Conflux (CFX) is a Layer 1 public blockchain, and what is Conflux comes down to three design choices: a hybrid Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake consensus, a Tree-Graph ledger, and two execution spaces on one chain.
Core technology and architecture
Conflux replaces the linear chain used by Bitcoin and Ethereum with a Tree-Graph. Each block has one parent edge and may reference earlier blocks, so concurrent blocks are incorporated rather than discarded as forks. The developer documentation states that its chain selection rule, GHAST, supports a block creation rate of up to 2 blocks per second.
The network runs two execution spaces on one ledger. Core Space is the native environment and is not Ethereum-compatible, but it offers features such as fee sponsorship. eSpace is EVM-compatible and supports any smart contract that runs on Ethereum. A single block can contain transactions from either space. The eSpace capability arrived with the Hydra fork in February 2022.
Throughput claims differ by source. Validation Cloud cites up to 3,000 TPS, and Tenderly cites up to 15,000 TPS. The sources reviewed contain no official benchmark for either figure.
Primary use cases and real-world applications
- Smart contracts: Developers build in Solidity on Core Space and use standard Ethereum tooling on eSpace.
- Stablecoins: USDT0 was integrated via LayerZero in November 2025. The Conflux year-end recap reports that stablecoin issuance on eSpace rose by over 100% after AxCNH and USDT0 launched.
- Payments: AEON and LOTTE Mart enabled CFX payments via QR code checkout, per the January 2026 progress report. Alchemy Pay added native USDT0 fiat on-ramp support on May 28, 2026.
- Real-world assets: A battery-swapping project with Ant Digital and Xunying Group, launched in Hong Kong in March 2025, reportedly grew to 596 cabinets and over 15,000 lithium batteries across six cities by the year-end 2025 recap.
- Governance: CFX holders vote on key network parameters through DAO votes managed by the ParamsControl contract.
Who is behind Conflux and where is it based?
Conflux was founded in 2018, and its research originated in the lab of Turing Award recipient Andrew Chi-Chih Yao at Tsinghua University. Fan Long is listed as co-founder and president. He graduated from Tsinghua's Yao Class and holds a PhD in Computer Science from MIT, according to CryptoSlate. Ming Wu is a co-founder who served as CTO. A LinkedIn profile lists his Conflux tenure as August 2018 to March 2024, a self-reported date. Crunchbase lists Andrew Yao as Chief Scientist. Other sources name David Chow and YuanJie Zhang as co-founders, and the lists differ across sources.
Sources disagree on the operating base. Tracxn and Dealroom list Toronto, Canada, and ITWeb (2020) called the company Beijing-based. The Shanghai Tree-Graph Blockchain Research Institute, established in January 2020, is based in Shanghai.
The registered entity is CONFLUX FOUNDATION LTD., UEN 201824179R, incorporated in Singapore on 16 July 2018. Registry aggregators list its status as in liquidation through compulsory winding up, while Crunchbase lists it as active. The status should be verified with ACRA. The sources do not establish a Hong Kong or Shanghai legal entity for Conflux itself.
Tokenomics
CoinStats lists a price of $0.04694, a 24h change of +1.67%, a market cap of $246.50M (rank #219), and 24h volume of $9.79M. Circulating supply is 5,251,427,297 CFX and total supply is 5,251,782,983 CFX. The all-time high is $1.70, and the current price is 97.24% below it. The 30-day change is -12.38%.
CFX has no fixed maximum supply. The genesis block contains 5 billion pre-mined CFX, allocated as follows:
| Allocation | Share | Release schedule | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private Equity Funders | 12% | Released over two years | |
| Foundation Holdings | 4% | Monthly over two years, plus unsold private tokens | |
| Genesis Team | 36% | Released over four years | |
| Community Fund | 8% | Unlocked within four years | |
| Ecosystem Fund | 40% | Unlocked within four years for DApp developers |
New issuance comes from PoW block rewards and PoS interest. The PoS rate is set by DAO vote. The 2023 documentation snapshot estimated roughly 1.9% annual inflation.
Several burn channels offset issuance. Sponsored storage collateral is partly burned, with the ratio set by storagePointProp. A portion of each base fee, introduced in the v2.4 hardfork, is burned. On May 7, 2025, a DAO-approved event burned 76,000,000 CFX and staked 500,000,000 CFX. A third-party analysis reports 12,684 CFX burned over the 90 days to October 2026, against 257,000 CFX per day of new issuance.
Consensus mechanism and network security model
PoW miners produce blocks and order them with the Tree-Graph algorithm. PoS nodes sign pivot blocks to finalize them, which reduces fork probability. PoS validators are selected by their CFX stake, and the documentation says the PoS layer protects against 51% attacks while hash power is still limited. Staking earns interest paid in CFX.
For liveness, the USENIX paper describes adaptive weight, which uses an optimistic strategy for fast confirmation and switches to a conservative strategy when a liveness attack is detected.
In February 2025, the GraFun team reported a CREATE2 vulnerability that allowed a contract address to be redeployed and its state reset. The fix shipped in the V2.5 security upgrade, effective March 17, 2025.
Key partnerships and ecosystem integrations
- AxCNH: Issued by Hong Kong-based AnchorX, it launched on eSpace in July 2025 and is pegged to CNH reserves. AnchorX announced it at the 10th Belt and Road Summit on September 17, 2025.
- XAUT0: Tether Gold went live on Conflux on April 9, 2026.
- Exchanges: Kraken supports USDT0 deposits via eSpace. Upbit added CFX trading pairs on July 31, 2026, with deposits and withdrawals supported only through eSpace.
- Enterprise: ENI announced a strategic partnership in March 2026, and Starcoin issued its STAR token on eSpace in October 2025.
- Infrastructure: The January 2026 progress report mentions a Fireblocks integration for institutional support.
Some names in research notes, including BSN and Sinopec, were not confirmed by any source reviewed.
Competitive advantages and unique value proposition
- A Tree-Graph ledger that incorporates concurrent blocks rather than discarding them.
- A hybrid PoW/PoS design that adds a PoS finality layer while keeping PoW block production.
- One ledger hosting both a native space with sponsorship features and an EVM-compatible space.
- Multiple burn channels, storage and base fee, tied to DAO-governed parameters.
Current development activity and roadmap highlights
- v2.5 (March 17, 2025): Security upgrade fixing the CREATE2 vulnerability.
- v3.0.2 (January 9, 2026): Added the
debug_blockPropertieseSpace RPC and storage read optimization. - v3.0.3 (April 8, 2026): Included fixes for CIP-78 sponsor flags and PoS force-retire overflow, and added CIP-166 (CLZ opcode).
- v3.1.0 (hardfork completed August 25, 2026): Seven CIPs, including a secp256r1 precompile (CIP-167) and EIP-7702 delegation in cross-space calls (CIP-175).
- v3.1.1 (October 22, 2026): Security fixes for node panics and memory usage, plus an OpenSSL upgrade to 3.5.9.
The Q1 2026 roadmap focused on real-world assets and infrastructure improvements. The August 2026 progress report names AI-focused partnerships as a priority.