Celestia (TIA): how it works, supply and reviews
In short
- Type
- Layer 1 data availability network for rollups and app-specific chains
- Initial distribution
- 1,000,000,000 TIA at genesis
- Risks and caveats
- TIA is inflationary: new tokens are issued as staking rewards, down to a long-term floor of 1.5% a year.
- Checked
- 31 October 2026
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Key facts
- Ticker
- TIA
- Official site
- celestia.org
Key facts checked on 31 October 2026 against official sources.
What is Celestia
Celestia is a modular data availability network: it orders blobs of data and keeps them available, while execution and settlement happen on chains built on top of it. TIA is its native token, used to pay for blobspace, stake and govern the network.
Network and consensus
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Type | Layer 1 data availability network for rollups and app-specific chains |
| Consensus | Proof of stake on CometBFT and the Cosmos SDK, with a validator set of 100 |
| Scaling | Data availability sampling lets light nodes verify data without downloading whole blocks; namespaced Merkle trees let each app fetch only its data |
| Launched | Mainnet Beta ("Lemon Mint") went live at 14:00 UTC on 31 October 2023 |
| Fibre | Fibre is a high-throughput blobspace product Celestia says is built for 1 Tb/s of data |
Supply and issuance
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Initial distribution | 1,000,000,000 TIA at genesis |
| Inflation | Inflation started at 8% a year; after the v6 upgrade (CIP-41, November 2025) it dropped to about 2.5% and falls 6.7% a year to a 1.5% floor |
| Community pool | 2% of all block rewards go to the community pool, spent by governance |
| Allocation | Genesis split: public 20.00%, R&D and ecosystem 26.79%, Series A&B backers 19.67%, seed backers 15.90%, initial core contributors 17.64% |
| Staking rewards | Validators and delegators earn staking rewards; validators charge delegators a commission |
What TIA is used for
- Paying fees for PayForBlobs transactions that publish data to Celestia
- Optional gas token and currency for new rollups built on Celestia
- Staking with validators to secure proof-of-stake consensus
- Voting on network parameters and community pool spending
Who develops and governs Celestia
- Foundation
- Celestia Foundation supports long-term development, governance and ecosystem; Celestia Labs is the core engineering team
- Founders
- Mustafa Al-Bassam (Chairman and CEO, Celestia Foundation); Nick White (co-founder and CEO, Celestia Labs)
- Governance
- On-chain governance proposals by TIA holders; protocol changes are specified as Celestia Improvement Proposals (CIPs)
- Open source
- Software and documentation are public on GitHub (celestiaorg)
History
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| — | The LazyLedger whitepaper is published. |
| 15 June 2021 | LazyLedger rebrands as Celestia. |
| 31 October 2023 | Mainnet Beta launches with the TIA token. |
| July 2025 | v4 Lotus upgrade (CIP-29) lowers inflation from about 7.2% to about 5.0%. |
| November 2025 | v6 upgrade (CIP-41) lowers inflation to about 2.5%. |
Security and audits
- Celestia lists audits of celestia-app, Blobstream, Shwap and its OP Stack and Nitro integrations by Informal Systems, OtterSec, Veridise and Zellic.
- Vulnerabilities are reported privately via security advisories or security@celestia.org.
Security incidents
No security incident is recorded in the sources checked on 31 October 2026 (the company’s own channels and incident databases): api.llama.fi/hacks, rekt.news/leaderboard, hacked.slowmist.io/search, status.celestia.org, blog.celestia.org
Risks and caveats
- TIA is inflationary: new tokens are issued as staking rewards, down to a long-term floor of 1.5% a year.
- Celestia guarantees data availability only; execution and settlement security depend on the chains built on top.
- Light nodes sample only within a rolling window; older data relies on archival nodes or providers to stay retrievable.
Official links
- Website: celestia.org
- Docs: docs.celestia.org
- Blog: blog.celestia.org
- Source code: github.com/celestiaorg
- Governance (CIPs): cips.celestia.org
- Audits: docs.celestia.org/learn/audits
Questions and answers
What is Celestia?
Celestia is a modular data availability network that orders and stores blobs of data for rollups and other chains, which handle execution and settlement themselves.
What is TIA used for?
TIA pays for publishing data (PayForBlobs), can be staked with validators, is used in governance and can serve as a gas token for new rollups.
What is the supply of TIA?
There were 1 billion TIA at genesis; inflation dropped to about 2.5% after the November 2025 v6 upgrade and decreases 6.7% a year to 1.5%.
Was Celestia called LazyLedger?
Yes. The project was announced as LazyLedger and rebranded as Celestia on 15 June 2021.
When did Celestia mainnet launch?
Celestia Mainnet Beta went live at 14:00 UTC on 31 October 2023.
Sources
- Celestia — Home
- Celestia — About
- Celestia Docs — Data availability layer
- Celestia Docs — Overview of TIA
- Celestia Docs — Staking, governance and supply
- Celestia Docs — Security and audits
- Celestia Docs — About
- Celestia Docs — llms.txt index
- Celestia Blog — Celestia mainnet is live
- Celestia Blog — LazyLedger is now Celestia
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