Flow (FLOW): how it works, supply and reviews
In short
- Type
- Layer-1 blockchain with a multi-role node architecture, designed to scale without sharding
- Initial distribution
- 1.25 billion FLOW at genesis: 32% ecosystem fund, 30% backers and community sale, 20% Dapper Labs, 18% development team
- Risks and caveats
- Staking rewards of 5% a year are funded mostly by newly issued FLOW, so supply grows unless fee income rises.
- Checked
- 31 October 2026
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Key facts
- Ticker
- FLOW
- Official site
- flow.com
Key facts checked on 31 October 2026 against official sources.
What is Flow
Flow is a proof-of-stake layer-1 blockchain built by the team behind CryptoKitties at Dapper Labs for consumer apps, games and digital assets. It splits node work into separate roles and supports two smart-contract environments, Cadence and Solidity (EVM). Its native coin FLOW pays fees and is staked by node operators.
Network and consensus
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Type | Layer-1 blockchain with a multi-role node architecture, designed to scale without sharding |
| Consensus | Proof of stake; consensus nodes run HotStuff |
| Node roles | Collection, Consensus, Execution, Verification and Access nodes |
| Smart contracts | Cadence (resource-oriented language) and Solidity with full EVM equivalence; both use FLOW for gas |
| Launched | Genesis block created in October 2020 |
Supply and issuance
| Parameter | Details |
|---|---|
| Initial distribution | 1.25 billion FLOW at genesis: 32% ecosystem fund, 30% backers and community sale, 20% Dapper Labs, 18% development team |
| Unlocks | All genesis allocations were fully unlocked by October 2023 |
| Staking rewards | 5% of total supply per year is paid to validators and delegators |
| Inflation | Rewards are paid first from transaction fees, then from newly minted FLOW; fees are not burned |
| Fee update | Since 8 December 2025, sustained throughput of 250 TPS would make fees exceed new issuance |
What FLOW is used for
- Paying transaction and storage fees
- Staking by node operators and delegation
- Medium of exchange in the Flow ecosystem
- Gas in both the Cadence and EVM environments
Who develops and governs Flow
- Developer
- Flow Foundation (core team) works with Dapper Labs (leading ecosystem builder)
- Company
- Dapper Labs funded development of the Flow technology and received 250 million FLOW at genesis
- Foundation
- The Flow Foundation manages the ecosystem development fund
- Open source
- Yes; the flow-go node software is AGPL-3.0 and open source since 2019
History
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 2019 | The flow-go reference node software is open-sourced. |
| October 2020 | Genesis block created with 1.25 billion FLOW. |
| October 2023 | All genesis allocations are fully unlocked. |
| 8 December 2025 | A transaction fee update goes live on mainnet. |
| 27 December 2025 | A Cadence runtime exploit duplicates tokens; validators halt the network within six hours and patch it. |
| 30 January 2026 | The Flow Foundation confirms that 87.4 billion counterfeit FLOW were destroyed onchain. |
Security and audits
- On 27 December 2025 an attacker exploited a Cadence runtime flaw to duplicate tokens and extracted about $3.9 million; Flow says no existing user balances were accessed.
- Validators halted the network within six hours, deployed patches, and the counterfeit tokens were destroyed by 30 January 2026.
Security incidents
| Date | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 27 December 2025 | Exploit: An attacker used a three-part Cadence runtime flaw to duplicate tokens (including 87.96 billion counterfeit FLOW) and extracted about $3.9 million; validators halted the network within six hours and patched it. Funds returned: Most counterfeit assets were contained onchain or frozen by exchanges; 87.4 billion counterfeit FLOW were destroyed by 30 January 2026. Flow says no existing user balances were accessed. | flow.com |
| 27 December 2025 | Network halt: Validators executed a coordinated network halt at 05:23 PST on 27 December 2025 (block 137390190) to stop the exploit. | flow.com |
| 31 August 2026 | Exploit: Third-party: at about 06:18 UTC on 31 August 2026 a vulnerability in Ankr's ankrFLOW liquid staking contract let an attacker create about 8.6 million unbacked ankrFLOW, which was used as collateral on MORE Markets to take about 15.5 million WFLOW (~USD 410,000; ~USD 246,000 realised after slippage). Flow said the Flow network, Flow EVM and FLOW tokenomics were not exploited; some exchanges paused FLOW deposits as a precaution. Funds returned: Flow Foundation, working with Ankr, said it will replace the funds drained from the MORE Markets WFLOW reserve and rebalance the liquidity pools; it said no MORE Markets or ankrFLOW depositor lost funds. | flow.com |
Risks and caveats
- Staking rewards of 5% a year are funded mostly by newly issued FLOW, so supply grows unless fee income rises.
- The December 2025 exploit required a coordinated validator halt of the network to contain counterfeit tokens.
Official links
- Website: flow.com
- Docs: developers.flow.com
- Tokenomics: flow.com/flow-tokenomics
- Source code: github.com/onflow/flow-go
- Security post-mortem: flow.com/post/dec-27-technical-post-mortem
Questions and answers
What is Flow?
Flow is a proof-of-stake layer-1 blockchain for consumer apps and digital assets, with Cadence and EVM smart contracts. FLOW is its native coin.
Who created Flow?
Flow was designed by the Dapper Labs team behind CryptoKitties; today the Flow Foundation and Dapper Labs develop it together.
What is the supply of FLOW?
The genesis block in October 2020 created 1.25 billion FLOW; supply has grown since through staking rewards of 5% a year, offset by fees.
What happened to Flow in December 2025?
On 27 December 2025 an attacker duplicated tokens through a Cadence flaw and extracted about $3.9 million. Validators halted and patched the network, and the counterfeit tokens were destroyed.
Sources
- Flow — Tokenomics
- Flow Developers — Why Flow
- Flow Developers — Staking
- flow-go README (GitHub)
- Flow — Dec 27 technical post-mortem (6 January 2026)
- Flow — Final remediation update (30 January 2026)
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