On July 23, popular market data tracker CoinMarketCap briefly listed the Binance Coin (BNB) at the top of its DeFi section, before removing it only a few hours later following public disapproval. Binance acquired CoinMarketCap in March 2020, which set off much criticism related to conflicts of interest.
The DeFi section was only added this month, and it did take not long for the listing to generate accusations of self-promotion. The listing comes at a time when the DeFi market is booming, which the community interpreted as Binance attempting to milk the most out of a space that is rapidly growing in value.
The asset no longer appears anywhere in the DeFi section. CoinMarketCap officials said that the listing was a result of human error.
Shortly after Binance acquired CoinMarketCap, it introduced a new metric called “web traffic factor” to help determine the quality of exchanges. In a move that raised many eyebrows and only invited further criticism, Binance was the only exchange to be given a perfect score of 1000. Coinbase Pro followed with a score of 959.
Binance generated more controversy in May 2020 when it listed its own Binance Leveraged Tokens (BLVT), but delisted other such tokens.
Binance Coin is Binance’s exchange token, which can be used for a variety of purposes in the Binance ecosystem. This includes availing discounts, paying for trading fees and for investment in Binance Launchpad projects.
