What is VeThor (VTHO)?
VeThor (VTHO) is the gas token of the VeChainThor blockchain. While VET is used for value transfer and staking, VTHO is spent every time the network processes a transaction or runs a smart contract. The project was founded in 2015 and launched this two-asset model with its mainnet in 2018.
What does VTHO do on VeChainThor?
Every action that changes the blockchain state consumes VTHO. This covers simple transfers, smart contract execution, and contract deployment. VTHO follows VeChain's VIP-180 standard, which is compatible with many Ethereum-style wallets. Application developers can also design transactions where the app pays the VTHO fee on behalf of its users, which smooths onboarding for non-technical participants. For example, a company recording supply chain events pays for those records in VTHO without needing its customers to hold the token themselves.
Keeping the gas token separate from the main value token helps businesses forecast their operational costs. A company writing regular supply chain updates does not have to worry that a rise in VET's market price will make its next thousand transactions suddenly unaffordable. VET holders can stake their tokens to support network security, and under the updated model newly issued VTHO is distributed only to staked VET.
How is VTHO supply managed now?
In the original design, holding VET automatically generated VTHO over time. The network replaced that model with two significant changes in 2025. One update began burning the entire base portion of each transaction fee. The second update ended passive VTHO generation, so only VET that has been actively staked earns newly minted VTHO.
Staking users delegate their VET to a validator and receive VTHO as a reward; in some setups they can burn VTHO to shorten waiting periods. This also aligns network security with gas issuance, since participants who help validate the chain receive VTHO. The burn mechanism means that higher transaction volume removes more VTHO from circulation. There is no hard cap on the total VTHO supply. The circulating amount rises through staking rewards and falls through fee burns, so the medium-term trend depends on how heavily the network is used.