Shardeum is an EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain designed to bring India onchain, with low fees, fast finality, and high scalability.
Shardeum’s token-only mainnet was launched on May 5, 2025. Shardeum’s EVM network with smart contract functionality was launched on October 30, 2025.
SHM is the ticker/currency symbol of Shardeum’s native token.
SHM is a utility token with various uses, including:
SHM trading is live on leading crypto exchanges including Kucoin and MEXC. For full list of exchanges, please visit this webpage. More centralized and decentralized exchange listings are coming soon.
You can find the mainnet endpoint here.
Any EVM-compatible wallet will work on Shardeum, including MetaMask and Keplr.
Getting started with Shardeum is straightforward and permissionless. Whether you’re a user, builder, validator, or community contributor, here are the key ways to begin:
You can find the roadmap here.
EVM smart contract network was successfully deployed to Shardeum mainnet on October 30, 2025. The EVM roadmap is divided into two phases, and it will be metrics-driven. Phase 1 begins now, with the goal of reaching 10 million users, primarily in India. Once there, Phase 2 will be about bringing Shardeum’s scalable EVM to market, enabling the network to scale for global adoption while maintaining performance, and delivering seamless user experiences.
Shardeum is an EVM-compatible Layer 1 with low fees, fast finality, and high scalability, allowing developers to use the same tools, wallets, and smart contracts they already know. You can start building on Shardeum by following our developer documentation. Developers can move at the speed of their ideas:
From Idea to dApp in Minutes: Developers can easily deploy popular EVM-based dApps like Uniswap or Aave, and also take inspiration from viral apps on other ecosystems like pump.fun by building their EVM equivalents for Shardeum.
Solve Real Problems in India: India is home to one of the world’s largest untapped Web3 user bases. Build utilities that tackle everyday problems – remittances, permissionless app deployment, finance, microtransactions, identity verification, tokenization, gaming – and reach millions of first-time crypto users.
Inclusive for All Builders: From first-time developers experimenting with Solidity to seasoned teams scaling global dApps, Shardeum offers the tools, documentation, and community support to help you succeed.
Strong Community Momentum: In our recent EVM Testnet Quest, over 10,000 users participated and stress-tested the network in just 4 days. Our Discord is one of the largest and most active blockchain communities globally with 600K+ members — a ready-made audience for your projects.
Ecosystem Growth = User Growth: With Shardeum’s infrastructure, developers don’t just deploy dApps – they contribute to building the rails for India’s Web3 future, while onboarding new users from one of the fastest-growing digital economies in the world.
We also plan to introduce support for builders in the future through hackathons, bug bounties, performance-based grants, and other ecosystem programs to encourage adoption and growth
In Phase 1, Shardeum has integrated proven, open-source EVM software into its Layer 1 network to accelerate adoption. The token-only sharded mainnet was transitioned to an unsharded mainnet with smart contract functionality on October 30, 2025. With this foundation, Shardeum will accelerate user growth in the near term, prioritizing India, to lead in the world’s largest untapped on-chain market. Today, there are 500M+ crypto users worldwide, and about 80M are active on-chain. In India, over 50M use centralized exchanges, yet only a few million are on-chain. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to convert millions of people into true on-chain users.
Driving adoption in a market like India takes two parts: a reliable network and a token people can actually use with ease. The EVM delivers the first; the SHM token split delivers the second. On October 6, 2025, we invited the community to vote on redenominating SHM supply from 249 million to 60 billion. 85% of the community voted in favor of redenomination. Splitting (not inflating) SHM to a 1:240 ratio will increase the token count and lower per-token price creating a stronger sense of affordability, driving retail interest in fast-emerging markets like India. Several projects like Ripple (XRP) and Polkadot (DOT) have shown how a high token supply can drive accessibility and create significant potential as real utility expands. Moreover, this helps exchanges, wallets, dApps, and first-time users onboard SHM more easily, creating a network effect favoring high adoption.
Our decision comes down to two priorities: adoption now, scalability next. In May 2025, we launched our token-only mainnet with a first-of-its-kind sharding architecture. That milestone validated our vision by delivering low fees and unprecedented validator accessibility. However with no smart contracts live yet, adoption and liquidity remained limited. We must remember what users and developers actually care about: a network that is reliable, fast, with low fees. So what matters is how seamlessly a technology delivers utility and value, making it practical, accessible, and life-changing, both today and in the future.
The community has consistently asked for smart contract functionality, and the broader crypto ecosystem around the world is bursting with dApps, utilities, and even meme tokens that need a reliable EVM chain today. By integrating a proven EVM stack into our Layer 1, Shardeum can rapidly onboard dApps while tapping into India’s massive untapped on-chain market.
The EVM roadmap is structured in two phases: Phase 1 (starting now) is about enabling smart contracts, driving liquidity, and growing the user base toward tens of millions. Once there, Phase 2 roadmap will see introduction of Shardeum’s innovations to deliver a scalable EVM that supports global adoption while maintaining performance. Rather than waiting, we believe it’s more important to move forward with a clear, phased roadmap – one that delivers what users and stakeholders need now, while ensuring Shardeum’s unique technology is introduced at the right time for long-term scalability.
To create a real on-chain user base in India, we are committed to doing the hard work that others have avoided:
Building Awareness & Education: We actively engage communities through large-scale Proof of Community (PoC) events, university programs, quests, and workshops that demystify Web3 for first-time users.
Attracting dApps: By supporting the deployment of popular EVM dApps and inspiring new ones built for Indian users, we ensure there are meaningful products to use from day one.
Localized UX: We will encourage founders to design dApps that feel natural to UPI-native and mobile-first users – lowering friction for India’s digital population.
Supporting Builders: Through GTM support and direct community access, Shardeum helps founders scale their projects beyond the prototype stage. We also plan to introduce support for builders in the future through hackathons, bug bounties, performance-based grants, and other ecosystem programs to encourage adoption and growth
Regulatory Alignment: We are committed to working closely with policymakers and regulators to ensure compliance with Indian laws while safeguarding decentralization.
Our co-founder’s journey of building WazirX through both growth phases and challenges provides us with a unique edge in driving adoption. Just as WazirX overcame early adoption hurdles when crypto penetration was shallow, Shardeum is now positioned to do the same for true on-chain adoption. By combining infrastructure, ecosystem support, and community-led growth, Shardeum will onboard millions of Indian users to Web3.
The Shardeum network runs on two main types of nodes.
You can refer to our developer documentation for guidance on running the node types mentioned above, including RPC nodes.
Validators will continue to be an integral part of Shardeum. EVM mainnet will remain permissionless – anyone can participate in validation by staking SHM, with active validator slots determined by the amount staked. Validation will follow a block-based architecture with fast finality, block production, and slashing mechanics similar to other proof-of-stake blockchains. For operators interested in running a validator node, developer documentation is available to guide setup and operations.
To enable broader participation, delegation is now live, allowing SHM holders to support validators of their choice, earn a share of rewards, and help secure the network without running a node themselves. Within days of launching the delegators program, over 1 billion SHM was staked, with more than 75% contributed by the community. With delegation live, rewards accruing, and participation accelerating, now is a strong time to start or increase your delegation.
Follow this blog-cum-tutorial to delegate SHM, contribute to network security, and earn staking rewards in return.
You can find the relevant details in the developer section of our technical documentation. We’re actively expanding and refining this content to provide more comprehensive guidance for developers. Thank you for your patience, and we welcome your feedback as we continue improving the documentation.
Shardeum’s EVM mainnet includes:
Here is the link to Shardeum whitepaper. Please note that the whitepaper is being updated currently, and the exact details will be available in the coming days. We appreciate your patience.
Yes, we definitely plan to reward EVM mainnet participation through several airdrop campaigns in the future. We also just concluded EVM testnet quest, which saw 10,000+ participants within a short period of 5 days, for a chance to earn from 60 million SHM prize pool. Eligible wallets have already received SHM airdrops as part of this campaign.
OCC is short for Open, Collaborative and Community-Driven. OCC is the core principle of Shardeum. Much like the Internet, Shardeum will be open, collaborative, and community-driven and would democratize accessibility to decentralization. Shardeum will be the infrastructure on which the next iteration of the Internet, Web3, will be built.
Following the community-approved SHM redenomination (1:240), the initial supply was adjusted to ~59.76 billion SHM. Allocations remain identical in percentage terms since this was purely a token split, not a supply increase through inflation.
Similar to Ethereum, node rewards will not be pre-minted. Validator rewards will still come from ongoing issuance, designed to keep the network secure and to ensure validators are always incentivized. What’s different is that the validator rewards will now follow a fixed issuance schedule rather than a dynamic model, which is by the way, a technical adjustment required by the validator design of the adopted EVM software. Instead of generating rewards dynamically, a fixed issuance schedule will define the supply allocated to validators each year.
Community participation is always essential for Shardeum’s growth. Members can support the network by running nodes, staking/delegating SHM, building applications, answering questions to guide newcomers, or joining/organizing hackathons, meetups, and campaigns. Beyond technical contributions, Shardeum’s recently launched Ambassador Program has opened new avenues for involvement, empowering community members to create content, spread awareness, and champion Shardeum within their local networks. Every act of participation – whether coding, educating, or advocating – helps strengthen the ecosystem, accelerate adoption, and build the foundation for Shardeum’s smart contract platform.
If you don’t find an answer to your question in our FAQ pages here, feel free to post your questions or doubts directly on the Shardeum Discord. Our team and community members will be happy to help.
Always start with this golden rule: Do Your Own Research (DYOR). It’s especially crucial in a space like Web3, which blends cutting-edge technology with elements of finance, economics, capital markets, and governance. Blockchain isn’t just about innovation and valuable education – it’s about empowering individuals with true ownership of their assets and data, offering a decentralized alternative to traditional systems. At its core, it promotes transparency, permissionless access, identity, and open-source infrastructure – all of which make informed decision-making essential.
With this foundation in mind, you can start with setting up a self-custodial wallet and connecting to decentralized networks. This blog guides you through that process and highlights other key steps to help ensure a secure experience.
