An investigative report published in Forbes on Oct. 5 found that Binance may have significantly overstated the success of its initial coin offering (ICO) for Binance Coin (BNB) in 2017.
According to the reporting, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao began to conceptualize BNB and circulate a white paper for the asset in June 2017. Binance finally completed BNB’s ICO that July, at which time Zhao declared the offering a success. Zhao also made more specific claims: he stated that the ICO had raised $15 million in total and said that BNB’s price averaged $0.15 per token.
Binance’s white paper also set out details about token allocations that indicated it would mint 200 million BNB tokens. That total reserved 80 million tokens for Binance and its executives, 20 million for angel investors, and 100 million for ICO investors.
However, according to the report, the actual allocations tell a different story, finding that ICO investors actually received 10.78 million BNB rather than 100 million BNB — about one-tenth of the amount they supposedly received. It was also suggested that Binance raised close to $5 million during its offering rather than $15 million.
Furthermore, angel investors received a doubled token distribution that actually amounted to 40 million, rather than 20 million, BNB tokens.
Binance could control billions of dollars in BNB
The revised sale results mean that Binance may hold a massive amount of value — up to 65 million unsold tokens in addition to its own 80 million BNB allocation.
Blockchain analysis showed that Binance and its members continue to control the extra tokens. It concluded:
“All of the suspected Binance wallets that we list held 63.1 million units of BNB worth $15.7 billion. Combined with … known wallets, Binance controls 116.9 million tokens worth $27.3 billion.”
Overall, BNB has a market capitalization of $33 billion and ranks as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency.
Binance did not respond to CryptoSlate‘s request for comment by press time.
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