VeChain

About VeChain (VET)

What Is VeChain (VET)?

VeChain is a public layer-1 blockchain built for business record keeping rather than general-purpose finance. Its network, VeChainThor, launched on June 30, 2018, produces blocks about every 10 seconds and runs EVM-compatible smart contracts. It uses two tokens: VET is the core asset and staking collateral, while VTHO pays transaction fees.

Official resources:

• Website: https://www.vechain.org
• Documentation: https://docs.vechain.org
• Whitepaper: https://vechain.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/vechain-whitepaper-3-0.pdf
• Staking: https://stargate.vechain.org
• Source code: https://github.com/vechain/thor

Who Founded VeChain? (History)

VeChain began in 2015 inside Bitse, a Chinese blockchain company. Sunny Lu, formerly chief information officer of Louis Vuitton China, is the public co-founder and chief executive, with Jay Zhang credited as the other co-founder. The foundation publishes no team page today, so those attributions rest on project communications and press coverage. VEN launched as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum in August 2017, and the mainnet went live in June 2018 with VEN swapped into VET at one to one hundred.

How VeChain Works

For most of its life VeChainThor ran Proof of Authority, with blocks produced by 101 Authority Masternodes whose operators disclosed their identity to the foundation and passed a know-your-customer check. The Hayabusa hard fork on December 2, 2025 moved it to delegated proof of stake with 101 validators. VET is staked through StarGate, which mints an NFT representing the position, and that NFT is delegated to a validator. Validators keep 30 percent of block rewards plus priority fees on blocks they produce, and the other 70 percent goes to delegators by effective stake, over periods of 7, 15 or 30 days. Multi-clause transactions let one transaction carry several operations that succeed or fail together, and fee delegation lets an application pay gas for a user.

Key Ecosystem Components

• StarGate, where VET locks into tradeable Delegator NFTs across tiers with different reward multipliers, from Dawn to Mjolnir X
• VTHO, the separate gas token burned to pay for transactions
• VeWorld, the official wallet, holding VET, VTHO, B3TR and NFTs
• VeBetter and its B3TR token, apps that reward verified real-world actions
• VeVote, the governance venue that replaced the steering committee

VET Token Utility

VET is the asset staked to secure the network. Since Hayabusa, VTHO is generated only by VET that is staked and delegated, so holding VET without delegating no longer produces gas. It is also the value transfer asset, the collateral required to run a validator, and the basis for governance weight, since voting power follows the node tiers a participant controls.

What Makes VeChain Unique?

The split between VET and VTHO is the clearest structural difference. Because fees are paid in a separate token, a business budgeting transaction costs is not directly exposed to the main asset's price, and fee delegation extends that shelter to end users, who can transact without first acquiring gas.

How VeChain Differs from Similar Projects

Against general-purpose smart contract platforms, VeChain targets a narrower job: attesting data about physical goods and processes. Against device-oriented networks such as IOTA and IoTeX, it leans less on hardware and more on enterprise integration. Its small validator set favors predictable performance over broad permissionless block production.

Use Cases of VeChain

• Supply chain provenance and food traceability, including work with Walmart China
• Digitized audits and certifications, where the assurance company DNV has built commercial products on VeChainThor
• EU digital product passports, where VeChain and partner Rekord reported over 100,000 passport events by December 2025
• Sustainability apps distributing B3TR, plus loyalty and NFT campaigns

How VeChain Is Secured

Security now rests on delegated proof of stake: validators commit substantial VET and attract delegated stake, so misbehavior carries economic cost. Before Hayabusa it relied on KYC-verified authority nodes with reputational exposure. Application risk is as on any EVM chain: contract bugs, not consensus failures, cause most user loss.

Risks and Considerations

The consensus change is recent, so validator economics and delegation behavior are still settling, and 101 validators is a concentrated set by any measure. Enterprise pilots do not always convert into sustained on-chain activity, and announced collaborations are not the same as paid usage. Holders who do not delegate now earn nothing, a real change from the old passive VTHO model.

Why VeChain Matters

Few chains have run enterprise deployments in production for years rather than in pilots alone, and EU digital product passport rules give that work a concrete regulatory driver. Whether that converts into durable fee revenue is the open question.

Where Can You Buy VeChain (VET)?

VET trades on most large centralized exchanges, including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, Bitget, Gate, KuCoin, HTX, Upbit and MEXC. Pairs are usually quoted against USDT, USDC and BTC, plus fiat markets in EUR, KRW and TRY.

Storage Options After Purchase

VeWorld is the official self-custody wallet and the natural choice if you intend to stake through StarGate. Ledger hardware wallets support VET and VeChain tokens for cold storage. Leaving VET on an exchange means the exchange holds the keys and usually that you cannot delegate.

Related Coins

• VeThor Token (VTHO)
• IOTA (IOTA)
• IoTeX (IOTX)
• Hedera (HBAR)
• Algorand (ALGO)