Popular cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, which is also the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, announced that it had completed its 17th annual token burn in which 1,335,888 BNB, worth roughly $639,462,868, was burned.
Token burning is a strategy followed by cryptocurrency projects to influence the price of a token or coin in the market. The term burn basically means permanently removing some tokens from circulation.
Every quarter, Binance burns BNB, the native token of the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) ecosystem, until 50% of the total BNB supply, which is approximately 100,000,000 BNB, is removed from circulation. 40% of the total BNB supply (80,000,000 BNB) was originally allocated to the Binance team. This team allocation remains untouched, with zero BNB tokens having been used or sold for any purpose other than for our quarterly burn events.
This quarter Binance also burned 17,839 BNB from its pioneer burn program. Last year, Binance introduced the BNB Pioneer Burn Program, to help users who lose their assets in rare circumstances.
Quarterly Insights
In a quarterly highlight report by Binance’s CEO, Changpeng Zhao, who is popularly known as CZ, he stated that binance grew its category position. He stated, “Thanks to your strong support, our category position in the market has increased over the last three months (as well as for the year). Based on research from The Block, we grew our category position from 69.6% in June to 69.7% in July and 70.3% in August.” He further added, “According to our own research, which includes a much more comprehensive dataset–hence lowering our category position estimate–our “true” position is lower: somewhere around 50%. However, the relative proportions of the big exchanges are the same.”
In terms of regulation, Binance has been in the crosshairs of financial watchdogs all over the world. CZ stated that Binance welcomes regulation and stated the steps being taken to be regulatory compliant. He stated, “We are working on a number of fronts to embrace regulation in the blockchain and crypto space. First and foremost is hiring. People remain the most important factor for success. Over the last few months, we hired many senior ex-regulators. They join our team, understand what we do, analyze any gaps and work with us on enhancements. They can also communicate in a language that their colleagues understand. In addition, they bring credibility and trust.”
He further stated, “We’ve brought on key compliance advisors, including Max Baucus, former United States Senator and ambassador to China; Mark McGinness, former Head of International Relations at the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), as Chief Regulatory Liaison Officer; Greg Monahan, as Global Money Laundering Reporting Officer; Rick McDonell and Josée Nadeau, former FATF Executive Secretary and Head of the Canadian delegation respectively, as regulatory and compliance officers; Aron Akbiyikian and Nils Andersen-Röed as Directors of Audit and Investigations; Zane Wong as Director of KYC Compliance; Tigran Gambaryan and Matthew Price, former IRS-CI Special Agents and current VP of Global Intelligence and Investigations and Senior Director of Investigations at Binance, respectively.”
He also highlighted the progress made in the United Kingdom and South Africa stating, “Much progress has been made over the last 3 months on the regulatory front. While we can’t share any private communication related to regulators, we can demonstrate our progress with some public information. The FCA issued a consumer warning about Binance on June 25, 2021. Exactly two months later on Aug 25, the FCA updated the warning to include, ‘The firm complied with all aspects of the requirements.’”
He further stated, “Another example of the positive steps we have been taking in our engagement with regulators was our productive dialogue with the Financial Sector Conduct Authority in South Africa (FCSA). They stated very clearly that they “welcomed” the steps that we have taken to address their concerns and we continue to look forward to working with them further on future initiatives.”
CZ’s insights also mentions that Binance is reviewing its product offerings.
He stated, “We continue to actively monitor, review and, if required, restrict product offerings in order to be in compliance with the local regulatory guidelines. We have limited Futures products in a number of countries as well in order to be in compliance with local rules. As part of those restrictions, we worked very closely with the relevant regulators to roll out a plan for such restrictions to minimise disruption for users.”
Binance’s BNB is trading $478, up 2.70% for the day, as of the time of this writing.