Kirill Gor

What is BUSD?

Binance USD (BUSD) is a 1:1 USD-backed stable coin issued by Binance (in partnership with Paxos), Approved and regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), The BUSD Monthly Audit Report can be viewed from the official website. Launched on 5 Sep 2019, BUSD aims to meld the stability of the dollar with blockchain technology. It is a digital fiat currency, issued as ERC-20 and supports BEP-2.

BUSD Use Case

Based on the price stability, Stablecoin plays an important role in transactions, payments and settlement, and Decentralised Finance (DeFi).

Here are some of the BUSD use case:

Transfer your digital dollars (BUSD) anywhere in minutes, with low cost and on the blockchain.

Trade BUSD on different exchanges and DEX.

Deposit BUSD to earn an interest rate.

Pay BUSD as payment for goods and services.

Use BUSD as collateral and loan asset.

Use BUSD as cross collateral in Futures.

Store BUSD on an exchange or in a wallet.

BUSD Ecosystem

The BUSD ecosystem has grown exponentially in 2021. The stablecoin grew from a market capitalization of around US$1B at the start of 2021, to over US$14.6B at the end of 2021. This makes it the third largest stablecoin by market cap, behind Tether and USDC. This growth is largely due to more user adoption as wallets, platforms and services, DEXes and CEXes support BUSD.

Top wallets like Metamask, Trust Wallet, Trezor, Zapper and many more allow users to hold BUSD now. Platforms and services, like travel booking site Travala, payments gateways like Moonpay and Banxa, payment APIs like Wyre and multi-currency payment services like ivendPay and Paylot are now supporting BUSD too. While PancakeSwap is the top DEX in the BSC ecosystem, numerous other top DEXes also support BUSD, including: Uniswap, 1inch, Curve Finance, Ellipsis, MDEX, SushiSwap, 0x and many more. Users of centralized exchanges (CEXes) can use BUSD outside of Binance and Binance.US too, with top exchanges like FTX, Gate.io, WazirX, MEXC and more.

For users interested in yield farming and lending BUSD, it is available on centralized platforms like Binance, Blockfi and Celsius, among others. Top DeFi protocols like Venus, Aave, yearn.finance and more also allow users to earn yield on their BUSD. A complete overview of the BUSD ecosystem can be found here.

How can you buy BUSD?

You can buy BUSD from exchanges, for the latest list of exchanges and trading pairs for this cryptocurrency, click on our market pairs tab (https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/binance-usd/markets). You can purchase and redeem BUSD from Paxos: (https://www.paxos.com/busd/)

Our most recent articles about Binance USD:

Investing in Stablecoins: The New-Age Inflation Hedge

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Ex-neuroscientist turned data scientist with +6 years of industry experience. Hands-on expertise in data modelling, machine learning, and software engineering, as well as strategic and conceptual skills, building and leading data teams and projects.

Currently building Glassnode, applying data science to the blockchain for on-chain market intelligence.

Glassnode is a blockchain data and intelligence provider generating innovative on-chain metrics and tools for digital asset stakeholders.

Glassnode develops applications that provide new ways of delivering insights into blockchains and cryptocurrencies by focusing on the data from the blockchains themselves.

Using data science and machinelearning, Glassnode analyzes blockchain data and distills information, thereby delivering market intelligence based on transactional data. With an emphasis on user-centric interfaces, delivers intelligible, actionable, and unique insights from blockchain data and beyond, helping investors to make educated decisions in an overly emotional and irrational market, as well as equipping blockchain teams with valuable insights on their projects and tokens.

Why On-Chain?

As early adopters of crypto with backgrounds in traditional finance, we found conventional valuation metrics to be insufficient for analysing crypto markets.

Blockchains are constantly generating a wealth of open, incorruptible financial data that allows us to access precise, trustworthy measures of relevant economic activity in crypto networks.

By unlocking this data, Glassnode is changing the way we measure market sentiment and behaviour.

Why Glassnode?

Gathering data from multiple blockchains and generating meaningful information from it necessitates high operational costs and time commitments, as well as a comprehensive infrastructure of databases, tools, and skilled data scientists.

Our world-class team and infrastructure allow for a degree of quality and scale that can only be achieved through specialisation. Glassnode is your gateway to on-chain data.

Coinbase Global, Inc., branded Coinbase, is an American company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Coinbase operates remote-first, and lacks an official physical headquarters. The company was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, and as of March 2021 was the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States by trading volume.

On April 14, 2021, Coinbase went public on the Nasdaq exchange via a direct listing.

History

Coinbase was founded in June 2012 by Brian Armstrong, a former Airbnb engineer. Armstrong enrolled in the Y Combinator startup incubator program and received a $150,000 cash infusion. Fred Ehrsam, a former Goldman Sachs trader, later joined as a co-founder.British programmer and Blockchain.info co-founder Ben Reeves was originally supposed to be part of the Coinbase founding team but parted ways with Armstrong just before the Y Combinator funding event, due to their different stands on how the Coinbase wallet should operate.The company is named after coinbase transactions, which are special transactions that introduce cryptocurrency into circulation in proof of work cryptocurrencies.: ch. 8  In October 2012 the company launched the services to buy and sell bitcoins through bank transfers.

In May 2013, the company received a US$5 million Series A investment led by Fred Wilson from the venture capital firm Union Square Ventures.In December the same year, the company received a US$25 million investment, from the venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures (USV), and Ribbit Capital. Olaf Carlson-Wee, a graduate from Vassar College, was hired as the first employee in the same year.

In 2014, the company grew to one million users, acquired the blockchain explorer service Blockr and the web bookmarking company Kippt, secured insurance covering the value of bitcoin stored on their servers, and launched the vault system for secure bitcoin storage. Throughout 2014, the company also partnered with Overstock, Dell, Expedia, Dish Network, and Time Inc. allowing those firms to accept bitcoin payments. In the same year, company also added bitcoin payment processing capabilities to the traditional payment companies Stripe, Braintree, and PayPal.In January 2014, Coinbase Global, Inc. was incorporated in Delaware as a holding company for Coinbase and its subsidiaries. The corporate reorganization that saw Coinbase become a subsidiary of Coinbase Global was completed in April that year.

In January 2015, the company received a US$75 million investment, led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the New York Stock Exchange, USAA, and several banks. Later in January, the company launched a U.S.-based bitcoin exchange for professional traders called Coinbase Exchange. In September, Coinbase began to offer services in Canada and Singapore.

In May 2016, the company rebranded the Coinbase Exchange, changing the name to Global Digital Asset Exchange (GDAX). In July, they added retail support for Ether.[28] Also in July, they announced they would halt services in August after the closure of Canadian online payments service provider Vogogo.

In January and then March 2017, Coinbase obtained the BitLicense and licensed to trade in Ethereum and Litecoin from the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS). In November, Coinbase was ordered by the US Internal Revenue Service to report any users who had at least $20,000 in transactions in a year. On December 19, Coinbase listed Bitcoin Cash, and the Coinbase platform experienced price abnormalities that led to an insider trading investigation.

On February 23, 2018, Coinbase told approximately 13,000 affected customers that the company would be providing their taxpayer ID, name, birth date, address, and historical transaction records from 2013 to 2015 to the IRS within 21 days. In March, Coinbase appointed Emilie Choi, a former LinkedIn executive, as Vice President of Corporate and Business Development. She was promoted to the role of president and chief operating officer in May 2019.On March 26, 2018, Coinbase announced their intention to add support for ERC-20 tokens.On April 5, 2018, Coinbase announced that it had formed an early-stage venture fund, Coinbase Ventures, focusing on investment into blockchain- and cryptocurrency-related companies.On May 16, Coinbase Ventures announced its first investment in Compound Labs, a start-up building Ethereum smart contracts similar to money markets.On May 23, GDAX was rebranded as Coinbase Pro. Also in May, Coinbase launched Prime, a platform dedicated to institutional customers. In August, Amazon cloud executive Tim Wagner joined Coinbase as vice president of engineering. In September, Coinbase, along with Circle and Bitcoin miner company Bitmain, was part of a consortium called Centre that launched a digital coin called USD Coin, pegged to the US dollar.

In January 2019, Coinbase stopped all trading on Ethereum Classic due to a suspicion of an attack on the network. In February, Coinbase announced that it had acquired "blockchain intelligence platform" Neutrino, an Italy-based startup, for an undisclosed price.The acquisition raised concern among some Coinbase users based on Neutrino founders' connection to the Hacking Team, which has been accused of providing internet surveillance technology to governments with poor human rights records. On March 4, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said his company "did not properly evaluate" the deal from a due diligence perspective and thus any Neutrino staff who previously worked at Hacking Team "will transition out of Coinbase." In April, a UK corporate filing stated that Coinbase's non-U.S. revenue grew 20% to €153 million (U.S.$173 million) in 2018 resulting in a net profit of €6.6 million.Coinbase UK CEO Zeeshan Feroz said the company's non-U.S. operations accounted for nearly one-third of the company's overall revenue and Reuters estimated that the company's global revenue totaled "around $520 million" in 2018. In August, Coinbase announced that it was targeted by a sophisticated hacking attack attempt in mid-June. This reported attack used spear-phishing and social engineering tactics (including sending fake e-mails from compromised email accounts and created a landing page at the University of Cambridge) and two Firefox browser zero-day vulnerabilities. One of the Firefox vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to escalate privileges from JavaScript on a browser page (CVE-2019–11707) and the second one could allow the attacker to escape the browser sandbox and execute code on the host computer (CVE-2019–11708). Coinbase's security team detected and blocked the attack, the network was not compromised, and no cryptocurrency was stolen.

In May 2020, during the Coronavirus global pandemic, the company announced it was becoming "remote-first" and would no longer recognize a formal headquarters.[1] Also in May, the company announced the acquisition of New York-based digital asset trading firm Tagomi for a price between $75 and $100 million.[4] In June, Coinbase received internal backlash after CEO Brian Armstrong initially refused to make a statement about Black Lives Matter, citing the company's apolitical culture, but Armstrong later reverted his course on Twitter.[55] In September, Armstrong published a blog post emphasizing that Coinbase would not engage in social activism, citing that such activism had hurt other technology firms such as Google and Facebook, and offered a severance package for those who disagreed with this direction. The company also faced complaints by employees saying they were treated unfairly due to their race or gender.[57] In October, Coinbase announced the launch of a Visa debit card program.[58] In December, the New York Times reported that based upon data up to 2018 (already two years old as of date of publication) women at Coinbase were paid an average of 8% less than men at comparable jobs and ranks within the company, and Black employees were paid 7% less than those in similar roles.[59][60]

In January 2021, Coinbase parent Coinbase Global took a step towards an initial public offering, and in late February of the same year the company filed for a direct listing to go public with the Securities and Exchange Commission.In March, the company fell under review by the U.S Office of Foreign Assets Control, with concerns that the company may have provided their blockchain service to blacklisted individuals or companies, noting that the nature of blockchain technology makes it "technically infeasible" to prevent specific users from making transactions.[62][63] Also in March, the company agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle regulatory claims that it had reported misleading information about its trading volumes.[64][65] Also in March, Coinbase announced that it was establishing a business presence in India and hiring employees for IT services, including engineering, software development and customer support operations. The company also announced plans to open a physical office in Hyderabad. In April, with its final earnings release before its April 14 direct listing, the company reported a nine-fold increase in Q1 revenue, to $1.8B, up from $190.6M the previous year. The jump was attributed to the increase in the price of Bitcoin over that time period. Before the listing, Nasdaq set a reference price of $250.00 a share, giving the company an estimated value of $47 billion. At the end of its first day of trading, Coinbase closed at a price of $328.28 per share. In May, the company's Chief People Officer published a blog post announcing that Coinbase was eliminating salary and equity negotiations during recruiting, citing salary disparities with women and minorities. The announcement said that "all employees in the same position, in the same location, receive the same salary and equity offer." In June, Coinbase added Dogecoin to its tradable assets for Coinbase Pro users. In September, the Securities and Exchange Commission reportedly threatened to sue Coinbase if the company decided to launch a cryptocurrency lending product called Lend. The company initially responded in a blog post that it was confused for being singled out by the SEC, but later announced it had canceled the planned launch. Technology publication TechCrunch covered the story and noted the existence of similar cryptocurrency lending products already on the market. In November, Coinbase made its first acquisition in India by purchasing AI-powered support platform Agara for an estimated $40-50 million. The company stated that it would utilize Agara's technology to automate its customer experience tools. On December 15 a display glitch vastly inflated balances such that numerous users were apparently, albeit briefly, trillionaires.

Products

Coinbase offers products for both retail and institutional cryptocurrency investors, as well as other related cryptocurrency products.

The company's products for retail traders include:

Coinbase, an app used to buy, store and trade different cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic and Litecoin.

Coinbase Pro, a professional asset trading platform for trading digital assets.

Coinbase Wallet, an app that allows customers to access decentralized crypto apps (dapps) using a dapp browser.

Products for institutional traders include:

Coinbase Prime, a trading platform for institutional customers.

Coinbase Custody, specialist level services for institutions that hold bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with Coinbase.

Other cryptocurrency-related products include:

USD Coin, a digital stablecoin that lets customers put up U.S. dollars in exchange for a cryptocurrency that has the same value but can be traded more quickly.

Coinbase Card, a debit Visa card that allows customers to spend cryptocurrency.

Coinbase Commerce, a payment service for merchants.

Coinbase Earn, a cryptocurrency learning platform that rewards users with small amounts of altcoins for watching videos and taking quizzes to learn about them.

The company develops an application programming interface (API) for developers and merchants to build applications and accept payments in digital currencies.

Coinbase has a mobile app for both iOS and Android.

Operations

Coinbase operates as a remote-first company, and has no physical headquarters. As part of its SEC filing to go public, the company reported 43 million verified users, 7,000 institutions and 115,000 ecosystem partners in over 100 countries. It also reported net revenue of $1.14 billion in 2020, up from $483 million the previous year. The company also reported net income of $322 million for the year after posting a loss in 2019. Out of the $782 billion worth of assets on the crypto market, some $90 billion worth is held on the Coinbase platform.

As of 2018, the company offered buy/sell trading functionality in 32 countries, while the cryptocurrency wallet was available in 190 countries worldwide.

Coinbase effect

The "Coinbase Effect" refers to the rise in price of cryptocurrencies listed for sale on a dominant crypto exchange such as Coinbase in the days after the news becomes public. According to Barron's, the effect of getting a cryptocurrency listed on the exchange plays a big role in what cryptocurrencies gain widespread acceptance.

Complaints

On February 16, 2018, Coinbase admitted that some customers were overcharged in error for credit and debit purchases of cryptocurrencies. The problem was initiated when banks and card issuers changed the merchant category code (MCC) for cryptocurrency purchases earlier that month. This meant that cryptocurrency payments would now be processed as "cash advances", meaning that banks and credit card issuers could begin charging customers cash-advance fees for cryptocurrency purchases. Any customers who purchased cryptocurrency on their exchange between January 22 and February 11, 2018 could have been affected. At first, Visa blamed Coinbase, telling the Financial Times on February 16 that it had "not made any systems changes that would result in the duplicate transactions cardholders are reporting." However, the latest statement from Visa and Worldpay on the Coinbase blog clarifies: "This issue was not caused by Coinbase."

In March 2018, Quartz reported that the number of monthly customer complaints against Coinbase jumped more than 100% in January of that year, to 889, citing official Consumer Financial Protection Bureau data, with more than 400 of those categorized as "money was not available when promised". The article also noted that the company was subsequently increasing its customer service staff to reduce wait times.

In December 2021, CNBC reported that Coinbase froze the cryptocurrency GYEN due to a sudden price spike, resulting in many traders losing money.

Mercedes-Benz (German pronunciation: [mɛɐ̯ˈtseːdəsˌbɛnts, -dɛs-] (audio speaker iconlisten)), commonly referred to as just Mercedes, is a German luxury automotive marque. Mercedes-Benz and subsidiary Mercedes-Benz AG – of Daimler AG – are headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.[1] Mercedes-Benz produces consumer luxury vehicles and commercial vehicles. Its first Mercedes-Benz-badged vehicles were produced in 1926. In 2018, Mercedes-Benz was the largest seller of premium vehicles in the world, having sold 2.31 million passenger cars.

The company's origins lie in Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft's 1901 Mercedes and Karl Benz's 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen, which is widely regarded as the first internal combustion engine in a self-propelled automobile. The slogan for the brand is "the best or nothing"

History

Mercedes-Benz traces its origins to Karl Benz's creation of the first internal combustion engine in a car, seen in the Benz Patent Motorwagen – financed by Bertha Benz's dowry and patented in January 1886 – and Gottlieb Daimler and their engineer Wilhelm Maybach's conversion of a stagecoach, with the addition of a petrol engine, introduced later that year. The Mercedes automobile was first marketed in 1901 by Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG).

Emil Jellinek, a European automobile entrepreneur who worked with Daimler Motoren Gesellschaft (DMG), registered the trademark in 1902, naming the 1901 Mercedes 35 hp after his daughter Mercedes Jellinek. Jellinek was a businessman and marketing strategist who promoted "horseless" Daimler automobiles among the highest circles of society in his adopted home. At the time, it was a meeting place for the "Haute Volée" of France and Europe, especially in winter. His customers included the Rothschild family and other well-known people. But Jellinek's plans went further, and in as early as 1901, he was selling Mercedes cars in the "New World" as well, including United States billionaires Rockefeller, Astor, Morgan, and Taylor. At the Nice race he attended in 1899, Jellinek drove under the pseudonym "Monsieur Mercédès" as a way of concealing his less fancy real name. Many consider that race the time of birth for Mercedes-Benz as a brand. Later, in 1901, the name "Mercedes" was re-registered by DMG worldwide as a protected trademark. The first Mercedes-Benz branded vehicles were produced in 1926, following the merger of Karl Benz's and Gottlieb Daimler's companies into the Daimler-Benz company on 28 June of the same year.

Gottlieb Daimler was born on 17 March 1834 in Schorndorf. After training as a gunsmith and working in France, he attended the Polytechnic School in Stuttgart from 1857 to 1859. After completing various technical activities in France as well as England, he later started working as a draftsman in Geislingen in 1862. At the end of 1863 he was appointed workshop inspector at a machine tool factory in Reutlingen, where he met Wilhelm Maybach in 1865.

Throughout the 1930s, Mercedes-Benz produced the 770 model, a car that was notably popular throughout the Germany's Nazi period. Adolf Hitler was known to have driven in a model of this car during his time in power, with modified custom bulletproof windshields. Most of the currently surviving 770 models were sold at auctions to private buyers. One of the cars is currently on display at the War Museum in Ottawa, Ontario. The pontiff's Popemobile has often been sourced from Mercedes-Benz.

From 1937 onward, Daimler Benz focused increasingly on military products such as the LG3000 lorry and the DB600 and the DB601 aero engines. To build the latter, in 1936 it built a factory hidden in the forest at Genshagen around 10 kilometres south of Berlin. By 1942 the company had mostly stopped producing cars, and was now devoted to war production. According to its statement, in 1944 almost half of its 63,610 employees were forced labourers, prisoners of war or concentration camp detainees. Another source quotes this figure at 46,000. The company later paid $12 million in reparations to the labourers' families.

In 1958, the two companies began a partnership to sell their cars in the United States with Studebaker. A few American-based Daimler-Benz dealerships were converted into Mercedes-Benz dealerships when Daimler's non-Mercedes-partnered company closed in 1966.

Over the decades, Mercedes-Benz has introduced many electronic and mechanical innovations and safety features that later became common. Currently, Mercedes-Benz is one of the best-known and long-standing automotive brands in the world.

In November 2019, Daimler AG announced that Mercedes-Benz, up until that point a company marque, would be spun off into a separate wholly-owned subsidiary called Mercedes-Benz AG. The new subsidiary would manage the Mercedes-Benz car and van business. Mercedes-Benz-badged trucks and buses would be part of the Daimler Truck AG subsidiary.

For information relating to the three-pointed star symbol of the brand, see under the title Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, including the merger into Daimler-Benz.

Subsidiaries and alliances

As of the Daimler AG company split, the Mercedes-Benz Cars division now handled the Mercedes-Benz car's and the Smart branded car's production.

Mercedes-AMG

Mercedes-AMG became a majority owned division of Mercedes-Benz in 1999. The company was integrated into DaimlerChrysler in 1999, and became Mercedes-Benz AMG on 1 January 1999.

Mercedes-Maybach

Daimler's ultra-luxury Maybach brand was under the Mercedes-Benz Cars division until December 2012, when production was stopped due to decreased sales. It now exists under the Mercedes-Maybach name, with the models being luxury-focused enhanced models of Mercedes-Benz cars, such as the 2016 Mercedes-Maybach S600. The Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 SUV debuted in November 2019.

China

Daimler partnered with BYD Auto to make and sell a battery-electric car called Denza in China. In 2016, Daimler announced plans to sell Mercedes-Benz-badged fully-electric battery cars in China. Beijing Benz is a joint venture with the BAIC Group to produce the Mercedes-Benz branded cars in China. In 2018, Mercedes-Benz voluntarily apologized for sparking controversy within China by quoting the Dalai Lama on one of their promotional Instagram post.

Quality rankings

Mercedes-Benz dealer in Munich, Germany

Mercedes-Benz normally has a strong reputation for quality and durability. Their objective measures looking at passenger vehicles, such as J. D. Power surveys, demonstrated a downturn in reputation in these criteria in the late 1990s and early 2000s. By mid-2005, Mercedes temporarily returned to the industry average for initial quality, a measure of problems after the first 90 days of ownership, according to J. D. Power. In J. D. Power's Initial Quality Study for the first quarter of 2007, Mercedes showed dramatic improvement by climbing from 25th to 5th place and earning several awards for its newer models. For 2008, Mercedes-Benz's initial quality rating improved by yet another mark, to 4th place. On top of this accolade, it also received the Platinum Plant Quality Award for their Mercedes branded Sindelfingen, Germany body assembly plant. J. D. Power's 2011 US Initial Quality and Vehicle Dependability Studies both ranked Mercedes-Benz vehicles above average in build quality and reliability. In J. D. Power's United Kingdom Survey in 2011, Mercedes cars were rated above average. Additionally, iSeeCars.com study for Reuters in 2014 found Mercedes to have the lowest vehicle recall rate out of competitors.

Current model range

Mercedes-Benz offers a versatile range of consumer-passenger, light commercial and heavy commercial equipment. These vehicles are manufactured in multiple countries worldwide. The Smart marque of city cars are also produced by Daimler AG.

Models

A-Class – Subcompact luxury Hatchback and Sedan

B-Class – Subcompact luxury Multi Purpose Vehicle

C-Class – Compact executive luxury Sedan/Saloon, Estate, Coupé and Cabriolet

CLA – Subcompact luxury 4-Door Coupé and Estate

CLS – Mid-size luxury 4-Door Coupé

E-Class – Mid-size executive luxury Sedan/Saloon, Estate, Coupé and Cabriolet

G-Class – Luxury off-road vehicle

GLA – Subcompact luxury Crossover

GLB – Compact luxury Crossover

GLC – Compact luxury Sport utility vehicle

GLE – Mid-size luxury Sport utility vehicle

GLS – Full-size luxury Sport utility vehicle

S-Class – Full-Size luxury Sedan/Saloon, Coupé and Cabriolet

V-Class – Luxury Multi Purpose Vehicle

AMG GT – Luxury sports car

AMG GT 4-Door – Luxury sports 4-Door Coupé

AMG SL – Luxury grand tourer roadster

AMG ONE – Super sports car

EQA - Luxury electric Crossover

EQB - Luxury electric Crossover

EQC - Luxury electric Crossover

EQE - Luxury electric Sedan/Saloon

EQS - Luxury electric Sedan/Saloon

EQV - Luxury electric Multi Purpose Vehicle

Vans

Mercedes-Benz Sprinter

Mercedes-Benz currently offers three types of vans; Citan, Vito, and Sprinter. They are all produced by Daimler AG.

Trucks

See also: List of Mercedes-Benz trucks

Mercedes-Benz Zetros used for snowplowing

Unimog, a famous allround vehicle by Mercedes-Benz

Since December 2021, the Mercedes-Benz Trucks division is part of the Daimler Truck company and includes other sub-companies that were part of the DaimlerChrysler merger. Gottlieb Daimler sold the world's first truck in 1886.[58] Their first factory to be built outside Germany after World War II was in Argentina. They originally built trucks, many of which were modified by third parties to be used as buses, popularly named Colectivo.

Buses

Main article: Mercedes-Benz buses

Mercedes-Benz has been producing buses since 1895 in Mannheim, Germany. Since 1995, the brands of Mercedes-Benz's buses and coaches are under the umbrella of EvoBus GmbH, since December 2021 belonging to Daimler Truck AG. EvoBus, through its regional subsidiaries, markets them in European countries, while in other regions of the world marketing and sales duties are passed to regional subsidiaries of Daimler Truck. Mercedes-Benz produces a wide range of buses and coaches, mainly for Europe and Asia. The first model was produced by Karl Benz in 1895.

Environmental record

See also: Diesel emissions scandal

Mercedes-Benz has developed multi-concept cars with alternative propulsion, such as hybrid-electric, fully electric, and fuel-cell powertrains. At the 2007 Frankfurt motor show, Mercedes-Benz showed seven hybrid models, including the F700 concept car, powered by a hybrid-electric drivetrain featuring the DiesOtto engine. In 2009, Mercedes-Benz displayed three BlueZERO concepts at the North American International Auto Show. Each car features a different powertrain - battery-electric, fuel-cell electric, and gasoline-electric hybrid. In the same year, Mercedes also showed the Vision S500 PHEV concept with a 19 miles (31 km) all-electric range and CO2 emissions of 74 grams/km in the New European Driving Cycle.

Since 2002, Mercedes-Benz has developed the F-Cell fuel cell vehicle. The current version, based on the B-Class, has a 250-mile range and is available for lease, with volume production scheduled to begin in 2014. Mercedes has also announced the SLS AMG E-Cell, a fully electric version of the SLS sports car, with deliveries expected in 2013.[73] The Mercedes-Benz S400 BlueHYBRID[74] was launched in 2009, and is the first production automotive hybrid in the world to use a lithium-ion battery. In mid-2010, production commenced on the Vito E-Cell all-electric van.

In 2008, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would have a demonstration fleet of small electric cars in two to three years.[78] Mercedes-Benz and Smart are preparing for the widespread uptake of electric vehicles (EVs) in the UK by beginning the installation of recharging points across their dealer networks. So far 20 Elektrobay recharging units, produced in the UK by Brighton-based Elektromotive, have been installed at seven locations as part of a pilot project, and further expansion of the initiative is planned later in 2010.

In the United States, Mercedes-Benz was assessed a record US$30.66 million fine for their decision to not meet the federal corporate average fuel economy standard in 2009. Certain Mercedes-Benz cars, including the S550 and all AMG models sold in the United States, also face an additional gas guzzler tax. However, newer AMG models fitted with the M157 engine will not be subject to the gas-guzzler tax, due to improved fuel economy, and newer models powered by the M276 and M278 engines will have better fuel economy. In 2008, Mercedes also had the worst CO2 average of all major European manufacturers, ranking 14th out of 14 manufacturers. Mercedes was also the worst manufacturer in 2007 and 2006 in terms of average CO2 levels, with 181 g and 188 g of CO2 emitted per km, respectively.

Mercedes-Benz paid an additional US$38 million for failing to meet its CAFE standards for model years 2008–2011.

In May 2017, Mercedes partnered with Vivint Solar to develop a solar-energy home storage battery.

In February 2018, it was announced that Mercedes cabin air filters earned the Asthma and Allergy Friendly Certification.

Electric cars

Mercedes opened its sixth battery factory in 2018. Critics deemed the marque's EQS sedan a tough competitor to Tesla, Inc.[88][89] The six factories are established across three continents.

Mercedes-Benz EQC

The brand has also launched its electric EQ brand with the EQC SUV which was set for production in the year 2019. In September 2018, Mercedes unveiled the EQC, its first fully electric car, at an event in Stockholm.

2022 will be the year in which Daimler has said that the company will have invested $11 billion to ensure that every Mercedes-Benz has a fully electric or hybrid version available on the market.

While releasing details of the project, Markus Schäfer said,

"Our electric vehicles will be built in six plants on three continents. We address every market segment: from the smart fortwo seater to the large SUV. The battery is the key component of e-mobility. As batteries are the heart of our electric vehicles we put a great emphasis on building them in our own factories. With our global battery network, we are in an excellent position: As we are close to our vehicle plants we can ensure the optimal supply of production. In case of a short-term high demand in another part of the world our battery factories are also well prepared for export. The electric initiative of Mercedes-Benz Cars is right on track. Our global production network is ready for e-mobility. We are electrifying the future."[93] After Audi declared that it would cut more than 9,000 jobs by 2025, the owner of Mercedes-Benz announced that the company will shed around 10,000 jobs worldwide to focus on electric cars.

In January 2021, Mercedes-Benz revealed its new electric SUV, the EQA, which will have a range of 426 kilometres and will be on sale in Europe starting 4 February.

Motorsport

Main article: Mercedes-Benz in motorsport

A DMG Mercedes Simplex 1906 in the Deutsches Museum

The two companies which were merged to form the Mercedes-Benz brand in 1926 had both already enjoyed success in the new sport of motor racing throughout their separate histories. A single Benz competed in the world's first motor race, the 1894 Paris–Rouen, where Émile Roger finished 14th in 10 hours 1 minute. Throughout its long history, the company has been involved in a range of motorsport activities, including sports car racing and rallying. On several occasions, Mercedes-Benz has withdrawn completely from motorsport for a significant period, notably in the late 1930s, and after the 1955 Le Mans disaster, where a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR rammed another car (an Austin-Healey), took off into the stands, and killed more than 80 spectators. Stirling Moss and co-driver Denis Jenkinson won the 1955 Mille Miglia road race in Italy during a record-breaking drive with an average speed of almost 98 mph in a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR.

Although there was some activity in the intervening years, it was not until 1987 that Mercedes-Benz returned to front line competition, returning to Le Mans, Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM), and Formula One with Sauber. The 1990s saw Mercedes-Benz partner with British engine builder Ilmor (now Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines), and campaign IndyCars under the USAC/CART rules, eventually winning the 1994 Indianapolis 500 and 1994 CART IndyCar World Series Championship with Al Unser Jr. at the wheel. The 1990s also saw the return of Mercedes-Benz to GT racing with the Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, which took the company to two titles in FIA's GT1 class.

Mercedes-Benz is currently active in four motorsport categories, Formula Three, Formula E, Formula One and GT3.

Formula One

Both Mercedes-AMG Formula One cars at the 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Main article: Mercedes-Benz in Formula One

Mercedes-Benz took part in the world championship in 1954 and 1955, but despite being successful with two championship titles for Juan-Manuel Fangio, the company left the sport after just two seasons.

Mercedes-Benz returned as an engine manufacturer in 1994, with the engines being designed and manufactured by Ilmor in Brixworth.[98] It initially partnered with Sauber, before switching to McLaren in 1995. Although the Mercedes engines were not successful at first, they later won drivers' championships for Mika Häkkinen in 1998 and 1999, and for Lewis Hamilton in 2008, as well as a constructors' championship in 1998. Mercedes part-owned McLaren, and the collaboration had been extended into the production of road-going cars such as the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.

In 2007, McLaren-Mercedes was fined a record US$100 million for stealing confidential Ferrari technical data.

In 2009, Ross Brawn's newly conceived Formula One team, Brawn GP used Mercedes engines to win the titles. At the end of the season, Mercedes-Benz sold its 40% stake in McLaren to the McLaren Group and bought 70% of the Brawn GP team jointly with an Abu Dhabi-based investment consortium. Brawn GP was renamed Mercedes GP for the 2010 season and became the main team for Mercedes-Benz. The company continued providing engines to other teams under customer relationships.

After major rule changes in 2014, Mercedes clinched the drivers' and constructors' titles with drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, after dominating much of the season. Mercedes repeated the feat in 2015, winning 16 out of 19 races, and again in 2016, winning 19 of the 21 races. In the following years, Mercedes continued their success by winning the drivers' championships from 2017 to 2020 and the constructors' championships from 2017 to 2021, becoming the first team to win seven consecutive "double-championships". In these years, Hamilton was the champion in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, while Rosberg won in 2016. Their unbeaten streak was broken in 2021, when Max Verstappen of Red Bull-Honda won the drivers' championship.

Formula E

Main article: Mercedes EQ Formula E Team

Prior to pre-season testing of the 2019–20 Formula E Championship, it was announced that Mercedes, through its EQ branch, would join the championship with drivers Stoffel Vandoorne and 2019 FIA Formula 2 champion Nyck De Vries. The team named their Spark Gen2 challenger the Mercedes EQ Silver Arrow 01.

Innovations

Numerous technological innovations have been introduced on Mercedes-Benz automobiles throughout the many years of their production, including:

The internal combustion engine automobile was developed independently by Benz and Daimler & Maybach in 1886.

Daimler invented the honeycomb radiator of the type still used on all water-cooled vehicles today.

Daimler invented the float carburetor which was used until replaced by fuel injection.

The "drop chassis" – the car originally designated the "Mercedes" by Daimler was also the first car with a modern configuration, having the carriage lowered and set between the front and rear wheels, with a front engine and powered rear wheels. All earlier cars were "horseless carriages", which had high centres of gravity and various engine/drive-train configurations.

The first passenger road car to have brakes on all four wheels (1924).[113]

In 1936, the Mercedes-Benz 260 D was the first diesel-powered passenger car.

Mercedes-Benz were the first to offer direct fuel injection on the Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing.

The "safety cage" or "safety cell" construction with front and rear crumple zones was first developed by Mercedes-Benz in 1951. This is considered by many as the most important innovation in automobile construction from a safety standpoint.[verification needed]

In 1959, Mercedes-Benz patented a device that prevents drive wheels from spinning by intervening at the engine, transmission, or brakes. In 1987, Mercedes-Benz applied for its patent by introducing a traction control system that worked under both braking and acceleration.

an Anti-Lock Brake system (ABS) was first offered on the W116 450SEL 6.9. They became standard on the W126 S-Class starting production in 1979 and first sold in most markets in 1980.

Airbags were first introduced in the European market, beginning with the model year 1981 S-Class.

Mercedes-Benz was the first to introduce pre-tensioners to seat belts on the 1981 S-Class. In the event of a crash, a pre-tensioner will tighten the belt instantaneously, removing any 'slack' in the belt, which prevents the occupant from jerking forward in a crash.

In September 2003, Mercedes-Benz introduced the world's first seven-speed automatic transmission called '7G-Tronic'.

Electronic Stability Programme (ESP), brake assist, and many other types of safety equipment were all developed, tested, and implemented into passenger cars – first – by Mercedes-Benz. Mercedes-Benz has not made a large fuss about its innovations and has even licensed them for use by competitors – in the name of improving automobile and passenger safety. As a result, crumple zones and anti-lock brakes (ABS) are now standard on all modern vehicles.[19][verification needed]

Mercedes M156 engine

The (W211) E320 CDI which has a variable geometry turbocharger (VGT) 3.0-litre V6 common rail diesel engine (producing 224 hp or 167 kW), set three world endurance records. It covered 100,000 miles (160,000 km) in a record time, with an average speed of 224.823 km/h (139.70 mph). Three identical cars did the endurance run (one set above record) and the other two cars set world records for time taken to cover 100,000 kilometres (62,137 mi) and 50,000 miles (80,000 km) respectively. After all three cars had completed the run, their combined distance was 300,000 miles (480,000 km) (all records were FIA approved).[clarification needed]

Mercedes-Benz pioneered a system called Pre-Safe to detect an imminent crash – and prepares the car's safety systems to respond optimally. It also calculates the optimal braking force required to avoid an accident in emergency situations and makes it immediately available for when the driver depresses the brake pedal. Occupants are also prepared by tightening the seat belt, closing the sunroof and windows, and moving the seats into the optimal position.

At 181 horsepower per litre, the M133 engine installed in Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG was (as of June 2013) the most powerful series-production four-cylinder turbocharged motor, and has one of the highest power densities of a passenger vehicle.

Half a century of vehicle safety innovation helped win Mercedes-Benz the Safety Award at the 2007 What Car? Awards.

Robot cars

Main article: Driverless car

In the 1980s Mercedes built the world's first robot car, together with the team of Professor Ernst Dickmanns at Bundeswehr University Munich. Encouraged in part by Dickmanns' success, in 1987 the European Union's EUREKA programme initiated the Prometheus Project on autonomous vehicles, funded to the tune of nearly €800 million. In 1995 Dickmanns' re-engineered autonomous S-Class Mercedes took a long trip from Munich in Bavaria to Copenhagen in Denmark, and back. On highways, the robot achieved speeds exceeding 175 km/h (109 mph) (permissible in some areas of the German Autobahn).

In October 2015, the company introduced the Vision Tokyo, a five-seat self-driving electric van powered by a hybrid hydrogen fuel-cell system. The super-sleek van is touted as "a chill-out zone in the midst of megacity traffic mayhem."

Tuners

Several companies have become car tuners (or modifiers) of Mercedes Benz, in order to increase performance and/or luxury to a given model. AMG is Mercedes-Benz's in-house performance-tuning division, specialising in high-performance versions of most Mercedes-Benz cars. AMG engines are all hand-built,[119] and each completed engine receives a tag with the signature of the engineer who built it. AMG has been wholly owned by Mercedes-Benz since 1999. The 2009 SLS AMG, a revival of the 300SL Gullwing, is the first car to be entirely developed by AMG.

Sponsorships

Mercedes-Benz sponsors the German national football team.

In football (soccer), Mercedes-Benz sponsored the Germany national team until 2018. Mercedes-Benz sponsors Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart and provides the naming rights for their stadium, the Mercedes-Benz Arena. The company formerly held a ten-year naming rights contract to the Caesars Superdome, an American football stadium in New Orleans, from 2011 to 2021. On 24 August 2015, Mercedes-Benz was announced as the naming rights sponsor for the Atlanta Falcons' new home, Mercedes-Benz Stadium, (Mercedes-Benz's US headquarters are in Greater Atlanta) which opened in August 2017.

Mercedes-Benz worked with English magician Steven Frayne, also known as Dynamo, to create a video called Dynamo vs Coulthard. Formula One driver David Coulthard drove Dynamo around a track at race-speed in a Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG, before Dynamo successfully drove around the same track in the same car whilst blindfolded and surrounded by pyrotechnics. The stunt was part of the finale for Series 3 of Dynamo: Magician Impossible, screened on UK television channel Watch.

To promote the release of Mario Kart 8, Nintendo and Mercedes-Benz partnered up to have 3 of their cars in their history, the 2014 Mercedes-Benz GLA, the 1957 SL 300 Roadster, and the 1934 W25 Silver Arrow as karts in the game. As part of the partnership, Mario, Luigi, and Peach appeared in Japanese commercials to promote the 2014 Mercedes-Benz GLA.

Greg is the principal architect and CTO of Solana. Greg has explored the full landscape of embedded systems. He created a bidirectional RPC bridge between C and Lua for the BREW operating system, helped launch the ARM backend for the LLVM compiler toolchain, and published a variety of open source projects including a streaming LLVM optimizer inHaskell, license analysis tooling in Python, and a reactive web framework in TypeScript. If you have time to burn, ask him “Why Rust?” We dare you.

What Is Solana (SOL)?

Solana is a highly functional open source project that banks on blockchain technology’s permissionless nature to provide decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions. While the idea and initial work on the project began in 2017, Solana was officially launched in March 2020 by the Solana Foundation with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

To learn more about this project, check out our deep dive of Solana.

The Solana protocol is designed to facilitate decentralized app (DApp) creation. It aims to improve scalability by introducing a proof-of-history (PoH) consensus combined with the underlying proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus of the blockchain.

Because of the innovative hybrid consensus model, Solana enjoys interest from small-time traders and institutional traders alike. A significant focus for the Solana Foundation is to make decentralized finance accessible on a larger scale.

Who Are the Founders of Solana?

Anatoly Yakovenko is the most important person behind Solana. His professional career started at Qualcomm, where he quickly moved up the ranks and became senior staff engineer manager in 2015. Later on, his professional path shifted, and Yakovenko entered a new position as a software engineer at Dropbox.

In 2017, Yakovenko started working on a project which would later materialize as Solana. He teamed up with his Qualcomm colleague Greg Fitzgerald, and they founded a project called Solana Labs. Attracting several more former Qualcomm colleagues in the process, the Solana protocol and SOL token were released to the public in 2020.

What Makes Solana Unique?

One of the essential innovations Solana brings to the table is the proof-of-history (PoH) consensus developed by Anatoly Yakovenko. This concept allows for greater scalability of the protocol, which in turn boosts usability.

Solana is known in the cryptocurrency space because of the incredibly short processing times the blockchain offers. Solana’s hybrid protocol allows for significantly decreased validation times for both transaction and smart contract execution. With lightning-fast processing times, Solana has attracted a lot of institutional interest as well.

The Solana protocol is intended to serve both small-time users and enterprise customers alike. One of Solana’s main promises to customers is that they will not be surprised by increased fees and taxes. The protocol is designed in such a way as to have low transaction costs while still guaranteeing scalability and fast processing.

Combined with the longstanding professional expertise creators Anatoly Yakovenko and Greg Fitzgerald bring to the project, Solana is ranked number 7 in the CoinMarketCap ranking as of September 2021.

This came on the back of an impressive bull run, where Solana price gained over 700% since mid-July 2021. The launch of the Degenerate Ape NFT collection sent SOL price to an all-time high (ATH) above $60, and it has been climbing since, largely due to higher developer activity on the Solana ecosystem, greater institutional interest, growing DeFi ecosystem, and the rise of the NFTs and gaming vertical on Solana. Solana price rose to an ATH of $216 on Sept. 9, 2021.

How Many Solana (SOL) Coins Are There in Circulation?

The Solana Foundation has announced that a total of 489 million SOL tokens will be released in circulation. At the moment, about 260 million of these have already entered the market.

The SOL token distribution is as follows: 16.23% went towards an initial seed sale, 12.92% of tokens were dedicated to a founding sale, 12.79% of SOL coins were distributed among team members and 10.46% of tokens were given to the Solana Foundation. The remaining tokens were already released for public and private sales or are still to be released to the market.

Solana price during the initial seed sale, held on April 5, 2018, was $0.04. Given the recent ATH, that represents an impressive 5400X return on investment (ROI).

How Is the Solana Network Secured?

Solana relies on a unique combination of proof-of-history (PoH) and proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanisms.

Proof-of-history is the main component of the Solana protocol, as it is responsible for the bulk of transaction processing. PoH records successful operations and the time that has passed between them, thus ensuring the trustless nature of the blockchain.

The proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus is used as a monitoring tool for the PoH processes, and it validates each sequence of blocks produced by it.

The combination of two consensus mechanisms makes Solana a unique phenomenon in the blockchain industry.

Where Can You Buy Solana (SOL)?

SOL tokens can be purchased on most exchanges. One choice to trade Solana is on Binance, as it has the highest SOL/USDT trading volume, $753,103,225 as of September 2021.

Next is Coinbase, with a trading volume of $343,872,841. Other options to trade Solana include FTX, Bilaxy and Huobi Global. Of course, it is important to note that investing in cryptocurrency comes with a risk, just like any other investment opportunity.

To check Solana price live in the fiat currency of your choice, you can use CoinMarketCap’s converter feature directly on the Solana currency page, or the dedicated exchange rate converter page. Popular Solana price pairs include: SOL/USD, SOL/GBP, SOL/AUD, SOL/JPY and SOL/EUR.