Binance Staff Unlock ‘Forgotten’ $750 Million in BNB

Crypto exchange Binance has unlocked a massive amount of Binance Coin (BNB) for its staff, six months later than it’s supposed to happen, according to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao today.

When Binance ran its ICO in 2017, it allocated a certain amount of the tokens for its own staff. These tokens were to be released periodically and handed out. And yet the exchange missed a rather large milestone.

“Also unlocked 16 million #BNB. These were suppose (sic) to be unlocked in July 2020. We just forgot. They are moved to a team token holding address, same one as before,” Zhao tweeted.

Burn complete. About 2.4x the previous one in fiat terms. Blog article coming soon, in multiple languages.

Also unlocked 16 million #BNB. These were suppose to be unlocked in July 2020. We just forgot. They are moved to a team token holding address, same one as before.

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) January 19, 2021

This 16 million BNB is worth around $752 million, according to the coin’s current price of $47.

Binance’s whole ecosystem is built around BNB. The exchange offers a discount on trading fees to those who use the token to pay their fees. It can be used to participate in token sales on Binance Launchpad. And it’s used to power Binance’s decentralized exchange.

The token is also used to reward its employees. Not only were certain amounts allocated by the exchange in its ICO, but many employees choose to receive their salary in BNB. This creates a feedback loop where staff have a potential incentive to grow the exchange, in order to increase the uptake of BNB and, potentially, its price.

Binance also helps put upward pressure on the price of BNB by regularly burning its supply—today burning the largest amount ever.

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