Banano (BAN) is a feeless cryptocurrency built from Nano’s account-chain design, which its community calls “Block Lettuce.” The network launched on April 1, 2018. It uses Open Representative Voting for consensus and a small proof-of-work calculation to deter spam; that work is not a mining reward system.
CoinGecko market snapshot
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | BAN |
| Price | $0.0005003 |
| Market Cap | $811,808 |
| 24h Change | -0.40% |
| Circulating Supply | 1.623B BAN |
| Total Supply | 1.919B BAN |
Market and supply figures are a CoinGecko snapshot dated October 23, 2026. CoinGecko does not list a maximum supply for BAN on this page; its reported supply estimates may change.
How Block Lettuce and ORV work
Banano uses a block-lattice design in which each account has its own chain. A transfer consists of a send block that reduces the sender’s balance and a receive block that adds the amount to the recipient’s balance. This structure lets nodes focus on each account’s latest state instead of extending one global sequence of blocks.
Account holders choose a representative to vote on their behalf when nodes must resolve conflicting transactions. The representative’s voting weight follows delegated balance, but the representative cannot spend the account’s funds. Banano’s proof-of-work is a quick anti-spam cost for transactions, not proof-of-work mining that issues coins to miners.
Tokenomics and distribution
Banano’s early distribution used faucets, games, contests, giveaways, and airdrops rather than a conventional mining schedule. Those references describe how the project distributed coins; they do not mean every historical faucet or campaign is still active. The project repository lists an original network total of 3,402,823,669.20 BAN, while CoinGecko’s current snapshot reports about 1.623 billion circulating and 1.919 billion total. These are different provider and time-based measures; the difference should not be treated as proof of an undistributed balance or a newly created supply. CoinGecko does not list a maximum supply in the current record.
BAN is used to transfer value across the network and to participate in representative voting by delegating voting weight. The network does not charge a protocol transaction fee according to its project materials, but users still need a wallet and must protect their private keys.
Trade-offs
Feeless transfers and low computational requirements are design goals, not a promise of a particular confirmation time under every network condition. Representative voting also depends on how account balances are delegated and distributed. CoinGecko’s tracked trading volume in the dated snapshot is very low, so displayed prices and market capitalization should be read with liquidity limitations in mind.
Related Terms
See Also
- Why Memecoins Keep Outperforming Bitcoin
- What Is Tokenomics?
- How Crypto Invented Its Own Language
- Swap crypto with ChangeNOW (affiliate link)
Sources
- Banano yellowpaper — The project paper explains the account-chain design, Open Representative Voting, anti-spam proof-of-work, and historical community distribution.
- Banano source repository — The project repository describes Banano as a Nano fork, gives its mainnet launch date, and lists the original network supply.
- BAN on CoinGecko — CoinGecko supplies the market snapshot and current circulating and total supply estimates; its page does not list a maximum supply.