Bancor is a Decentralized Liquidity Network that allows you to hold any Ethereum token and convert it to any other token in the network, with no counter party, at an automatically calculated price, using a simple web wallet.
Bancor Network Token (BNT) is the native token of Bancor, a decentralized liquidity protocol launched on Ethereum. In simple terms, it powers a network where users can swap tokens directly through smart contracts without needing a traditional exchange or a counterparty. BNT also serves as the backbone of the protocol's liquidity pools, connecting them so tokens can be traded even when there's low demand elsewhere.
BNT is an ERC-20 utility token that runs the Bancor liquidity protocol, while Bitcoin is a standalone currency designed as digital money. BNT's purpose is to facilitate automated token swaps and provide liquidity, not to serve as a store of value. It exists entirely within the Ethereum ecosystem and depends on Bancor's smart contracts to function.
Bancor uses automated market makers (AMMs) — smart contracts that hold token reserves and price trades algorithmically, no order book or intermediary needed. Its signature feature is that liquidity pools are connected through BNT, so even low-volume tokens can be traded instantly. This was one of the first protocols to solve illiquidity for long-tail assets in DeFi.
BNT has a hard cap of 110,542,364 coins, meaning no more tokens can ever be minted beyond that limit. The token was originally distributed through a token generation event, with portions allocated to the foundation, team, and community. Because the supply is capped, new BNT cannot be created through mining or staking rewards in the way many other tokens are.
Since BNT is an ERC-20 token, any Ethereum-compatible wallet like MetaMask, Ledger, or Trust Wallet works for storage. You can use it to provide liquidity in Bancor pools and earn a share of trading fees, or simply hold and transfer it like any other Ethereum token. Always verify the official contract address (0x1f573d6fb3f13d689ff844b4ce37794d79a7ff1c) before making transactions.