Bancor Network is a decentralized exchange offering unique single-sided liquidity and impermanent loss protection. Learn how it works, how it compares to Uniswap, and whether it's right for your crypto trading strategy.
BNT token: What it is, how it works, and why it matters in DeFi
When you hear BNT token, the native token of the Bancor protocol that enables automated liquidity and price discovery on decentralized exchanges. Also known as Bancor Network Token, it was one of the first tokens built to solve the problem of low liquidity in small-cap crypto assets. Unlike most exchanges that rely on buyers and sellers matching orders, Bancor uses smart contracts to keep tokens always tradable—no matter how small the market. This means even obscure tokens can be swapped instantly, without waiting for someone else to take the other side of the trade.
BNT token isn’t just a currency—it’s the glue holding together Bancor’s liquidity pools. When you add your tokens to a pool, you’re not just depositing them; you’re helping create a self-sustaining market. In return, you earn fees from every swap that happens in that pool. But here’s the catch: you need BNT to create those pools in the first place. That’s because Bancor’s design requires BNT to act as a bridge between any two tokens. If you want to swap ETH for a new meme coin, Bancor uses BNT as the middleman. That’s why BNT has always had a unique role—it’s not a speculative asset like most tokens. It’s infrastructure.
Related to this are liquidity pools, smart contract-based reserves that hold pairs of tokens to enable instant trading without order books, and decentralized exchanges, platforms that let users trade crypto directly from their wallets without a central authority. Bancor was one of the earliest to push this model, long before Uniswap or SushiSwap became household names. But while others grew by copying the AMM model, Bancor stayed focused on one thing: making small tokens tradable. That’s why you’ll see BNT pop up in posts about obscure tokens with no exchange listings—it’s often the only way to get in or out without going through centralized exchanges.
You won’t find BNT in every DeFi guide, but if you’ve ever tried to trade a token with zero volume, you’ve probably run into it. The posts below dive into real cases: how BNT enabled swaps for tokens that had no other path to liquidity, how its fee structure changed over time, and why some users still hold it—not because they expect it to moon, but because it still works when nothing else does. Whether you’re trying to understand why a token vanished from exchanges or how to safely trade low-cap assets, BNT is one of the quiet engines behind the scenes. And if you’re wondering if it’s still relevant in 2025, the answer isn’t about price. It’s about whether you need a way out when the market turns cold—and sometimes, that’s exactly what BNT still gives you.