Binance's $14 Billion Secret: Uncovering Foul Play in BNB Token Sale

Binance Coin (BNB), the special digital money from Binance exchange, is in the spotlight. It started in 2017, selling through a special sale (ICO), promising that only 200 million coins will ever exist. Binance told everyone that they sold 100 million coins at 15 cents each, making $15 million. But a deep look by Forbes, with the help of tech experts, tells a different story: Only around 10.78 million BNBs were moved to buyers' digital wallets during that time, not 100 million.

Forbes found more surprising facts: an extra 20 million coins were moved to early investors (called "angel" investors), making their total 40 million BNB. So, by September 2018, Binance kept 145 million BNBs for itself, not the 80 million it planned, and they also didn't sell 65 million coins. Therefore those unsold coins, valued at less than $10 million back then, could be sold for over $14 billion now!

Binance is already in trouble with regulators in places like the U.S. and Australia, The U.S. government has taken Binance to court, and the company’s U.S. partner, Binance US, recently fired  one-third of its workers. Meanwhile, in Europe, Binance changed its bank partner for handling euros after having issues in France, and in Australia, their license was canceled, although it was at Binance's request.

Despite all this news, BNB’s price didn’t fall much: it went down only 0.11% to $212 in a day, according to Coinpaprika data. This tells us that despite the big news and worries, the people buying and selling Binance coins stayed quite calm.