Bitshares
BitShares is a decentralized exchange and financial smart-contracts blockchain using Delegated Proof of Stake consensus, offering SmartCoins, user-issued assets, and cross-chain bridges to crypto traders, merchants, and token issuers globally.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2015
- HeadquartersBlacksburg, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Bitshares does
BitShares is a decentralized blockchain platform launched on October 13, 2015, built on a Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus that delivers 3-second block times and a demonstrated throughput of more than 3,000 transactions per second, with claimed capacity to scale beyond 100,000 TPS. The protocol's core offerings include what the project describes as the first blockchain with an in-built Decentralized Exchange (DEX), SmartCoins price-stable cryptocurrencies collateralized at 100%+ by the native BTS token, and User-Issued Assets that support KYC whitelists, blacklists, transfer restrictions, and configurable market parameters for regulatory-friendly token issuance. Supporting primitives include over 50 on-chain operations, hierarchical dynamic account permissions, transferable human-readable named accounts, recurring and scheduled payments, and cross-chain bridges to Binance Chain, Huobi ECO Chain, Waves, and Ethereum. The latest stable release is BitShares Core 7.0.2, codenamed "Suez," shipped in 2025.
The project originated from a community established in 2013 and operates as a decentralized autonomous ecosystem rather than a conventional corporate issuer. The BitShares trademark and the bitshares.org domain are held by Move Institute in Slovenia (with the firm reporting a headquarters in Morska Sobota). Real-world operational management was historically performed by a now-disbanded BitShares Foundation and is now handled by BitShares Management Group (BTSMG), incorporated in Thailand in February 2021, led by core architect Milos (Digital Lucifer) Preocanin. BitShares Enterprises Co LTD, registered in Cambodia on May 10, 2021 under director Sam SOPHAL, is the entity pursuing regional money-changing, stable-currency, agricultural DLT, exchange, and digital-banking services. Governance of the protocol itself is exercised by BTS token holders through witness and committee elections plus worker proposals.
BitShares does not generate disclosed firm-level revenue; protocol transaction fees flow into a blockchain reserve pool governed by token holders, and that pool was effectively depleted by September 2020, with disbursements now hard-capped at 1 BTS per day. The principal commercialization vectors are subscription-style memberships (Annual and Lifetime Members paying in BTS for fee cashback up to 80%), the StakeBTS staking product administered by BTSMG that advertises up to 96% APY, the XBTS DeFi AMMOB liquidity and market-making platform, and the Cambodia financial-services entity. Customer segments are horizontal: cryptocurrency traders and DeFi users, merchants seeking stable-value settlement, entrepreneurs issuing custom tokens, and BTS holders participating in governance. No external customer logos, ARR, GMV, or enterprise sales activity are disclosed.
Bitshares firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Bitshares
- Legal name
- BitShares (Move Institute, Slovenia)
- Website
- https://bitshares.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2015
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- BitShares is a decentralized exchange and financial smart-contracts blockchain using Delegated Proof of Stake consensus, offering SmartCoins, user-issued assets, and cross-chain bridges to crypto traders, merchants, and token issuers globally.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Bitshares industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Blockchain Infrastructure
- NAICS
- Securities and Commodity Exchanges (52321)
- SIC
- Finance Services (6199), Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Enterprise Payments & Tokenized Money (stablecoins, tokenized deposits, CBDC rails) (FSAPAIAJ)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- RWA Tokenization Platforms (asset onboarding, structuring, issuance) (FSAPAIAC), Interoperability & Cross-Chain Infrastructure (Bridges, Messaging, Atomic Swaps) (FSAGAMAI), Digital Asset Custody & Wallet Infrastructure for Institutions (MPC/HSM, key mgmt, policy controls) (FSAPAIAE), Smart Contract & Token Operations Infrastructure (Lifecycle, Corporate Actions) (FSAGAMAH), Decentralized Lending Protocols (DeFi Money Markets) (FSADAFAB)
Keywords
Where Bitshares is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Blacksburg
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices3 records
Markets served
Bitshares business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Blockchain Transaction Fees: Users pay transaction fees for operations on the BitShares blockchain. Fees are fixed per operation type as defined in the committee-controlled fee schedule. Transaction fees are collected in BTS or other registered tokens via fee pools.
- DEX Trading Fees: Decentralized exchange trading generates fees. Lifetime Members receive significant fee discounts (80% cashback) compared to basic accounts. Trading fees apply to SmartCoin pairs and user-issued asset pairs.
- Worker/Project Funding System: The blockchain maintains a working budget (reserve pool) of BTS tokens funded by transaction fees. Workers proposing blockchain infrastructure, features, and dApps receive daily BTS payouts upon BTS holder approval. Daily budget has hard limit of 432,000 BTS (historical) funded from reserves.
- Staking Rewards (StakeBTS): BitShares Management Group offers staking products where users lock BTS tokens in exchange for rewards up to 96% APY. Returns generated through active corporate management including market making, trading, and fee pool profits. Administered via automated bot with 50 BTS fees for certain operations.
- Referral Program Revenue Share: Lifetime Members earn 80% of fees paid by referred Basic Accounts. Annual Members earn 50% referral commissions. This incentivizes network growth and creates recurring revenue for active participants.
- User-Issued Asset Fees: Issuers of user-issued assets can set custom market fees, trading fees, and fee pools. They control percentage of each trade collected as fees, bounded by minimum and maximum parameters they define.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Pay-as-you-go | Basic Account - Free tier with standard fees |
| Subscription | Annual | Annual Member - 1-year subscription with 50% referral commissions |
| Subscription | Multi-year contract | Lifetime Member - Premium tier with 80% fee cashback |
| Transaction based/ take rate | Pay-as-you-go | Transaction Fees - Network fees for blockchain operations |
| Other | Pay-as-you-go | StakeBTS Bot Services |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels6 records
Marketing channels7 records
Bitshares product offering
Product offeringCore offering
BitShares is a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) blockchain platform that hosts a built-in decentralized exchange (DEX), SmartCoins (price-stable crypto assets pegged to real-world assets), and a User-Issued Assets (UIA) framework. The platform enables high-throughput financial operations such as trading, token issuance, peer-to-peer transfers, and DeFi services for individual traders, merchants, and developers.
Product overview
BitShares is an industrial-grade DPoS blockchain platform built for high-performance financial smart contracts. The core offering consists of the BitShares Blockchain with its native BTS utility token, featuring a built-in Decentralized Exchange (DEX), SmartCoins (price-stable cryptocurrencies), and User Issued Assets for custom token creation. The platform provides permissioned account systems, recurring payments, and a stakeholder-approved funding mechanism. Supporting products include BitShares Mint for asset creation, StakeBTS for staking rewards (up to 96% APY), and the XBTS ecosystem comprising the DeFi AMMOB platform and DeFi Wallet with cross-chain bridge support (Binance Chain BEP2, Huobi Eco Chain HECO, Waves, and Ethereum). The platform was launched October 13, 2015 and is governed by BTS token holders through delegated proof of stake consensus.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- BitShares DEX: The first and only real blockchain in-built Decentralized Exchange, trading user issued assets, stable coins and Custodian PEGGED assets between users.
- BitShares Mint
- SmartCoins
- BitUSD
Products and services
- BitShares Blockchain Core DPoS blockchain providing the settlement and consensus layer for all BitShares financial products and services.
- BitShares DEX Built-in decentralized exchange enabling peer-to-peer trading of SmartCoins, User-Issued Assets, and the BTS core token without intermediaries.
- SmartCoins Price-stable crypto assets collateralized by BTS that track real-world assets such as USD, gold, and CNY, enabling low-volatility digital payments and trading.
- User-Issued Assets (UIA) Framework that lets users and businesses issue custom tokens on the BitShares blockchain with configurable permissions, fees, and market making.
- BitShares Mint Interface and tool that enables users to create SmartCoins by locking BTS collateral, supporting borrowing and liquidation features.
- StakeBTS Standalone staking service enabling BTS holders to vote for block producers and earn a share of network rewards.
- XBTS DeFi AMMOB Automated Market Maker (AMM) protocol offering on the BitShares DeFi layer to provide liquidity and on-chain swaps.
- XBTS DeFi Wallet Web-based wallet interface that provides access to XBTS DeFi products, asset management, and BitShares account operations.
Quantifiable outcome
- 3,000+ TPS sustained throughput vs ~0.7% of BitShares capacity for combined Bitcoin/Ethereum at peak
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Bitshares
Customer profileSegments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Bitshares technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature10 records
Bitshares partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Four partnerships are on record, tiered major and core.
- BitShares Enterprises Co LTD (Cambodia)majorRegional entity in Cambodia for DLT and digital payment services. Business objective: 649 Other financial service activities. Main activity: 64991 Money-changing services. Goals include launching stable currency, agricultural DLT requirements, exchange and digital bank. Director: Sam SOPHAL.
- BitShares Management GroupcoreBTSMG is the corporate management entity for BitShares ecosystem, incorporated in Thailand. Manages real-world business operations, staking products, reserve pool replenishment, and brand protection. Led by Milos (Digital Lucifer) Preocanin. Invested 16.96 BTC to establish first legal decentralized autonomous parent company.
- Move InstitutecoreSlovenia-based organization holding global trademark rights for BitShares, bitshares.org, and associated products/software/logos. Provides IP protection and legal framework for the ecosystem.
- XBTS ExchangecoreXBTS operates a custodian DEX platform (xbts.io, ex.xbts.io) and DeFi AMMOB platform (app.xbts.io) built on the BitShares blockchain. Provides additional trading interface, liquidity pools, and cross-chain bridge functionality. Implements Automatic Market Maker Order Book protocol for swapping cryptocurrencies with low fees.
Scale indicators9 records
Recent moves9 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Bitshares competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Stellar Development Foundation: Stellar targets cross-border payments and token issuance (anchors/assets), closely overlapping with BitShares' SmartCoins and User-Issued Assets for merchant and remittance use cases, though Stellar has stronger institutional partnerships.
- Solana: Solana offers high-throughput, low-fee DeFi and DEX functionality that competes directly with BitShares' value proposition of 3-second blocks and sub-cent transaction fees, though at much larger scale.
- TRON: TRON is a high-throughput DPoS chain with significant stablecoin (USDT) settlement volume and a built-in DEX. It competes with BitShares for the same throughput-sensitive DeFi and stablecoin transfer workloads.
Direct peers
- Uniswap: Uniswap is the leading decentralized exchange; BitShares' built-in DEX competes with Uniswap's AMM-based model by offering order-book trading for user-issued assets. Both serve crypto traders seeking non-custodial exchange functionality.
- MakerDAO: MakerDAO's DAI is the most prominent CDP-backed stablecoin, structurally analogous to BitShares' BitUSD SmartCoins. Both protocols issue stablecoins via overcollateralized debt positions and share the same target user (DeFi users seeking price-stable crypto).
- PancakeSwap: PancakeSwap is the dominant DEX on BSC with AMM functionality analogous to BitShares' DEX and AMMOB features; both target retail crypto traders with low fees and yield opportunities.
- EOS Network: EOS is the direct spiritual successor to BitShares — both founded by Dan Larimer, both use DPoS consensus, both target high-throughput financial smart contracts. EOS competes head-to-head with BitShares for DPoS-based DeFi and developer mindshare.
- Waves Protocol: Waves is a custom-token issuance platform with a built-in DEX that competes directly with BitShares' User Issued Assets and DEX products; BitShares even operates a cross-chain bridge to Waves.
Emerging players
- Polkadot: Polkadot's parachain model and Asset Hub enable custom asset creation and cross-chain transfer, partially overlapping with BitShares' User Issued Assets and cross-chain bridge functionality.
- Sui: Sui is a high-throughput L1 with native asset primitives and DEXs (Cetus, Turbos) targeting similar DeFi workloads as BitShares, representing a newer-generation competitor in the same throughput-and-financial-primitives category.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Bitshares social profiles
Digital presenceBitshares financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Bitshares leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Bitshares subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
Bitshares funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Bitshares M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Bitshares
What does Bitshares do?
BitShares is a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) blockchain platform that hosts a built-in decentralized exchange (DEX), SmartCoins (price-stable crypto assets pegged to real-world assets), and a User-Issued Assets (UIA) framework. The platform enables high-throughput financial operations such as trading, token issuance, peer-to-peer transfers, and DeFi services for individual traders, merchants, and developers.
Is Bitshares a public or private company?
Bitshares is a private company. It is classified as unknown and is currently operating.
When was Bitshares founded?
Bitshares was founded in 2015. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Bitshares based?
Bitshares is headquartered in Blacksburg, United States, in the North America region.
How does Bitshares make money?
Six revenue lines are on record. Blockchain Transaction Fees are the primary driver. The others are DEX Trading Fees, worker/Project Funding System, staking Rewards (StakeBTS), referral Program Revenue Share and user-Issued Asset Fees.
Who are Bitshares's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Stellar Development Foundation, Solana and TRON. Direct peers are Uniswap, MakerDAO, PancakeSwap, EOS Network and Waves Protocol. Emerging players are Polkadot and Sui.
Does Bitshares have an API?
No public API is recorded for Bitshares.
What industry is Bitshares in?
Bitshares's product category is Blockchain Infrastructure. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSAPAIAJ, Enterprise Payments & Tokenized Money (stablecoins, tokenized deposits, CBDC rails), with a secondary code of FSAPAIAC, RWA Tokenization Platforms (asset onboarding, structuring, issuance). Its NAICS code is 52321 and its SIC code is 6199.