You can get free testnet BNB tokens using a BNB faucet. A BNB faucet, like any crypto faucet, is a website that will send you a small amount of testnet tokens for free. The amount of testnet BNB tokens you will get for free can change over time. At the time of writing, the BNB faucet is distributing 0.1 testnet BNB at a time.
In the early days of Bitcoin, it was even possible to get some free BTC using a Bitcoin faucet. However, crypto faucets that provide mainnet coins are usually only available for small market cap cryptocurrencies that are in their relatively early stages of development. If you’re looking to get some mainnet BNB coins for free, you’re out of luck.
If you want to use a BNB faucet for testing purposes, however, you’ve come to the right place. In this article, we’ll explain how to use a BNB faucet to get testnet BNB tokens.
A BNB faucet gives you a small amount of testnet BNB for free
While faucets are certainly cool, don’t expect to get anything of real economic value from them. When it comes to popular coins, faucets are only available on testnet. This is also the case for BNB.
Technically, it is possible to get some free BNB through a Binance Smart Chain faucet, but the coins you will get are testnet coins that don’t have economic value.
In this article, we’ll show you the process of using a BNB testnet faucet to get some free testnet BNB for use on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) testnet. Please keep in mind that the BSC faucet is only available on the testnet. If anyone is telling you that they will give you mainnet BNB tokens for free, you’re likely dealing with a scammer and you should proceed with extreme caution.
The Binance Smart Chain testnet is a blockchain that’s designed to simulate the conditions on the main BSC network. Developers can use the testnet to try out decentralized applications and test their functionality before they are deployed on the mainnet. Coins on the Binance Smart Chain testnet have no economic value, and you can’t sell them for real money anywhere.
How to get BNB with MetaMask on the BSC testnet?
The first thing you’ll need to do to receive testnet BNB tokens is to set up a wallet. We’ll be using the MetaMask wallet in this example. By default, the MetaMask wallet doesn’t provide Binance Smart Chain as an option, but you can easily use your MetaMask wallet to connect to BSC.
1. Add a custom network to Metamask
First, click your avatar in MetaMask to open up the menu and go to “Settings”. Then, click “Networks”.
Now, you’re ready to add a network.
2. Input the Binance Smart Chain testnet information into MetaMask
Here is the information you need to add the Binance Smart Chain testnet to your MetaMask wallet.
- Network name: Smart Chain – Testnet
- New RPC URL: https://data-seed-prebsc-1-s1.binance.org:8545/
- Chain ID: 97
- Currency symbol: tBNB
- Block explorer URL: https://testnet.bscscan.com
Input the necessary information and press “Save”. After you’re done, your MetaMask wallet will be capable of connecting to the BSC testnet.
3. Get testnet BNB from the BNB faucet
Now, it’s actually time to get some testnet BNB from the official BSC testnet faucet. Head over to testnet.binance.org/faucet-smart/.
The site will ask you for a quick verification—this is done to prevent bots from flooding the faucet with requests for tokens. After completing the verification, you will be able to input your BSC testnet address to receive test tokens.
After pasting in your address, click on the “Give me BNB” button and select 0.5 BNB. You should receive your testnet funds in your testnet wallet shortly after.
Now, you can use your testnet BNB to play around with applications on the BSC testnet. You can use the BNB faucet for gas to pay gas fees on the testnet.
Alternative BNB faucets
The official BSC testnet faucet is not the only place where you can get some testnet BNB tokens for free. There’s two alternatives that you can also use if you’re looking for a BNB testnet faucet.
The Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange provides a BSC faucet that provides 0.25 BNB per day. In order to use this faucet, you have to connect to it with the Coinbase Wallet extension. If you don’t have the Coinbase Wallet extension yet, we recommend you give it a try, as it’s one of the best wallets for Ethereum and other EVM-compatible blockchains.
Another testnet BNB faucet is provided by cryptocurrency infrastructure firm QuickNode. You can connect to the QuickNode BNB faucet using Coinbase Wallet, MetaMask and Phantom. However, you need to keep in mind that your wallet must have at least 0.001 ETH on the Ethereum mainnet in order to use this faucet.
What are testnet BNB tokens used for?
Testnet digital assets are used strictly for testing purposes and hold no monetary value. These include things like testing wallet and other product integrations with Binance Smart Chain ahead of their mainnet rollout and testing of trading strategies with no financial risk.
Other than holding no real value, testnet tokens function virtually the same as their mainnet counterparts, which can be useful for projecting transaction fees for various DeFi and trading purposes.
It is worth noting that testnet BNB funds can be reset during testnet upgrades. If that happens, you can easily get new ones by following the steps listed above.
Is it safe to use the BNB Chain Faucet?
Yes, the BNB Chain Faucet is safe to use. As long as you stay on the BNB Chain testnet network, you can safely interact with the faucet. Just make sure that you’re using the correct BNB faucet URL (testnet.binance.org/faucet-smart/) and input the correct BNB Chain testnet information into your wallet — see step 2 in the step-by-step guide above.
BNB faucets are far from being the only crypto faucets in the space
Developers who intend to build on Solana rather than BSC can get testnet SOL tokens for free on Solana’s testnet/devnet. SOL testnet tokens are used for the same purpose as BNB testnet tokens, that is for ironing out any potential bugs in products and services before mainnet integrations, and for trialing trading strategies.
Contrary to BNB and SOL options, Dogecoin faucets enable users to earn real tokens that do have a monetary value. Typically, Dogecoin faucets have requirements that users must meet in order to receive free DOGE coins. These include watching videos, filling out surveys, answering questions, and other similar tasks.
Source: https://coincodex.com/article/20363/bnb-faucet-heres-how-you-can-get-free-bnb-on-testnet/