ESP is the native token of the Espresso Network: a settlement and confirmation layer for rollups and other layer-2 and layer-3 chains in the Ethereum ecosystem, built by Espresso Systems (founded 2020 by Stanford-affiliated researchers) with the token stewarded by the Espresso Foundation. The token launched on 12 February 2026, and WEEX listed Espresso two days earlier, on 10 February, as a "global exclusive first launch" in a pre-market spot phase followed by futures. This page explains what Espresso does (and does not do), the official tokenomics and the big unlock date, what has moved the price so far and what the token's outlook depends on — with no price forecast.
Per the official documentation, Espresso is "a blockchain purpose-built to serve as settlement infrastructure for other applications and blockchains." Applications run their own sequencers and order their own transactions; Espresso finalises that ordering through decentralised proof-of-stake consensus (the HotShot protocol). The docs state explicitly: "Espresso does not execute transactions." The point at which a transaction is considered settled and irreversible is called a Confirmation, and an optional data-availability layer (EspressoDA) is offered alongside alternatives such as Ethereum or Celestia.
Adopters named in the official docs: Offchain Labs (Arbitrum), Celo, Yuga Labs (ApeChain), Bitget (Morph Chain), Rarible (Rari Chain), the Litecoin Foundation and Gate. The team is named on the official About page: Ben Fisch (CEO), Jill Gunter (strategy), Charles Lu (operations) and Benedikt Bünz (chief scientist), all four co-founders.
| Category | Share of the 3.59B initial supply | Vesting (official wording) |
|---|---|---|
| Contributors | 27.36% | 0% at TGE; 25% one year later; then 1/48 per month |
| Future airdrops, grants and incentives | 24.81% | Locked at TGE; linear over 6 years |
| Foundation operations | 15.00% | Locked at TGE; linear over 6 years |
| Investors | 14.32% | 0% at TGE; 25% one year later; then 1/48 per month |
| Airdrop | 10.00% | Fully unlocked at TGE (359 million ESP) |
| Liquidity provisioning and activations | 4.50% | Fully unlocked at TGE |
| Staking bonuses and decentralisation | 3.01% | Unlocks at months 3, 12 and 24 |
| Community launchpad | 1.00% | 0% at TGE; 50% one year later; then 1/24 per month |
Source: the official post "ESP: Introducing the Espresso Token" (5 February 2026) and tokenomics.com. Initial supply 3.59 billion with no fixed maximum (inflationary through staking rewards); 14.5% unlocked at TGE. Circulating supply differs by tracker: CoinGecko about 666.6 million, CoinMarketCap 520.55 million (20 August 2026) — always say which. The largest known supply event is 12 February 2027: the one-year cliff for Contributors (25% of their tranche) and Investors (25% of theirs) fires at once, plus 50% of the launchpad tranche and the 12-month staking-bonus tranche; tokenomics.com showed the same as a "next unlock in 177 days" countdown. Meanwhile about 39.8% of supply (foundation plus future incentives) has been streaming linearly over six years since launch.
Funding: a $2M seed (2020), a $30–32M Series A (2022, co-led by Greylock and Electric Capital) and a $28M Series B led by a16z crypto (March 2024) — over $60M in total (The Block). The 10% airdrop reached more than one million eligible addresses through about 40 qualification paths across 28 partner ecosystems.
Today on WEEX, Espresso is live as an ESP/USDT perpetual futures pair and on the ESP/USDT spot market (WEEX public API, 20 August 2026). WEEX's own announcement warned that the pre-market phase carried "insufficient liquidity, large bid-ask spreads, and price uncertainty" and that futures trading "involves high risk and requires trading expertise" — that warning still applies. Charts and data: the ESP price page and the Espresso price analysis page. The ESPORTS contract on WEEX is a different asset unrelated to Espresso.
No hack, exploit or delisting has been recorded for ESP or the Espresso Network to date, and no major unlock has occurred yet; the largest documented price move came from a Korean listing, not a product event.
The staking and fee token of the Espresso Network, a confirmation and settlement layer for Ethereum rollups, with a 3.59 billion initial supply and a public launch on 12 February 2026.
Ethereum: 0x031De51F3E8016514Bd0963d0B2AB825A591Db9A (official docs). CoinGecko also lists an Arbitrum One contract that does not appear on the official contracts page.
On WEEX: ESP futures and the ESP/USDT spot market. Also Binance, KuCoin, Upbit and Bithumb per their official announcements.
Related: What is ZeroBase (ZBT) · What is Billions Network (BILL) · What is BASED
This article is for information only and is not investment advice. All figures carry a date and a source and may have changed. Leveraged futures trading can result in the loss of your entire capital.
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