BNT is the native cryptocurrency of Bancor, a blockchain protocol that lets users directly convert virtual currencies rather than using centralized cryptocurrency trading platforms.

Through its on-chain liquidity protocol and Smart Tokens, Bancor aims to enable automated and decentralized exchange on Ethereum and other blockchains. Bancor wants to facilitate automatic price determination and autonomous liquidity mechanism for tokens on blockchains supporting smart contracts. Bancor network token (BNT) is the blockchain’s native asset, and the token has seen some wild price swings over the years.

The BNT price has had numerous ups and downs since the asset’s introduction. It touched all-time lows of $1.44 on Jan. 23, 2021, and rose to an all-time high of $10.72 on March 10, 2021. The BNT price rose substantially and there was relative stability until mid-May 2021. A price drop occurred afterward, bringing the value down by almost 65%. A few volatile weeks followed with the price drifting even lower, but the market stabilized by mid-October 2021. The BNT price hovers near $4, generally. BNT has a maximum supply of 227.80 million tokens, almost all of them are in circulation at this time. However, not all of the supply is liquid, as 82.274 million BNT are accessible. As no additional inflation or issuance of tokens are in the works, the number is expected to remain unchanged.

Moreover, the supply of BNT is deflationary through the use of the Bancor Vortex Burner, which introduces an adjustable-fee taken from all swap revenue generated by liquidity providers. Through this fee cut, the Burner will buy vBNT assets to increase locked liquidity in the protocol. Additionally, the Burner continuously buys BNT and removes it from circulation, creating deflationary pressure. The upward price pressure on vBNT lowers borrowing risks for users leveraging their BNT stakes.

The Bancor protocol is built on the Ethereum blockchain and uses Ethereum’s Proof-of-Work consensus algorithm. Bancor will benefit from all of the current and future updates on Ethereum, including sharding for parallel transaction processing and the change to Proof-of-Stake. The project is a protocol and not a new blockchain, and there have been no noteworthy forks other than the upgrades Ethereum has undergone.

As a protocol on the Ethereum blockchain, Bancor uses smart contracts to provide non-custodial trading solutions and wallet support. Bancor has also integrated Chainlink price oracles to provide accurate real-time pricing information on all supported assets. Through the BancorX bridge, the protocol bridges the gap between Ethereum and EOS via BNT.

Bancor was founded on Feb. 13, 2017, by Galia Benartzi, Guy Benartzi, Eyal Hertzog and Yehuda Levi. The founders hold various roles in the project, and the team has grown to 17 employees.

Bancor raised an undisclosed amount in a February 2018 seed round, led by KR1 plc. Additionally, Bancor raised funds during an initial coin offering on June 12, 2017. The team raised $153 million, or 396,712 ether during that process. Notable participants in the ICO include Blockchain Capital, Tim Drapers, Alexis Berthoud, ICONIZ, and NON-fungible Chain.

Bancor has actively explored solutions to combat high gas fees on the Ethereum network. The team deployed its contracts on the Arbitrum testnet in early 2021. However, the Arbitrum mainnet launch hit a snag in late 2021, and its “beta mainnet” is still rolling out gradually.