Binance Rebrands Its Blockchain in Overture to Decentralization

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has rebranded the blockchain powering its platform in a bid to emphasize decentralization.

In the move, Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a webinar Tuesday that Binance Smart Chain (BSC) is now BNB Chain.

“People always think of Binance Smart Chain, because it carries the Binance word, as something owned by Binance,” Zhao said. “We’ve done a lot of work to decentralize it, and we also realize BNB is beyond Binance. It’s bigger than Binance…BNB is its own living, breathing ecosystem with the BNB Chain.”

Meanwhile, the SEC is examining the relationship between Binance’s US arm and two trading firms, Sigma Chain AG and Merit Peak Ltd., that have ties to Zhao, people familiar with the probe told The Wall Street Journal.

When the exchange’s blockchain was launched 18 months ago, its creators didn’t consider its Binance branding for what was then just an experiment, according to Samy Karim, who holds the title of BNB Chain coordinator.

“When we started off, we definitely didn’t expect BSC, now BNB chain, to grow to where it is today,” Karim said. “It shows the level of underserved demand there really was, and this type of infrastructure really helped to drive massive new user growth in decentralized applications that wasn’t really happening before.”

BNB, formerly Binance Coin, now stands for “Build and Build” as the blockchain token for the BNB chain.

The chain is a community-driven, decentralized blockchain powered by the token and consists of BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain (BSC), which is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). As of Tuesday, the total value locked (TVL) in BNB was 25 billion, according to BSCProject data. 

The rebranding is to stress its independence and deemphasize Binance’s role going forward, Zhao said. 

“BSC, now BNB, was an experimental product that we initially contributed to and helped with the initial funding, but now it’s community driven, open sourced and decentralized,” Zhao said. “Binance doesn’t own the chain, it’s just a contributor in the community and will continue to do so, but the BNB chain is completely running on its own. It’s not run by us or anyone else,” he added. 

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