What Is VeChain (VET)? A Two-Token Layer 1 Blockchain

VeChain (VET) is a layer 1 blockchain that runs on two tokens, VET for holding and staking and VTHO for paying transaction fees. Its chain, VeChainThor, has produced blocks since June 2018. In December 2025 it moved from approved validators to delegated staking, where anyone who stakes enough VET can apply to run a validator.

That switch also made new VTHO a staking reward, and fees burn only a sliver of it. From the first staking rewards in December 2025 to the early-November close, the chain minted about 7.57 billion new VTHO and burned about 68 million in fees. In October 2026 fees burned 0.4% of the VTHO minted, the lowest share of any full month since the switch.

How Does VeChain Work?

VeChain's docs say Sunny Lu founded the project in 2015, three years before its chain produced its first block on 30 June 2018.

VET is VeChainThor's native coin, built into the protocol itself. VTHO is the token you spend on gas, the fee for every transaction and smart contract call, and the docs also call it VeThor or energy. Keeping the two apart means you hold one asset and pay your running costs in another.

Since the Galactica upgrade on 1 July 2025, VeChain's network fees come in two parts. The protocol burns the base fee, and an optional tip goes to the validator that proposed the block.

The base fee never drops below 0.00001 VTHO per unit of gas and climbs only when blocks run more than three-quarters full. A plain VET transfer uses 21,000 gas, so at the floor it burns 0.21 VTHO. The chain adds a block about every 10 seconds.

How Many VeChain Coins Are There?

VeChain created about 86.7 billion VET, 86,712,634,466 to be exact, when its chain started in June 2018. The genesis code gives 25 million VET to the account backing each of its 101 original validators and splits the rest into four equal shares of about 21 billion.

VeChain's docs say that supply is "fixed, meaning no new tokens will ever be created." No VET comes from staking, which pays out in VTHO.

VET splits into 18 decimal places. The docs pitch that for tiny payments, such as rewards in sustainability programs or exact value transfers in supply chains, the kind of flow behind supply chain finance on the blockchain.

VTHO is different. The docs say it "doesn't have a fixed maximum supply," and by the early-November close the chain had minted about 109.2 billion VTHO since launch and burned about 4.1 billion, leaving about 105.1 billion outstanding.

Who Runs VeChain Since the Switch to Staking?

Until December 2025, VeChain ran on proof of authority, with blocks made by up to 101 authorized validators. The Hayabusa upgrade switched it to delegated proof of stake on 2 December 2025, and the first staking rewards followed a week later, on 9 December. Holding VET in a wallet stopped generating VTHO at that upgrade.

Anyone who stakes between 25 million and 600 million VET can apply to run a validator, with at most 101 active at once.

Validators lock their stake for 7, 15 or 30 days, and the lock renews automatically until they signal an exit. Smaller holders join through StarGate, VeChain's staking app, where the docs say you buy a StarGate NFT and delegate it to a validator.

Stake also carries weight in VeChain's blockchain consensus, the process by which validators agree on each new block. A validator's chance of proposing the next block rises with the VET staked behind it.

Each block pays a reward in new VTHO. The validator that produced it keeps 30% and its delegators share 70%, or the validator keeps it all when it has no delegators. The reward follows the square root of all staked VET, so four times as much stake earns only twice the VTHO.

By the early-November close, all 101 validator seats were full with none waiting in the queue. Stakers had locked about 14.5 billion VET, roughly a sixth of all VET, and each block paid about 2,932 VTHO.

Does VeChain Burn More VTHO Than It Mints?

No. In each full month from January to October 2026, fees burned between 0.4% and nearly 2% of the VTHO the chain minted, and the share fell in seven of the eight months after February.

The burn tracks how busy the chain is. Each unit of gas burns the base fee, and that fee sat at its floor at the early-November close, a sign that blocks weren't filling up.

October's fees burned about 100,000 VTHO a day. In the last year of proof of authority the daily burn averaged about 472,000, so October's was about 79% lower.

Minting slowed too, but by less. The chain minted about 25 million VTHO a day in October, about a third less than the 37.5 million a day that holding VET used to create.

VeChain's docs say burning "helps regulate the circulating supply of VTHO." On these numbers it barely does. Paid at the close's rate for a full year, the block reward would come to about 9.2 billion VTHO, close to 9% of what was outstanding.

That reward goes to a smaller group than before. Spread over all staked VET, it came to about 0.64 VTHO per VET a year at the close, roughly four times what an idle VET earned before the switch. So VTHO works as a reward for staking VET, and its own supply keeps growing unless use of the chain climbs a long way.

What Did the Interstellar Upgrade Add?

The Interstellar upgrade went live on 16 September 2026 and brought VeChainThor's smart contract engine up to Ethereum's Cancun, Prague and Osaka releases. In practice, smart contracts built with current Solidity tools run on VeChain unchanged, according to the release notes.

Those notes list no change to how VET or VTHO is created. A maintenance release in early November 2026 switched on no new protocol upgrade, its notes say.

How to Buy VET Safely

You can buy VET on Phemex through the VET/USDT spot pair, where you own the coins outright with no leverage. Phemex's VET perpetual is delisted under an August 2026 notice, so the exchange has no live VET futures market. VTHO's spot pair and perpetual on Phemex are both delisted too. Futures use leverage, and a leveraged position is closed automatically if losses push its margin below a set minimum.

1. Sign in to your Phemex account, or open one, and fund it with USDT.

2. Go to the Spot market and open the VET/USDT trading pair to see its order book.

3. Pick a market order to buy at the going price or a limit order to name your own price, then confirm the amount.

4. To hold VET yourself, withdraw it on the VeChainThor network to a wallet that supports VeChain, and check the network before you send.

5. If you want VTHO, stake your VET through StarGate.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the VeChain crypto network still active?

Yes. By the early-November close every one of its 101 validator seats was taken, and its developers shipped the Interstellar upgrade in September 2026. Fee activity was thin, though, with burns taking under 1% of the VTHO minted since staking began.

Is VeChain a scam?

VeChain is a public blockchain with open-source node software that has made blocks since June 2018. The release notes for its December 2025 staking upgrade list audits by Trail of Bits and Halborn. Its real risks are market ones, such as a gas token whose supply keeps growing.

Does holding VET still earn VTHO?

No. VET sitting in a wallet stopped earning VTHO at the December 2025 upgrade. New VTHO now goes only to staked VET as block rewards, so a holder earns it by staking, as a validator or through StarGate. Our VeChain price prediction covers where VET's price could go.

Bottom Line

VeChain is alive and still upgrading, and its two tokens work the way the code says they do. What December 2025 changed is who gets paid.

New VTHO flows to stakers at a pace fees barely touch, so the gas token behaves like a staking reward that keeps diluting. If you buy VET, you're betting that use of the chain lifts the burn off its floor, and October 2026 pointed the other way.

What to watch: the base fee. It rises only when demand pushes blocks past that three-quarters mark, so a base fee above its floor would be the first sign that use is catching up with the rewards.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.