What Is VeChain (VET)? Supply Chain Blockchain

Last updated: October 2026

VeChain (VET) is a Layer 1 blockchain built for businesses that need to track products, carbon data and other real-world records. It was founded by Sunny Lu, former CIO of Louis Vuitton China. It runs on a two-token model: VET is the value and staking token, and VTHO pays transaction fees. The biggest change in its history came on December 2, 2025. The Hayabusa hard fork replaced VeChain’s proof-of-authority masternodes with delegated proof of stake, and the new StarGate platform became the way to stake. A key consequence for holders: VTHO is no longer generated just by holding VET. It now goes to VET that is staked and delegated.

• Consensus: delegated proof of stake with 101 validators since Hayabusa (December 2025).
• Staking: through StarGate, where stakes are represented by NFTs. The dashboard minimum fell to 10,000 VET in January 2026.
• Supply: about 86.7 billion VET maximum. VTHO is issued to stakers and partly burned as fees.
• Adoption angle: enterprise traceability and the VeBetterDAO sustainability-rewards app ecosystem.

History and Founders

From luxury retail to blockchain (2015–2018)

Sunny Lu spent years running IT for Louis Vuitton’s China business, where counterfeit goods and opaque supply chains were daily problems. He started VeChain in 2015 inside a Chinese company called Bitse, with the idea of tagging physical products with chips or QR codes that link to tamper-evident records. The project raised funds in 2017 through the VEN token on Ethereum. On June 30, 2018 it launched its own chain, VeChainThor, and swapped VEN for the new VET token at 1:100. The VeChain Foundation is based in Singapore.

The partnership years (2018–2023)

VeChain became known for enterprise announcements. They included a 2019 food-safety traceability platform with Walmart China and the China Chain-Store & Franchise Association, BMW‘s VerifyCar app for odometer records, and a long-running relationship with the assurance firm DNV. Those deals gave VeChain real-world credibility. But announced pilots don’t always become ongoing on-chain volume, and public data on how many remain in production is limited.

The Renaissance roadmap (2024–2026)

• 2024: VeBetterDAO launched. It rewards users with the B3TR token for verified sustainable actions, such as reusable cups and recycling, through partner apps, and B3TR converts 1:1 into the VOT3 governance token. VeChain says the ecosystem reached more than 5.3 million users and 50+ apps, and the full stack was open-sourced on April 29, 2026.
• July 2025, Galactica: introduced a dynamic fee market similar to Ethereum’s EIP-1559.
• December 2, 2025, Hayabusa: activated at block 23,414,400 with a transition period ending December 9. It moved consensus from 101 vetted authority masternodes to 101 staked validators, launched the StarGate staking platform on mainnet and rewrote VTHO issuance.
• January 19, 2026: the StarGate staking dashboard launched with a 10,000 VET minimum. Reports said billions of VET moved into staking within months, though totals differ by source.
• 2026 roadmap: VeChain describes a “fourth chapter” in which VeChainThor acts as a trust layer for AI agents. It also lists Interstellar, the final Renaissance phase, aimed at full EVM equivalence, cross-chain messaging and on-chain attestation for tokenized real-world assets.

How VeChain Works

Until December 2025, VeChain used proof of authority. 101 “Authority Masternodes,” operated by entities vetted by the foundation, produced blocks. That was fast and predictable but centralized. Under Hayabusa’s delegated proof of stake, validators stake VET to produce blocks, and ordinary holders delegate to them through StarGate. Each stake is minted as an NFT. That NFT can be delegated to a validator and is also used for governance voting. Rewards depend on the validator’s performance and your staking position.

Under the hood VeChainThor is EVM-compatible and accounts-based. It adds features aimed at businesses: multi-clause transactions (several actions in one transaction) and fee delegation, where an app pays VTHO fees for its users so they never need to hold tokens. That is a big help for consumer apps. For the basics of how ledgers like this record data, see what a blockchain is.

What VeChain Supply-Chain Tracking Looks Like in Practice

It helps to picture a single product. Suppose a winery wants buyers to be able to verify a bottle:

1. Tagging: each bottle gets a unique identifier, such as an NFC chip, an RFID tag or a QR code, linked to an on-chain record.
2. Recording events: harvest, bottling, shipping and customs checks are written to VeChainThor as signed transactions by the parties who handled the product. Bulky files like certificates or photos usually stay off-chain, and only their fingerprints (hashes) go on-chain.
3. Paying for writes: the business pays the VTHO fees through fee delegation, so neither its staff nor the customer needs to hold crypto.
4. Verification: a shopper scans the tag and sees the history. Because records can’t be edited after the fact, tampering would show up as a mismatch.

The limitation is the “oracle problem.” A blockchain can prove that a record hasn’t changed, but not that it was true when entered. If someone tags a fake product or logs a false temperature reading, the chain faithfully preserves the error. That is why VeChain pairs its technology with auditors such as DNV and with hardware sensors, and why independent checks on who writes the data matter as much as the ledger itself.

Tokenomics

Before Hayabusa, simply holding VET in a wallet generated VTHO, which made VET work a bit like a dividend asset. That ended in December 2025. If you hold VET outside StarGate today, it does not earn VTHO. Hayabusa also adjusted issuance and burn parameters, and reports have described lower VTHO inflation and a higher burn share. Check VeChain’s official documentation for current figures before relying on any yield estimate. More on dual-token design in our tokenomics explainer.

VeChain is not the only two-token network; our explainer on Ontology’s ONT and ONG model covers a chain where staking ONT earns the token used for fees.

Enterprise Partnerships

• Walmart China (2019): traceability for selected fresh-food product lines through a VeChain-based platform.
• BMW (2019): VerifyCar, which logs vehicle mileage and service data to fight odometer fraud.
• DNV: a long-standing assurance and certification collaboration, including product-origin labels and sustainability data.
• Sports and consumer brands: VeChain has also run marketing partnerships, including with the UFC, to promote its sustainability apps.

An honest caveat: most partnership details were announced years ago and came from VeChain or its partners. There is little independent public data on how much on-chain activity they generate today. Treat any partnership as evidence of credibility, not as proof of token demand.

How to Buy and Stake VET

1. Buy VET on an exchange that lists it, such as Binance or Crypto.com. Availability varies by country, so confirm that your exchange supports withdrawals on the native VeChainThor network.
2. Withdraw to VeWorld, VeChain’s official wallet. Ledger devices also support VET through compatible apps.
3. Open StarGate, choose a staking level, stake at least 10,000 VET to mint your staking NFT, and delegate it to a validator.
4. Track VTHO rewards in the dashboard. Rates are dynamic and change with validator performance and total stake.

Read StarGate’s current rules for exit and cooldown periods before staking. Our general staking guide covers the questions to ask.

For exchange choices, wallet setup and how VTHO fits in, follow our step-by-step guide on how to buy VeChain (VET) before you move on to staking.

Pros and Cons

• Pro: a long enterprise track record and a founder with retail supply-chain experience.
• Pro: the two-token model and fee delegation keep user costs predictable.
• Pro: the Hayabusa DPoS switch opened block production to staked validators, a meaningful step away from foundation-picked nodes.
• Pro: VeBetterDAO gives the chain a consumer-facing use with millions of reported users.
• Con: 101 validators is still a small set, and the foundation remains influential.
• Con: enterprise pilots have rarely translated into sustained token demand.
• Con: passive VTHO income from simply holding VET is gone. You now have to stake through StarGate.
• Con: a very large VET supply means meaningful price moves need large capital flows.

For forward scenarios see our VET price prediction, and compare other enterprise chains in the crypto coin directory.

FAQ

Does VeChain have real partnerships?

Yes. Walmart China, BMW and DNV all publicly worked with VeChain, mainly around 2018–2019, and the UFC has run marketing campaigns with it. What is harder to verify is current scale: how many of those deployments still generate regular on-chain activity. Use announcements as a sign of credibility rather than a measure of demand.

How do I earn VTHO now?

Since the Hayabusa upgrade in December 2025, you earn VTHO by staking VET through StarGate and delegating the resulting staking NFT to a validator. Holding VET in a wallet without delegating no longer generates VTHO. Reward rates vary with validator performance and total stake.

What was the Hayabusa upgrade?

Hayabusa was a hard fork activated on December 2, 2025 at block 23,414,400. It switched VeChain from proof of authority to delegated proof of stake with 101 validators, launched StarGate staking on mainnet, and changed VTHO tokenomics so that rewards go to delegated stake.

Is VET a good investment?

VeChain has real enterprise history and a newly decentralized staking model. But partnership announcements have not reliably driven token demand, and VET has a very large supply. Treat it as a speculative position, and compare it against other real-world-asset and enterprise chains first.

Crypto is volatile and risky; this is education, not financial advice. Do your own research.