Nexus (NEX) is the native asset of the Nexus Layer 1 blockchain. Nexus is built for verifiable finance and combines Ethereum-compatible smart contracts with specialised execution environments for financial applications, including trading, order matching, price feeds, margining and settlement.

The network builds on the Nexus zkVM, a zero-knowledge virtual machine that proves program execution, and the Nexus Network, a distributed prover network that coordinates compute from participating devices. This design allows Nexus to support applications that need verifiable computation and blockchain settlement within the same network.

NEX is used as the native gas asset of the Nexus Layer 1. It is required to pay transaction fees when users deploy smart contracts, interact with applications and execute activity on the network.

NEX is also intended to act as the main unit of value exchange across the Nexus ecosystem, including the Nexus Layer 1, Nexus Exchange and USDX-related activity.

During testnet phases, Nexus uses NEX Testnet Points and NEX Testnet Tokens to track user and developer participation. These testnet assets are earned through activities such as contributing compute power through Nexus OS or the CLI and are used for testing rather than as final mainnet token balances.

Nexus was founded by Daniel Marin, who serves as Founder and CEO. The project is developed by Nexus Labs, with early technical work led by a team that included Daniel Marin, Michel Abdalla, Paul Govereau, Jens Groth, Samuel Judson, Kristian Sosnin, Guru Vamsi Policharla and Yinuo Zhang.

Key leadership figures include Daniel Marin, Founder and CEO, Jens Groth, Chief Scientist, Alex Fowler, Chief Strategy Officer and Samuel Judson, Head of zkVM Engineering.