What Is a Coin Burn?
What Is a Coin Burn?
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What Is a Coin Burn?

Published Dec 9, 2018Updated Jul 28, 2021

Note: The first section of this article explains the previous burn function of Binance Coin while it was on the Ethereum network. Binance Coin is now on the Binance Chain, so the burn function behaves differently. However, the discussion still applies to all current ERC-20 tokens that support the burn function.

Coin burning is the process of permanently removing cryptocurrencies from circulation, reducing the total supply. To explain how this works, we will be using Binance Coin (the old BNB ERC-20) as an example. The previous contract for BNB, while it was on the Ethereum network, can be found here.
When the Binance Coin was still part of the Ethereum network, Binance performed periodic Coin Burn events using a smart contract function known as burn function. The BNB burning events are scheduled to occur every quarter until 100,000,000 BNB are finally destroyed, which represents 50% of the total BNB ever issued (200,000,000 BNB).



How does it work?


  1. A cryptocurrency holder will call the burn function, stating that they want to burn a nominated amount of coins.
  2. The smart contract will then verify that the person has the coins in their wallet and that the number of coins stated is valid. The burning mechanism only allows positive numbers.

  3. If the person doesn’t have enough coins, or if the stated number is invalid (e.g., 0 or -5), the burn function won’t be executed.

  4. If they do have enough, then the coins will be subtracted from that wallet. The total supply of that coin will then be updated, meaning that the coins were permanently burned.

If you execute the burn function to burn your coins, they will be destroyed forever. It's impossible to recover coins after they are burned, and thanks to blockchain technology, the proof of burn can be easily verified on a blockchain explorer.


If you click Decode Input Data, you can check the amount of BNB that was burned. The number includes the 18 decimals, so in this example, 1,623,818 BNB were burned.

The current Binance Burn function

Since the launch of the Binance Chain, the BNB ERC-20 tokens were gradually swapped by the native Binance Coins (BNB BEP-2). This means that the Coin Burn events now take place on the Binance Chain and not on the Ethereum network.
It’s worth noting that all BNB ERC-20 coin burns were “replicated” on the Binance Chain to ensure that the total supply is the same. As such, the 11,654,397 BNB ERC-20 tokens that were previously burned on the Ethereum network were also burned on the Binance Chain (right after the mainnet launch). You can check this specific burning transaction on the Binance Chain Explorer. You can also check the total supply of BNB.

As of July 2021, Binance completed 16 BNB Coin Burn events. In total, 31,863,791 BNB coins were burned, reducing 15.93% of the Total Supply (now at 168,137,035 BNB).

Coin BurnBNB BurnedApprox. BNB PriceApprox. USD Value% of Total Supply

#1 (Oct 2017)





#2 (Jan 2018)





#3 (Apr 2018)





#4 (Jul 2018)





#5 (Oct 2018)









#7 (Apr 2019)829,888$18.79$15,600,0000.41%

#8 (July 2019)

#9 (Oct 2019)2,061,888$17.79$36,700,0001.03%
#10 (Jan 2020)
#11 (Apr 2020)3,373,988$15.55$52,466,0001.69%
#12 (Jul 2020)3,477,388$17.40$60,500,0001.74%
#13 (Oct 2020)2,253,888$30.17$68,000,0001.13%
#14 (Jan 2021)3,619,888$45.80$165,791,0001.81%
#15 (Apr 2021)1,099,888$541.25$595,314,3800.55%
#16 (Jul 2021)1,296,728$303.59$393,673,6540.65%


BNB Destruction History (Quarterly Coin Burns).