To the untrained eye, Binance is just a centralized exchange. But only the crypto pros know that there is a whole ecosystem beyond the centralized exchange. 

What is BNB Chain?

Launched in 2017, Binance Chain is the first blockchain created by Binance. It was designed for high transaction throughput to support decentralized trading. 

Three years later Binance Smart Chain was born. It is an independent blockchain that runs in parallel with the Binance Chain. The EVM-compatible blockchain was created to add support for smart contracts programmability that was lacking from the Binance Chain. 

In 2022, Binance decided to rebrand both the Binance Chain and Binance Smart Chain as the new BNB Chain. 

The rebrand helped to boost the throughput of the BNB Smart Chain and also introduced on-chain governance. The proof of stake blockchain features a wide range of DApps and a suite of DeFi products. 

Now that we have a basic understanding of the BNB Smart Chain, let us explore what the BNB ecosystem has to offer. 

The two most basic aspects of decentralized finance (DeFi) are decentralized exchange and lending protocol. 

BNB Ecosystem

Decentralised Exchange (DEX)

PancakeSwap is the largest decentralised exchange on the BNB Smart Chain. Officially launched in September 2020, PancakeSwap uses the Automated Market Maker (AMM) model for swapping BEP-20 tokens. 

PancakeSwap is currently dominating the BNB chain with both the highest Total Value Locked (TVL) and also the highest user engagement on the DeFi platform. The decentralised exchange also recorded over US$364 billion in trading volume since its launch. 

PancakeSwap is not just a decentralized exchange, it is also an NFT marketplace. The PancakeSwap NFT market is also one of the largest NFT marketplaces on the BNB Smart Chain. 

Lending Protocol

Starting with a humble background, Venus slowly rose to fame and is now the leading money market protocol on the BNB Smart Chain. 

The community-driven decentralized borrowing and lending protocol allows users to provide loans to generate yield and borrowers to take out loans. 

Venus protocol is also the first decentralized borrowing and lending app that is integrated into the Binance App. This provides Binance users with the ability to interact with Venus Protocol directly within the Binance interface. 

Now that we have learned about the BNB Ecosystem, let’s move on to the Binance Coin (BNB) in the next lesson.