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After six years of development, Dusk developers will activate their mainnet today on January 7. The release is a crucial milestone for the Dusk Network, the privacy-focused blockchain seeking to comply with existing regulations.

This Dusk mainnet launch is important because it comes at a time when Dusk seeks to play a key role in real-world asset tokenization and take on competitors, including Ethereum and Solana.

The Dusk Mainnet Rollout
While Dusk launches the Dusk mainnet today, the release has been a multi-phase process that began over two weeks ago on December 20. In a statement, the team then announced the deployment of the Dusk Mainnet onramp contract on Ethereum and the Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

In this way, the team said, supporters would be free to migrate their DUSK tokens on Ethereum and BSC to the mainnet. The goal would be to ensure immediate availability on the mainnet now that the first immutable block goes live.

As part of their roadmap, Dusk developers also allowed early stakes to be on-ramped into the Genesis on December 29. On this day, the team deployed the “Mainnet Cluster.” However, early deposits were not possible until January 3 last week.

Why the Dusk Mainnet Launch Matters
For DUSK
Dusk Network
Dusk Network
3.46%
holders, today’s mainnet launch is a technical milestone that ushers what the Dusk development said is a “new era of financial innovation.”

Their mission is simple: bring traditional finance on-chain while maintaining privacy and complying with existing regulations. With today’s mainnet, it is easy to see why Dusk could redefine how financial players and even ordinary investors interact with capital and explore investment opportunities.

As Emanuele Francioni, the CEO and founder of Dusk Network, put it in an AMA, the layer-1 will “eliminate inefficiencies that continue to plague traditional finance.” Through cryptography, Dusk will record all records and transactions directly on-chain without the wait time common in traditional setups. So far, Dusk has partnered with NPEX, the Dutch exchange, signaling their intent to play a vital role in onboarding traditional players into the blockchain.

Besides lowering costs and complying with existing laws, the team is also innovating. In Q1 2025, Francioni, in an X Spaces, revealed plans to launch Lightspeed, a layer-2 solution compatible with Ethereum that settles on the Dusk Mainnet.

Additionally, the platform is changing the staking game via hyper staking, which will be available from January 7. The stake contract (which can be customized) is ready for deployment. It will allow anyone to stake directly via the network’s Phoenix 2.0 nodes or via a delegate privately.
How DUSK Crypto is Balancing Privacy and Compliance in Mainnet Launch
It will be interesting to see how the privacy-centric protocol evolve in 2025.

Today’s mainnet launch is when regulations across the globe is maturing and particularly tight, especially in Europe.

Fresh laws, including those curbing terrorist financing and money laundering, have become more stringent. Additionally, introducing the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) demands more transparency in financial transactions.
Because of these stringent measures, especially MiCA, Dusk delayed the mainnet’s originally scheduled launch date in April 2024. By postponing this launch, developers sought to adapt to evolving regulations so that layer-1 wouldn’t compromise on its core value proposition, privacy.

“We created a model that ticks all the boxes for various regulations, providing privacy while addressing the real issues these regulations target, namely anonymity,” Francioni noted.

Origins and Development History
Birth Background
DUSK Network was created in 2019 to tackle the challenges of privacy and transparency in blockchain transactions. It emerged during a period of increased focus on data privacy and the need for more secure blockchain solutions. DUSK Network aimed to provide a truly private, fast, and secure mechanism for transactions and asset transfers, bringing new possibilities to industries requiring confidential blockchain solutions.
Important Milestones
2019: Mainnet launch, introducing the novel Segregated Byzantine Agreement (SBA) consensus mechanism.2020: Implementation of the Secure Tunnel Switching (STS) for enhanced privacy in streaming transactions.2021: Price breakthrough, reaching an all-time high of $1.09 on December 30.2025: Continued development and adoption of the DUSK token for staking, consensus participation, and on-chain governance.
With support from its foundation and community, DUSK Network continues to optimize its technology, security, and real-world applications.
How Does DUSK Network Operate?
Decentralized Control
DUSK Network operates on a decentralized network of nodes spread globally, free from control by banks or governments. These nodes collaborate to validate transactions, ensuring system transparency and attack resistance, thus granting users greater autonomy and enhancing network resilience.
Blockchain Core
DUSK Network's blockchain is a public, immutable digital ledger recording every transaction. Transactions are grouped into blocks and linked through cryptographic hashes, forming a secure chain. Anyone can view the records, establishing trust without intermediaries. DUSK Network's unique Segregated Byzantine Agreement (SBA) consensus mechanism further enhances performance and privacy.
Ensuring Fairness
DUSK Network employs the SBA consensus mechanism to validate transactions and prevent fraudulent activities like double-spending. Participants maintain network security through running nodes and participating in the consensus process, receiving DUSK tokens as rewards. Its innovation lies in providing a privacy-oriented consensus mechanism that is more efficient than traditional PoW or PoS systems.
Secure Transactions
DUSK Network uses public-private key cryptography to protect transactions:
Private keys (like secret passwords) are used to sign transactionsPublic keys (like account numbers) are used to verify ownership
This mechanism ensures fund security while maintaining transaction privacy. Additionally, DUSK Network implements advanced privacy features through its Secure Tunnel Switching (STS) mechanism, providing enhanced confidentiality for transactions and communications.
DUSK's Market Performance
Circulation Overview
As of November 18, 2025, DUSK's circulating supply is 500,000,000 tokens, with a total supply of 500,000,000. The maximum supply is set at 1,000,000,000 tokens.
New tokens enter the market through the protocol's emission mechanism, which impacts its supply and demand dynamics.
Price Fluctuations
DUSK reached its all-time high of $1.09 on December 30, 2021.
Its lowest price was $0.01113274, recorded on March 13, 2020.
These fluctuations reflect market sentiment, adoption trends, and external factors.
Click to view the current market price of DUSK

Origins and Development History
Birth Background
DUSK Network was created in 2019 to tackle the challenges of privacy and transparency in blockchain transactions. It emerged during a period of increased focus on data privacy and the need for more secure blockchain solutions. DUSK Network aimed to provide a truly private, fast, and secure mechanism for transactions and asset transfers, bringing new possibilities to industries requiring confidential blockchain solutions.
Important Milestones
2019: Mainnet launch, introducing the novel Segregated Byzantine Agreement (SBA) consensus mechanism.2020: Implementation of the Secure Tunnel Switching (STS) for enhanced privacy in streaming transactions.2021: Price breakthrough, reaching an all-time high of $1.09 on December 30.2025: Continued development and adoption of the DUSK token for staking, consensus participation, and on-chain governance.
With support from its foundation and community, DUSK Network continues to optimize its technology, security, and real-world applications.
How Does DUSK Network Operate?
Decentralized Control
DUSK Network operates on a decentralized network of nodes spread globally, free from control by banks or governments. These nodes collaborate to validate transactions, ensuring system transparency and attack resistance, thus granting users greater autonomy and enhancing network resilience.
Blockchain Core
DUSK Network's blockchain is a public, immutable digital ledger recording every transaction. Transactions are grouped into blocks and linked through cryptographic hashes, forming a secure chain. Anyone can view the records, establishing trust without intermediaries. DUSK Network's unique Segregated Byzantine Agreement (SBA) consensus mechanism further enhances performance and privacy.
Ensuring Fairness
DUSK Network employs the SBA consensus mechanism to validate transactions and prevent fraudulent activities like double-spending. Participants maintain network security through running nodes and participating in the consensus process, receiving DUSK tokens as rewards. Its innovation lies in providing a privacy-oriented consensus mechanism that is more efficient than traditional PoW or PoS systems.
Secure Transactions
DUSK Network uses public-private key cryptography to protect transactions:
Private keys (like secret passwords) are used to sign transactionsPublic keys (like account numbers) are used to verify ownership
This mechanism ensures fund security while maintaining transaction privacy. Additionally, DUSK Network implements advanced privacy features through its Secure Tunnel Switching (STS) mechanism, providing enhanced confidentiality for transactions and communications.
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