IOST 3.0 and the BNB Chain Layer 2, explained

IOST 3.0 in one minute

IOST 3.0 is the relaunch the IOST Foundation pushed through between late 2024 and March 2025. It did three things. It created a new Layer 2 network, an OP Stack rollup that settles to BNB Smart Chain and pays gas in BNB. It moved the center of gravity of the IOST token to BNB Chain, where a BEP-20 version now carries most of the trading outside a few big exchanges. And it issued about 21.32 billion new IOST, which roughly doubled the token count that existed at genesis.

What it did not do matters just as much. The original IOST chain, the one with human-readable account names and JavaScript smart contracts described on our IOST technology page, was not switched off. It still produces a block every half second and received a mandatory node upgrade, go-iost v4.0.0, in October 2026. Holders were not told to swap anything. Those who held at least 1,000 IOST at the snapshot got an IOST 3.0 airdrop on top of their existing coins.

The honest summary is that IOST 3.0 is mostly a token and positioning change so far. The marketing talks about real-world assets (RWA), PayFi and decentralized identity. The Layer 2 that is meant to carry all of that is live but, when we sampled it, practically empty. If you are new to the project, start with what IOST is and come back here for the 3.0 details.

From vote to launch: the governance timeline

The process started on 21 October 2024, when the Foundation proposed turning IOST into a PayFi and DePIN network. Voting ran through IOSTSCAN, the official explorer, and closed on 24 November 2024. On 5 December the team published a manifesto built around PayPIN, a payment-and-identity idea, and on 12 December 2024 came the main announcement: IOST would become “a specialized BNB Chain Layer 2” for Web3 payments. That post is still the clearest statement of the original plan.

A detail that is easy to miss: the Layer 2’s genesis block carries a timestamp of 11 November 2024, which is before the first vote even closed. That does not prove anything improper, since teams often spin up infrastructure early, but it shows that the technical decision was well under way while holders were still voting.

A second governance vote on the Layer 2 transition, which covered the new issuance, passed on 12 January 2025 according to press reports. The reaction in Korea came the very next day. On 13 January 2025 Upbit, together with the DAXA exchange alliance, issued an investor caution notice about IOST because of the supply change. Bithumb and Coinone published similar notices. It is important to read this correctly: a caution notice is the mildest step in the Korean process, IOST was never designated a warning asset, and it was never delisted. Our Upbit review and the South Korea page explain how that system works.

IOST 3.0 officially launched on 8 March 2025 with a new website, new documentation, published airdrop rules and the deployment of the BEP-20 token. The airdrop snapshot followed on 15 March 2025 at 09:00 JST. Since then the project has raised a $21 million strategic round in June 2025 led by DWF Labs, Presto and Rollman Management Group, launched the Signet identity ring app in November 2025, and burned 70 million IOST from the legacy ERC-20 issuance on 8 September 2026.

The Layer 2: an OP Stack rollup on BNB Smart Chain

Technically, the IOST Layer 2 is an optimistic rollup built on the OP Stack “Bedrock” codebase, branded opIOST. Its code is a fork of opBNB, BNB Chain’s own Layer 2, and the opiost repository README is copied almost word for word from opBNB. The node documentation points to bootnodes hosted by AltLayer, which suggests the rollup is run with a rollup-as-a-service provider rather than built from scratch. None of that is a problem in itself. Most new Layer 2 networks reuse proven code. It does mean the Layer 2 has nothing to do with IOST’s original Proof-of-Believability design.

The network is called “IOST Mainnet” in wallets, uses chain ID 182 and charges gas in BNB, not IOST. That is the single most confusing point for holders: owning IOST does not let you pay for anything on the Layer 2. Fees are tiny. The docs target under $0.001 per transfer, and the live gas price we read was a fraction of a gwei. Because it is an optimistic rollup, withdrawals back to BNB Smart Chain have a seven-day finality window, as on other OP Stack chains.

Block times have changed over the network’s life. The Layer 2 produced roughly one block every 2 seconds at genesis, and when we measured it in October 2026 it was producing a block every 0.25 seconds. The docs still say 2 seconds and the repository says 1 second, so treat any single number in project materials with care. Speed is not the issue anyway. When we sampled thousands of blocks across the network’s whole history, we found no user transactions at all, only the automatic system transaction every OP Stack block carries. The sequencer fee vault had collected about a quarter of one BNB over its entire lifetime.

To connect a wallet, add a custom network with the values in the box below. MetaMask works, and the official docs recommend it. The Layer 2 explorer at l2-scan.iost.io works in a normal browser but blocks automated requests. Our IOST wallet guide covers which wallets handle which version of IOST.

Three versions of IOST: L1 coin, BEP-20 and the legacy ERC-20

Most mistakes with IOST since 2025 come from mixing up its versions. There are three you may run into, and they do not live on the same network.

The L1 native coin lives on the original IOST chain. It has 8 decimals, the token ID is simply iost, and you send it to an account name such as binance, not to a 0x address. Exchange deposits on this network need a memo. The L1 has a hard cap of 90 billion and a current supply of about 32.6 billion, which is more than the 2% yearly inflation in the old docs would explain. Our IOST tokenomics page goes through that gap.

The BEP-20 token lives on BNB Smart Chain at 0xAf48B7e315a52518CfBF7d96C455D9dFAD94cB48. It has 18 decimals, was deployed on 8 March 2025 and holds the 21.32 billion new IOST plus whatever came over from the L1 through the bridge. Its on-chain total supply was about 22.37 billion in October 2026. The docs call it the only official IOST token contract on BNB Chain. It is not a token on the Layer 2 itself, despite the 3.0 branding.

The legacy ERC-20 token at 0xFA1a856Cfa3409CFa145Fa4e20Eb270dF3EB21ab on Ethereum is where IOST began in 2018. Holders swapped it for native coins after the February 2019 mainnet launch. Its contract still reports a 21 billion supply, and the 70 million IOST burned in September 2026 came from this legacy issuance. You will still see it in some token lists and on hardware wallets, but it is not the version exchanges trade.

Bridges: what moves where

Two official bridges exist, and they do very different jobs. Understanding them answers most “where did my IOST go” questions.

iBridge at iostbridge.com converts L1 IOST into BEP-20 IOST on BNB Smart Chain. It is one-way. Each transfer must be at least 10,000 and at most 1,000,000 IOST, and transfers above 500,000 IOST can take anywhere from 10 minutes to 10 hours. When we checked, the bridge page said the BSC-to-IOST direction was “coming soon”. In plain terms: once you bridge, you cannot bridge back through the official tool, so you would have to sell BEP-20 IOST and buy L1 IOST on an exchange if you change your mind.

The L2 bridge at l2-bridge.iost.io connects BNB Smart Chain and the IOST Layer 2 in both directions and takes about 2 to 10 minutes. It supports BNB only. The docs say support for IOST and other tokens is coming soon. So the full journey looks like this, and the last hop carries BNB, not IOST:

Here is a worked example. Say you hold 50,000 IOST in an iWallet Pro account and want to join StakeDrop, which runs on BNB Chain. You would bridge the 50,000 IOST through iBridge to your own 0x address, keep a little BNB on that address for gas, and then stake the BEP-20 tokens. You would not touch the Layer 2 at any point. If instead you hold 5,000 IOST, you are below the iBridge minimum and would have to use an exchange that supports both networks. Before any transfer, read our guide to sending IOST, because sending BEP-20 IOST to an exchange address that only accepts the L1 network can mean a permanent loss.

Need BNB for gas or crypto to start?

CEX.IO has been running since 2013 and sells crypto such as BNB by card. It does not list IOST, so the route is crypto or BNB first, then an exchange that lists IOST, then your own wallet.

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RWA, PayFi, PayPIN and DID: claims vs observable usage

The story around IOST 3.0 has shifted several times. The late-2024 pitch was PayFi and PayPIN, a payments network with identity built in. Through 2025 and 2026 the website moved to real-world assets, with the tagline “Designed for Tokenization, Built for Anything” and a claim to be “the first multi-chain RWA infra”. Alongside that came WealthFi, a Liquidity Engine, the Nexus DAO and the Signet ring, a piece of hardware that uses your heartbeat as a form of decentralized identity, which we cover on the NFT and games page.

Some of this is real work. The Foundation has public GitHub repositories for RWA infrastructure, the OP Stack fork and a new TypeScript SDK called ivem. The CEO has named DigiFT and Securitize as RWA partners in an interview. But the measurable footprint on chain is close to zero, and several headline targets from the 2024 proposal passed their deadlines with no public evidence of being met. The table compares what was promised with what anyone can check.

Promises are easy to publish

Tokenizing bonds or funds needs regulated partners, legal wrappers and investors who actually buy the tokens. Until those show up on an explorer, treat RWA headlines as plans rather than adoption.

What L1 holders need to do (short answer: nothing)

If you already hold IOST, nothing is forced on you. Coins on the original chain remain valid, the chain keeps producing blocks, and exchanges such as Coincheck list only the IOST mainnet network for IOST deposits. You can keep voting for nodes as described in our IOST staking guide.

The airdrop is the part that may need action. The 3.0 airdrop set aside 852.8 million IOST for L1 wallet holders and another 852.8 million for people who held through exchanges, all based on the 15 March 2025 snapshot with a 1,000 IOST minimum. If you held on an exchange such as Coincheck, BitTrade or Upbit, the exchange credits you in rounds and you do not need to do anything. If you held in your own L1 wallet, you claim at iost.io/airdrop by connecting the L1 wallet and receiving BEP-20 IOST to a BNB Chain wallet. Payments vest over 48 months, released on the 9th of each month. If you bought after the snapshot, you are not eligible.

Converting L1 IOST to BEP-20 is optional. It makes sense if you want StakeDrop or plan to use BNB Chain wallets and DEXs. It makes little sense if you trade on an exchange that only handles the L1 network. Because the official bridge is one-way, decide before you move a large amount.

Finally, be wary of anything labelled a “3.0 migration”. The real process never asked for private keys, seed phrases or token approvals on unknown sites. Check what any exchange supports on our IOST exchanges page, and look up L1 accounts and transactions with the IOST explorer guide. Official links are on the IOST security page, which also reminds users that a link from an official site does not make a third-party service official.