Bancor (BNT) is an ecosystem of open-source, on-chain liquidity protocols, primarily on the Ethereum blockchain, and a cryptocurrency^[1][3]. The project, initially launched in 2017 as one of the first Automated Market Makers (AMMs), has since evolved. Its current flagship product is Carbon, a decentralized protocol for automated trading strategies^[4]. The entire ecosystem is governed by the BancorDAO, which consists of BNT token holders^[5].

As of early 2026, Bancor's market capitalization was approximately $50 million, with the protocol holding a Total Value Locked (TVL) of around $39.6 million. The BNT token is available on major exchanges like Binance and Coinbase^[4].

Overview

The Bancor ecosystem comprises a suite of decentralized protocols designed for on-chain trading and liquidity. The main protocols are Carbon and the Arb Fast Lane^[5].

• Carbon is Bancor's primary decentralized exchange (DEX) protocol, which allows users to execute automated trading strategies using on-chain limit and range orders.
• The Arb Fast Lane Protocol is an open-source arbitrage system designed to capture opportunities between Bancor's protocols and external exchanges, redirecting profits back to the ecosystem.

Unlike early AMM models that relied on passively provided liquidity, Bancor's modern protocols are designed for more active and sophisticated participation from traders, liquidity providers, and market makers. Governance of the protocols is managed by the BancorDAO through voting by BNT token holders^[5].

Core Protocols

Carbon DeFi

Carbon is Bancor's flagship protocol for decentralized trading. It enables users to create non-custodial, automated trading strategies directly on-chain. Key features include^[5][4]:

• Automated Trading Strategies: Liquidity providers can create strategies with custom, on-chain limit and range orders. These can be linked to create automated "buy low, sell high" rotational strategies between two tokens.
• Asymmetric & Concentrated Liquidity: LPs can provide liquidity in specific, customizable price ranges and create strategies with asymmetric liquidity distributions.
• MEV Resistance: The protocol architecture is designed to be immune to Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) attacks, such as sandwich attacks.
• Efficiency: Traders execute orders with no slippage, and liquidity providers pay no trading fees when their orders are filled. The system operates without external oracles or keepers.

Arb Fast Lane Protocol

The Arb Fast Lane is an open-source arbitrage protocol launched in 2023. It allows anyone to run a bot that finds and executes arbitrage opportunities involving Bancor's protocols and other on-chain exchanges. Profits generated from these trades are captured and redirected back into the Bancor ecosystem, creating a more efficient market^[5][4].

Bancor Network Token (BNT)

The Bancor Network Token (BNT) is the native token of the Bancor ecosystem. Its primary utilities have evolved alongside the protocol^[6].

• Governance: BNT holders can stake their tokens to participate in the BancorDAO and vote on protocol upgrades, fee allocations, and other key decisions.
• Staking: BNT can be staked to earn trading fees and other rewards generated by the protocol.
• Counterparty Asset: In previous versions of the protocol, BNT served as the counterparty asset in all liquidity pools, enabling single-sided liquidity provision.
• Buyback and Burn Program: In November 2023, the BancorDAO initiated a program to use protocol-owned ETH to buy back BNT from the open market and burn it. This program was designed to create deflationary pressure on the token's supply^[7].

Initial Coin Offering

On June 12th, 2017, Bancor raised $153 million worth of Ether by selling its digital tokens for three hours. At the time, this was the largest token sale until the Tezos ICO^[2].

Protocol Evolution

Bancor has undergone several major upgrades since its launch^[5][6].

• 2017: Bancor launched as one of the first Automated Market Makers (AMMs) and is credited with inventing "Smart Tokens," now commonly known as LP (Liquidity Provider) tokens.
• 2020: Bancor V2 was released, introducing features like single-token exposure and a mechanism to mitigate impermanent loss for liquidity providers.
• 2022: The Bancor 3 upgrade was launched. It introduced an "Omnipool" architecture to improve capital efficiency, lower gas costs, and provide instant impermanent loss protection.
• 2023: The Arb Fast Lane protocol was launched to capture arbitrage profits for the ecosystem. Following this, the project's focus shifted to Carbon as its flagship trading protocol.

Challenges and Controversies

Uniswap Patent Lawsuit

In May 2025, Bancor filed a lawsuit against Uniswap Labs, alleging that Uniswap's AMM technology infringed on a Bancor patent. At the time of filing, Bancor's daily volume was approximately 3.8 billion. The lawsuit, anticipated to reach a verdict or settlement in 2026, has been met with mixed reactions from the DeFi community, with some criticizing it as being against the open-source ethos of the space^[7].

Competitive Landscape and Market Position

Since its early days as a pioneer, Bancor has faced intense competition from larger and more liquid AMMs like Uniswap and Curve Finance. Despite successive upgrades, including Bancor 3, the protocol has struggled to regain significant market share, and user adoption has reportedly lagged^[8]​^[6]. This challenge was compounded by the delisting of the BNT token from the ProBit Global exchange in October 2025, which further constrained market access^[7]. Additionally, some analysts have pointed to the complexity of the Bancor v3 system as a potential barrier to adoption for less technical users^[6].