DUSK spent years as a token waiting for its chain. Mainnet arrived in January 2025, but a bridge-key theft and a pause on new Phoenix transactions later showed that privacy engineering and operational trust are separate problems.
DUSK began as an 18-decimal Ethereum token and also circulated on BSC before its own chain was operational.
The 2024 on-ramp locked those representations and credited 9-decimal native DUSK; rounding below one LUX belongs to migration mechanics, not a market fee.
Dusk mainnet uses Moonlight for public account balances and Phoenix for shielded notes proved with zero knowledge.
Succinct Attestation selects a proposer and validation and ratification committees by eligible stake; 1,000 DUSK is the documented minimum.
The stated ceiling is 1,000,000,000 DUSK: 500,000,000 initially allocated and another 500,000,000 emitted over 36 years.
The project later announced DuskDS, an OP Stack DuskEVM and a private DuskVM. The architecture announcement is not proof that every layer is production-ready.
A stolen bridge signing key moved DUSK in January 2026 without breaking Layer-1 consensus, proving that migration custody had a separate failure path.
Boreas required a coordinated restart and paused new Phoenix admissions. Official sources do not define a binding holder vote over such upgrades or give DUSK holders equity, redemption or claims on user-issued RWAs.
DUSK began as an ERC-20 token, before the project had an operational native ledger.
Dusk activated its Ethereum and BSC on-ramp so legacy ERC-20 and BEP-20 balances could enter the native genesis state.
The December 20 rollout plan scheduled genesis stakes and a cluster dry run for December 29; that source alone does not prove the dry run completed.
Dusk refreshed the cluster in operational mode, produced its first immutable blocks and opened the bridge for later legacy-token migration.
Dusk, NPEX and Quantoz described a plan to bring the regulated EURQ euro token to the network, testing the chain’s regulated-finance thesis with a named asset.
Dusk announced DuskDS for settlement, DuskEVM for EVM execution and DuskVM for private execution; the announcement did not itself prove that every layer was live.
Attackers used a compromised signing wallet to move DUSK; the team shut the bridge while reporting that Layer-1 consensus had not failed.
PLONK V2 went live at block 3,470,360 as a scheduled protocol activation, not a token-holder governance event.
A coordinated restart activated Boreas at block 4,414,095 and paused admission of new Phoenix transactions while Moonlight transfers remained available.
Last evidence review: 2026-09-05
Dusk is a layer-1 blockchain built for financial applications, including asset tokenization. DUSK is its native token: users pay transaction fees with it, and participants stake it to help secure the network. The network, its native token, and securities issued by an application are different things.
Native DUSK uses 9 decimals. Older ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum and BEP-20 tokens on BSC use 18 decimals and follow a separate migration process to reach the native network.
Financial applications need shared records that other participants can verify, but they may also need to keep transaction details confidential. Publishing every balance and transfer exposes information; keeping everything in a private database makes independent verification harder.
Dusk addresses that tension through public and shielded transaction models on a shared blockchain. It aims to support financial applications without making confidentiality and verification mutually exclusive. The infrastructure does not itself give DUSK holders ownership of assets issued by those applications or replace their legal and eligibility requirements.
Transactions consume gas paid in DUSK. The Succinct Attestation consensus mechanism selects a block proposer and validation and ratification committees from eligible stake; the documented minimum stake is 1,000 DUSK. Transaction fees and newly emitted tokens fund block rewards.
Moonlight records public account balances, while Phoenix uses shielded notes and zero-knowledge proofs. These are distinct transaction models, not separate tokens. The Boreas documentation records a pause on new Phoenix transactions at the June 10, 2026 mainnet restart; Moonlight remained available, and historical Phoenix state was retained. Privacy features in the design should not be confused with transactions the network currently accepts.
The supply model allocates 500 million DUSK initially and emits another 500 million over 36 years, with a one-billion-token ceiling. The later DuskDS, DuskEVM and DuskVM architecture announcement is separate from proof that every proposed layer is operational.
Legacy Ethereum and BSC balances migrate by locking the old representation and crediting native DUSK with 9 decimals. Native DUSK pays gas and can be staked.
No. Phoenix is the shielded transaction model, but the Boreas update on 2026-06-10 paused admission of new Phoenix transactions while Moonlight remained available.
The architecture announcement mentions governance, but reviewed sources do not define a binding holder vote. DUSK also gives no documented ownership of securities issued by network users.
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