IoTeX

IoTeX is a blockchain for DePIN, short for decentralized physical infrastructure networks, and for what it calls real-world AI. It gives devices and AI agents an ID on the chain. It checks that data really came from a given machine. Payments settle in its own coin, IOTX. IoTeX runs its own chain, apart from Solana, and it works with Ethereum tools. It went live in 2019. In 2026 it lived through a bridge hack, a long outage and a Coinbase trading halt, and it shipped a big staking upgrade in October.

What is IoTeX and what does IOTX do?

IoTeX is a blockchain built so machines can join crypto networks. A sensor, a car, a camera or an AI agent gets an ID. The data it sends can be checked. The work it does can be paid for in IOTX.

IOTX is the chain's coin. You use it to pay fees, to stake, and to vote for the delegates who run the chain. The IoTeX website lists the main parts as the chain, the ioID ID system, W3bstream for data checks, QuickSilver and the Trio AI models. Around them sit the ioPay wallet, the IoTeX Hub app and DePINscan, a site that tracks DePIN projects.

In October 2026 the IoTeX website claimed more than 41 million DePIN devices. That is the project's own figure. No outside group has checked it.

How the IoTeX blockchain works: Roll-DPoS and delegates

IoTeX runs on Roll-DPoS, a form of delegated proof of stake. IOTX holders lock up coins and vote for delegates. The top 36 by votes run the chain, and each hour 24 of them are picked at random to make blocks, per the IoTeX docs.

To vote, you stake at least 100 IOTX. The top 100 delegates share rewards based on their votes. The 36 that make blocks also earn a fixed reward for each block.

This setup is fast and cheap. The cost is a small group in charge. A small group can act fast, and IoTeX did so in 2026. After the bridge hack, the team and delegates paused the chain and froze the attacker's wallets.

IoTeX Zanzibar hard fork and on-chain staking rewards (IIP-59)

The Zanzibar hard fork went live on IoTeX on 19 October 2026. Its main change, IIP-59, has the chain itself work out and pay staking rewards to voters. Before, an outside service called Hermes did that job.

Under IIP-59, rewards build up for each delegate over a set period and then pay out on the chain, per the v2.5.0 release notes. Most delegates moved off Hermes on their own at the fork. A few had to opt in by hand, and a handful with missing settings stayed on Hermes.

Two days after the fork, IoTeX said the chain had paid rewards to 13,846 voters. You no longer need to claim them or trust a third party.

The fork also adds a key check for delegates. It blocks fake keys ahead of a planned change that merges many signatures into one, called IIP-52. IoTeX said Binance paused IOTX deposits and withdrawals for a short time to handle the upgrade.

An earlier fork, Yap, went live in June 2026. It made the chain work like Ethereum after its Pectra upgrade, and added smart accounts.

ioID and W3bstream: device identity and verified data

ioID and W3bstream let a real device send data an app can trust. ioID gives each device or AI agent its own ID on the chain, backed by a secret key. W3bstream checks the data the device sends and makes a proof a smart contract can read.

Here is how they fit together. Say you run a network of weather stations and pay the owners in a token. ioID ties each payment to a real, listed device, not a random wallet. W3bstream lets your contract check that a reading came from that device and was not changed on the way. Without both, someone could fake a station or fake its data and still get paid.

IoTeX also offers DePIN Infrastructure Modules, or DIMs. These are ready-made tools for IDs, data checks and staking. A new DePIN project can use them in place of building its own.

IoTeX AI products: Trio, Trio-Spark and QuickSilver Pro

Since mid-2026, IoTeX has pushed hard into AI. It now calls itself an open network for AI that runs on devices and machines, not only in big data centres. Its core developer, MachineFi Lab, builds most of these products.

Trio is a family of AI models meant to understand the real world and choose what to do next. IoTeX unveiled it in June 2026. The first model, Trio-Spark, picks one action from a short list in a single step and says how sure it is. It does not write text. In October 2026 MachineFi Lab released a mid-sized version you can download on request, for non-commercial use only.

QuickSilver Pro is a paid AI API run by MachineFi Inc. Developers get one endpoint for many popular models, and it works with the same code as OpenAI's API. It takes cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Alipay, WeChat Pay and USDC. The site does not mention IOTX, so you do not need the coin to use it.

IoTeX also promotes Rapid-MLX, a free tool for running AI models on Apple Macs. Its code sits on co-founder Raullen Chai's GitHub. In October 2026 QuickSilver Pro and Rapid-MLX began testing ways for home Macs to serve paid API traffic.

IOTX token: native IOTX, legacy ERC-20 and the redemption portal

IOTX comes in two forms. The first was an ERC-20 token on Ethereum. Native IOTX on the IoTeX chain took over fees and staking once the chain went live. On 12 October 2026, IoTeX opened a redemption portal to swap the old tokens for native IOTX.

The swap is one for one, with no fees. You send old IOTX from your own wallet to the portal's address on Ethereum, then sign a message to prove it was you. Native IOTX lands at the same address on IoTeX. The portal warns you not to send straight from an exchange such as Coinbase, because those coins cannot be credited. Move them to your own wallet first. We saw no deadline on the portal.

IoTeX says native IOTX works on Binance, Upbit, Bithumb, Kraken, Crypto.com, Revolut and Bitkub. Bitkub, in Thailand, switched to native IOTX in late September.

What happened to IoTeX in 2026: bridge hack, outage and Coinbase delisting

IoTeX had a hard 2026. Its ioTube bridge was hacked in February. The chain stopped making blocks for most of a day in June. Coinbase halted IOTX trading in September. The chain still runs and still ships upgrades, such as the Zanzibar fork in October.

ioTube bridge hack, February 2026

On 21 February 2026, an attacker used a stolen private key on the Ethereum side of ioTube to take over the bridge. They printed hundreds of millions of fake bridged IOTX tokens. IoTeX put the total damage at about $4.4 million.

The team and delegates paused the IoTeX chain. They restarted it on 24 February with an upgrade that froze the attacker's wallets for good, per IoTeX's second update. About 45 million IOTX was locked in them. IoTeX said the chain itself was not hacked.

The IoTeX Foundation promised to repay every user in full, per its compensation plan. Smaller losses, up to $10,000, qualified for full and quick repayment. Bigger losses get that amount first and the rest over the next year. The bridge was shut until an outside audit is done, and we found no notice that it has reopened. Upbit and Bithumb warned users about IOTX after the hack, then lifted the warning in March.

Mainnet halt, June 2026

In early June 2026, the IoTeX chain made no new blocks for more than 21 hours, according to reports based on the IoTeXScan explorer. No cause was given when those reports ran. The Yap upgrade went live a few days later.

Coinbase halts IOTX trading, September 2026

Coinbase stopped IOTX trading on its main app, its exchange and Coinbase Prime on 23 September 2026, per Coinbase Markets. Coinbase pointed to its regular review of listed coins and gave no other reason. You could still see and withdraw your IOTX.

Is IoTeX safe? Risks to weigh before using or holding IOTX

The main risks with IoTeX are a small group running the chain, a record of bridge and uptime failures, and fewer places to trade. None of these means the chain will fail. Each one has already cost users in 2026.

Start with control. Only 36 delegates run the chain, and they can act together. After the hack they paused the chain and froze wallets. That helped the victims, but it also shows that wallets on IoTeX can be frozen by an upgrade. The Zanzibar fork unfroze 13 wallets, which shows the list changes by upgrade too.

Bridges are the next risk. The February loss came from one stolen key. Any bridged token that relies on ioTube, or any other bridge, carries that risk. Native IOTX on the IoTeX chain does not.

Then there is uptime and trading. The June halt left users unable to move funds for most of a day. The Coinbase halt leaves fewer places to trade IOTX, above all in the US.

On security plans, IoTeX opened IIP-64 in October 2026. It would move the chain to new signatures meant to resist future quantum computers. It is still a draft that needs review and a vote.

Who IoTeX is for

IoTeX suits teams building a DePIN network who want ready-made device IDs and data checks on a chain that works with Ethereum tools. It also suits IOTX holders who want to stake and vote with as little as 100 IOTX, through the ioPay wallet or IoTeX Hub.

It suits you less if you need a big US exchange, since Coinbase halted IOTX trading. It also suits you less if you want to reach Solana's users and apps. IoTeX is a separate chain, and moving funds between the two means using a bridge.

AI developers can use QuickSilver Pro or Trio-Spark without holding any IOTX. Those products sit beside the chain and do not need it.

IoTeX vs Helium and other DePIN alternatives

The closest match is Helium, which runs on Solana. Helium is one DePIN network with its own hardware and tokens. IoTeX is a chain and a toolkit that many DePIN projects can build on. If you are picking where to build, the choice is IoTeX's own chain and device tools, or Solana's larger base of users and trading.

People also compare IoTeX with IOTA and JasmyCoin, two other projects built around machine data. For the Solana view of DePIN, see our summary of the Solana Foundation's DePIN talk.

IoTeX team and history

IoTeX was founded in 2017 by Raullen Chai, Jing Sun, Qevan Guo and Xinxin Fan. Chai has a PhD in cryptography from the University of Waterloo. He worked at Oracle, at Google, and at Uber, where he ran cryptography research. Guo was a research scientist and manager at Facebook. Fan was a senior researcher at Bosch and also has a PhD in cryptography.

Chai is CEO of both IoTeX and MachineFi Lab, the company that builds IoTeX's main products. MachineFi Lab raised a $10 million seed round led by Samsung Next, Draper Dragon Fund and Jump Crypto, Gulf News reported. The IoTeX website lists Solana, Polygon, Fireblocks, Arm, Samsung Next and Google Cloud among its partners.

IOTX first launched as an Ethereum token in 2018, and the IoTeX chain went live a year later in 2019.