Connecting BNB Smart Chain to MetaMask - A Full Guide

MetaMask is arguably the most popular non-custodial crypto wallet in the world right now. One of its main advantages is the possibility to connect it with thousands of decentralized applications.

At the start of its journey, MetaMask could only interact with apps based on the Ethereum network, but over time, it has evolved to be compatible with a wide range of Ethereum Virtual Machine Blockchains – one of which is Binance Smart Chains.

So, here, we will put our entire focus on the simple process you need to follow to add Binance Smart Chain to MetaMask. Note that you may encounter Binance Smart Chain as BSC, BNB Chain or BNB Smart Chain, so don’t get confused about the terminology!

Install MetaMask

The first and obvious step everyone should follow is to install MetaMask on your device. You may download it as a mobile app for Android and iOS devices or you can use it as a browser extension.

MetaMask works flawlessly on Google Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera and Brave, so you won’t face any difficulties setting it up.

Remember that you are due a Secret Recovery Phrase that you need to pay close attention to. You will need that phrase to access your holdings, so we suggest you keep it in a safe place offline to prevent any form of misuse.

Now, as mentioned above, you should notice that the MetaMask wallet is connected to the Ethereum network by default. However, we need to change that to BNB Smart Chain to interact and use decentralized apps only available on that network. To do that, follow the next few steps below.

Even novices in the crypto world shouldn’t face any difficulties setting BNB Chain up. Nonetheless, keep in mind that you won’t be able to just transfer funds from one blockchain network to another.

You can only make BNB transfers to and from BNB Chain wallets, bar one exception – you can use a so-called “blockchain bridge” which is a specially designed tool for moving funds across chains.

Adding The BNB Smart Chain Testnet

Now that you have added the BSC Mainnet to your MetaMask wallet, you can test it out to make a few transactions. For that, you need to add the BNB Smart Chain Testnet Network. Note that you can only use this network to transfer fake money and get familiar with the wallet. Here is how making a transaction would roughly go:

1. Choose the “Add Network Manually” button on your MetaMask wallet.
2. Add the Testnet parameters which are:

• Network Name: BNB 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

3. You have now successfully added the Testnet to your MetaMask

We suggest you try the Testnet a couple of times at least to see how the MetaMask wallet works exactly. Don’t worry, you won’t be stepping out in the dark here, as we have prepared a short guide on how you can make a transaction on it:

1. Go to your MetaMask wallet and click on your address for it to copy itself automatically
2. Head to the BNB Smart Chain Faucet and paste your wallet address
3. Choose the amount of fake money to send under the “Give me BNB” section
4. Now, you can send the funds somewhere, so paste the destination wallet address in the required field
5. Select the asset and the amount you want to send
6. Check the transaction details and confirm it
7. It takes a few seconds for the money to arrive at the specified destination

Final Thoughts

MetaMask’s development over the years has been nothing short of impressive. For a long time, it was the main reference point for accessing only the Ethereum network.

However, as you can see in the guide above, you can easily configure it to connect to the Binance Smart Chain network in no time. That way, you will get full access to a whole set of dApps that run on the BNB network!