The global cryptocurrency exchange Binance continues to torch its own utility token, Binance Coin (BNB), in an effort to maintain the asset’s value.
This week, the exchange completed its 16th quarterly token burn of 1,296,728 BNB worth about $393.67 million, according to a press release.
Binance performs coin-burning events every quarter until it destroys 100 million BNB from circulation – half of the total 200 million BNB ever issued. The exchange burns its own utility token in an effort to reduce BNB supply and potentially increase its value.
Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao tells his 3 million Twitter followers that the company has also unlocked 16 million BNB tokens, which is part of the vesting schedule for the crypto exchange’s team.
“The remaining 16 million BNB unlocked, and moved to a team address, according to the schedule in the white paper. Binance team has never used or sold a single team BNB thus far, only burned them.”
Last quarter, Binance burned total of 1,099,888 BNB worth about $595.31 million. BNB was trading around $510 at that time. Binance’s utility token is now trading at $283.28, according to CoinGecko.
In January, Zhao articulated Binance’s commitment to burn BNB at a faster pace. The exchange previously set its burn rate in accordance with quarterly trading volumes, but the crypto exchange CEO said that BNB’s rapid rise in value made the methodology seem “somewhat slow.”
Explained Zhao in January,
“Over the last three and a half years, we have burned about 13% of the promised amount, with a total USD equivalent value (nominal) of $426,304,000. Even though this is an impressive amount for a three-year-old startup, at that rate, it would take roughly 27 years to finish the burn. So, we thought it’s time we speed it up a bit. Exactly how much faster? We are not 100% sure. The current accelerated burn would put the trajectory to be around 5-8 years to finish the 100 million BNB. But a number of factors could change the accelerated part in the future, including BNB price fluctuations, overall market conditions and more.”
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