BNB Chain has officially launched zBNB, a privacy-preserving version of its native BNB token, through an integration with the zERC20 privacy protocol. The announcement was made on February 23, 2026, via the official BNB Chain social media account, stating that the feature is now live and enables users to conduct private transfers within the ecosystem.
The tool, developed by zERC20, allows users to hide sender and receiver details, account balances, and transaction history while still utilizing BNB for standard operations. "zBNB by @zERC20io is now live, enabling privacy-preserving transfers for the BNB Chain ecosystem!" the network announced. Nina Rong, Executive Director of Growth at BNB Chain, emphasized the strategic importance of the launch, stating that privacy is central to onboarding the next billion users and calling zBNB a seamless addition to the existing user experience.
Technically, zBNB functions as a wrapped version of BNB. Users initiate a process where their regular BNB tokens are sent to a burn-style address, generating a cryptographic proof. In return, the system mints an equivalent amount of zBNB, which can then be transacted on-chain with privacy. The system leverages zero-knowledge principles to keep transactions verifiable by the network without exposing sensitive on-chain data. The feature is designed to work with standard wallets and maintain BNB Chain's characteristic low fees and fast transaction speeds.
The launch represents BNB Chain's first major native privacy integration and addresses a long-standing trade-off in blockchain between transparency and user privacy. The move aligns with broader industry trends where privacy is increasingly viewed as a necessity for mainstream adoption, particularly for business payments, DeFi activity, and enterprise use cases where public transaction visibility is a deterrent.
Initial community reaction has been positive, with the announcement garnering strong engagement and users highlighting privacy as a critical missing component for scaling Web3. The teams behind zBNB and zERC20 are encouraging users to test the new feature as adoption begins. The rollout also signals a wider expansion of privacy tooling across EVM-compatible networks, with BNB Chain now joining other chains supported by the zERC20 protocol.
