HOT Labs

HOT Labs is the development organization behind HOT Protocol, a decentralized Chain Signature Protocol launched in early 2024. The lab was co-founded by Petr Volnov—previously the creator of HERE Wallet, the leading NEAR Protocol wallet by user count—and Yuriy Olentyr. Core protocol logic is deployed on NEAR blockchain, which provides the decentralized state layer, while the signing infrastructure extends to any external chain.

Chain Signature Protocol

The protocol's core innovation is a decentralized Multi-Party Computation (MPC) network that allows wallets and smart contracts to sign transactions on external blockchains without ever holding a private key on a single server. Where traditional MPC custody solutions are operated by a single company, HOT's signing network is distributed across independent validators running inside Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs). The TEE approach strengthens security guarantees while reducing the economic barrier to running a node.

Validators—including EverStake, Aurora, and HAPI—jointly compute signatures using threshold cryptography. No individual node reconstructs the full key or sees the complete transaction being signed, and all messages between users and signing nodes are end-to-end encrypted. The design is formally described in a December 2025 arXiv preprint co-authored by HOT Labs founder Petr Volnov.

Key management logic can be integrated with smart contracts on any supported chain. HOT Labs has documented integrations with Ethereum, Solana, TON, Stellar, BNB Smart Chain, and EVM-compatible networks.

HOT Wallet

HOT Wallet is HOT Labs' flagship consumer product—a non-custodial multi-chain wallet available as a Telegram Mini App, browser extension, and mobile application. The wallet eliminates seed phrases: account recovery is handled through 2FA options including SMS, email, Google Authenticator, and biometrics. Users retain full self-custody because the signing keys are distributed across the MPC validator network rather than stored on any single server or company.

The wallet supports over 160 blockchains, including Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Solana, TON, Stellar, TRON, and Bitcoin. By mid-2026 it had accumulated more than 30 million wallets and processed over one billion transactions, making it the largest wallet in the NEAR ecosystem by both users and transaction volume.

HOT Wallet integrates directly with NEAR Intents—a system where users declare a desired swap outcome and solver infrastructure determines the optimal execution path across liquidity sources. This removes the need for users to manually route trades through individual DEXes. The wallet also supports direct access to lending protocols such as Rhea Finance, where users can lend USDC and USDT from the app's Earn tab.

Hacken has audited the HOT Wallet's Omni Token Solidity implementation. Trail of Bits and Veridise have also conducted protocol audits.

Products and Infrastructure

HOT Labs has built a suite of applications and tools on top of the Chain Signature Protocol:

HOT Bridge (OmniBridge): Facilitates cross-chain asset transfers without wrapped tokens or centralized intermediaries, completing transfers in approximately 30 seconds at the cost of a standard token transfer.

HEX Exchange: A multi-chain DEX that routes swaps through OmniBridge and NEAR Intents. Solana, TON, Ethereum, and other assets are accessible from a single interface. In April 2026, HOT Labs integrated LI.FI into HEX to expand supported token pairs and blockchains.

HOT Craft: A chain-abstracted NFT marketplace leveraging the same signing infrastructure.

WalletMarket: A platform for trading illiquid assets.

HOTScan: A blockchain explorer for transactions processed through the HOT Protocol.

The $HOT Token

$HOT is the native utility token of the protocol. Validators stake $HOT to participate in the signing network and earn rewards, while users spend $HOT as fees when signing transactions across chains. This creates a demand relationship tied directly to wallet activity volume. A Token Generation Event (TGE) has been signaled, and MEXC has published details about a HOT Protocol airdrop mechanism tied to wallet usage history.

Funding and Grants

In November 2024, the TON Foundation awarded HOT Labs a $500,000 grant to build a memecoin launch platform for the TON blockchain. The platform uses HOT's Omni technology to enable gas-free token deployment accessible to retail users, targeting increased memecoin trading volume on TON. An additional grant round followed in May 2025. Grant recipients are subject to KPI reporting and bi-weekly progress updates to the TON Memecoin Working Group.

HOT Labs has participated in NEAR Protocol ecosystem initiatives, including a confidential intents Milestone Incentive Program where NEAR tokens unlock at a price target once TVL milestones in the confidential balance system are reached. As of mid-2026, the protocol has a live Betanet, functioning cross-chain swaps across 100+ networks, and more than 50 smart contracts deployed.