentralized scientific research) has also forged a deep relationship with CZ and BNB Chain. CZ not only showed a strong interest in the research and application of Desci, but also supported it on many occasions. development of the project.

Whether serious or joking, the development of BNB Chain is solid and powerful. It not only specializes in the underlying technology, but also continues to expand the wealth effect. PancakeSwap has never fallen into the path of opening high and going low from DeFi Summer to the present, and the popularity of Meme platforms such as Four has also It shows that BNB Chain is always at the forefront of the times.

With traffic on one hand and expertise on the other, the future of BNB Chain is a great revolution, leading more humans to the road to freedom. In addition to trading and finance, BNB is also a crypto asset with profound value. BNB is by no means limited to trading and Binance. The vast human world is a great space for BNB to leave its footprints.

Revolution: BNB is Future

Throughout 2024, the price of BNB increased by 1.2 times, not only outperforming ETH by 46%, but even slightly leading BTC by 1.19 times. Among the top ten mainstream currencies, the increase was the most obvious.

Although BTC and ETH are still the conceptual understanding of Web3 by the world, Binance is indispensable in the process of promoting the crypto world to the mainstream. It can be considered that Binance is a portal and a novice village. Only after going through trials can we move to the chain. Dark forest.

On the road to the mainstream, BNB must not be absent. It can be understood like this, like the viewfinder of a camera. From a micro perspective, a closer look is the composable rows of the world on the chain. From a meso perspective, the mid-range view is the strength of the existing CEX. , and finally from a macro perspective, the long-term perspective is the government’s cryptocurrency reserve trend.

The three merge into one and jointly create various aspects of BNB.

Currently, Binance has obtained compliance licenses from 20 jurisdictions. In addition to compliance, there is also the trust accumulated by users. Binance currently has 20 billion US dollars in user deposits and insists on publishing its own reserves (PoR). All kinds of trust make Binance the first CEX with a total trading volume exceeding US$100 trillion in 2024.

In addition to trading, BNB Chain is also actively expanding its possibilities.

BNB is not only a cryptocurrency, but also an important tool that connects users around the world and promotes financial inclusion and technological innovation.

In the in-depth layout of BNB, off-chain consumption scenarios, especially payments based on stablecoins, will become the industry development trend in 2025. The average per transaction of opBNB is US$0.001, and the average per transaction of BSC is US$0.03, which is particularly suitable for stablecoins. For consumption, its rates are significantly lower than those of existing various card organizations.

For example, Singaporean digital payment provider dtcpay has partnered with BNB Chain to accelerate the practical application of stablecoins. Enterprises using dtcpay can accept payments in stablecoins such as USDT and USDC through the BNB Chain network.

Looking at the past 8 years, BNB’s journey has just begun. It is no longer a new cryptocurrency, but is in the critical stage of cryptocurrency “adolescence”.

In 2017, Binance started as an exchange. In 2021, it began to penetrate into the on-chain ecosystem, with DeFi/NFT becoming a practical tool. In 2024, it will be AI, Meme and DeSci.

The best is like water, BNB is invisible.

In 8 years of ups and downs, BNB has witnessed the encryption industry gradually evolve from the Wild West to a temple issue, from a plaything of a niche group to a well-known new technology representative paradigm, but there is enough reason to believe that today is still the early stage of BNB. Crypto’s journey to gain mainstream recognition is not easy, and medals will be awarded to all those who stick to it in the next 8 years.