BNT is the governance and utility token of the Bancor protocol to facilitate decentralized trades.
BNT is a low-cap asset that represents the blockchain`s native currency or monetary fee used to execute transactions on the network. This asset is exposed to the underlying risks of Bancor V3, a protocol rated as Watch out.
BNT has an uncapped supply but has inflation control or burn mechanisms in place. BNT is exposed to death spiral risk as its price depends on another asset, thus creating negative feedback loops.
BNT is moderately correlated to the overall market.
BNT is used as the base pair to facilitate all trades within the Bancor platform. Each token in a liquidity pool is matched with a proportionate amount of BNT to create pairs. BNT serves as an intermediary asset between trades of two different tokens (first token is swapped for BNT and then BNT is swapped for second token). Users can also stake BNT into specific liquidity pools to receive vBNT. vBNT can then be restaked for a predetermined schedule to obtain voting power in the BancorDAO.
BNT launched an initial coin offering (ICO) in June 2017 with an initial supply of 79.3M tokens. Token sale participants received half of the total supply or 39.7M BNT. The remaining half was distributed as follows: 20% to Bancor's long-term budget (locked for 2 years), 20% to existing and future team, advisors and investors (subject to 2 year vesting), and 10% for partnerships and community grants. BNT has an elastic supply with no cap as it can be minted and burned by the protocol as required. The elastic supply model was intended to incentivize liquidity providers (LPs) by enabling single-sided deposits with no impermanent loss risk.
BNT collects a portion of all trading fees and distributes to BNT stakers, who also receive 70% of protocol rewards. The Bancor Vortex Burner contract collects 10% of swap fee revenue or 100 BNT (whichever is lower) and uses it to buy and burn vBNT. As such, vBNT holders also benefit from deflationary supply pressure.