Binance Coin (BNB) was launched through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in 2017, followed by the launch of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange. It is important to note that purchasing Binance Coin does not equate to investing in Binance itself.
BNB can be used as a payment method to offset transaction fees on the Binance exchange and participate in token sales on Binance's LaunchPad platform. It also functions as GAS fuel within the Binance ecosystem and has numerous other use cases. With a market capitalization of $4.1 billion, BNB ranks as the 6th-largest cryptocurrency globally and was one of the best-performing cryptocurrencies in both 2018 and 2019.
Reference: CoinMarketCap