Upbit and Bithumb listed Nexus (NEX), a layer-1 chain built around zero-knowledge proofs, on July 3, 2026, about six weeks after its May 20 mainnet. NEX has since fallen about 88 percent from its May 21 record to a market cap near $48.6 million, and the project's exchange product is still on testnet.
Correction, October 7 The first version of this page, written July 20, followed Coingabbar in dating the mainnet and token launch April 21 and counted ten weeks to the Korean listings. Nexus's own blog introduced NEX on May 19 and launched the mainnet on May 20, which makes it about six weeks. We use the project's dates.
Where it stands
Upbit and Bithumb opened NEX on July 3, the same day they added Metaplex. Upbit paired NEX against USDT using the ERC-20 version on Ethereum. It moved the start from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM KST after its standard liquidity checks, the same delay that hit Metaplex. Bithumb added a Korean won pair on its own board. KuCoin and WEEX had listed the token earlier, on May 20 and May 25.
The listings are still in place. The Korean news headlines we reviewed through October 7 show no caution designation, trading suspension or delisting notice for NEX. CoinGecko shows the token at about $0.00000081, with a market cap near $48.6 million and a 30-day decline of about 43 percent. Its record was $0.00000695 on May 21, the day after launch.
Token introduced May 19, chain live May 20.
First centralized order books.
Paired with Metaplex in one notice.
Upbit USDT at 7:00 PM KST, Bithumb KRW.
Project says the Exchange is coming online.
A same-day Upbit and Bithumb listing is Korea's version of a consensus vote, and Upbit's books reach one of the most active retail audiences in crypto. For a token that had spent six weeks on mid-tier venues, USDT and won pairs on the two biggest Korean boards widened who could hold it. The record came six weeks before those listings, though, so the new audience arrived after the peak and has watched the decline since.
What the ticker represents
Nexus describes itself as a layer 1 for exchange infrastructure and verifiable computation. In a zero-knowledge virtual machine, each computation produces a proof that it was executed correctly. Where most chains ask users to trust that validators re-ran the math, a zkVM chain hands over the receipt.
Coingabbar names Daniel Marin, a Stanford graduate who previously worked at Google, as CEO and Jens Groth, formerly research director at DFINITY, as chief scientist. It also reports $27.2 million raised from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Pantera Capital, Dragonfly Capital and Faction.
The token has a 100 trillion supply, which makes the unit price tiny next to other layer-1s. That is an optics choice, not a valuation signal, and market cap and float are the numbers to read, as our tokenomics guide explains.
The project's May 19 post allocates 20 percent to the team, 20 percent to investors and 60 percent to the treasury. Team and investor tokens sit behind a one-year cliff, then 33 percent unlock at month 12 and the rest linearly. The treasury share is unlocked, which is why CoinGecko counts 60 trillion tokens as circulating.
Risks and open questions
The roadmap runs through products that are not live. The mainnet post said the Nexus Exchange and the USDX stablecoin would follow the layer 1. Earlier coverage targeted USDX, a Treasury-bill-backed dollar token built with the M0 Protocol, for mid-2026. The project's September 29 post covers the Exchange testnet and does not mention USDX. We found no announced launch date for either.
The first team and investor unlock arrives after the one-year cliff, which points to around May 2027 if the clock runs from launch. Until then the supply that can reach the market is mostly the treasury. The Backpack BP entry explains why a listing candle matters less than the unlock calendar.
What to watch next:
- A dated launch for the Nexus Exchange beyond testnet.
- Any USDX announcement from the project.
- Upbit or Bithumb notices about NEX.
This page is not financial advice. The listing put Nexus on the boards that count in Korea, and what the chain does with that audience is still being written.
Not financial advice Listings often spike and then fade once the first wave of buyers is done. Nothing here is a suggestion to buy this token. Check dates on the exchange's own announcement page before trading: schedules slip. Our listing reaction data shows how new listings have typically traded.
