VeChain’s Hayabusa upgrade activated on mainnet at block 23,414,400 on 2025-12-02, replacing the previous Proof-of-Authority model with a weighted Delegated Proof-of-Stake and staking-linked VTHO issuance. The upgrade reframes consensus, staking and fees to reduce inflationary pressure and improve enterprise suitability in line with VeChain’s Renaissance roadmap.
Consensus redesign and validator participation
Hayabusa replaces the former PoA architecture—built around 101 pre-approved masternode operators and 10-second blocks—with a weighted DPoS design that broadens validator participation. The migration is intended to disperse validation responsibilities, reduce single points of failure and increase censorship resistance while preserving or improving block finality and transaction costs, maintaining the high throughput required by enterprise dApps and shifting decision-making power toward token holders and delegated validators.
“The emperor is far away,” reads an old Chinese adage cited within project analysis as a metaphor for the perceived distance between centralized operators and broader stakeholders; Hayabusa expressly targets that gap by opening staking and delegation paths.
The upgrade ties VTHO generation to staked VET rather than automatic issuance to all VET holders. This structural change is expected to lower VTHO inflation by an estimated 60–70% and incentivize active staking, as under the new model only staked VET generates the network’s gas token, creating a demand-aligned mechanism designed to reduce idle VTHO accumulation in dormant accounts.
Hayabusa also introduces an NFT-based staking instrument integrated through the StarGate platform. Stakers receive NFTs that represent staking tier and position, which can enable transferable staking claims or other functionality and are intended to lower operational barriers for delegators, extend staking accessibility without running a full node and provide new liquidity options for locked capital.
Hayabusa is described as a central phase of the multi-stage VeChain Renaissance, which began with the Galactica mainnet launch on 2025-07-01. The upgrade’s technical and economic redesigns are complemented by governance and incentive initiatives, including VeBetterDAO and the proposed $B3TR token, created to reward sustainable actions and support a circular-economy use case set, signalling a pivot from purely technical upgrades to combined governance, token and product changes to attract enterprise integration.
Regulatory alignment is a stated objective. The project positions Hayabusa’s transparency and broader participation features as responsive to regulatory frameworks such as the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), aiming to lower legal uncertainty for institutional counterparties by addressing concerns about market manipulation, consumer protection and operational resilience.
Hayabusa represents a coordinated shift in VeChain’s protocol design toward delegated staking, demand-driven gas issuance and DAO-led incentives, intended to improve economic sustainability and institutional access. The mainnet activation on 2025-12-02 marks the deployment phase of this redesigned consensus and incentive architecture.