OXT is the native cryptocurrency of Orchid: a decentralized marketplace where users stake OXT (deposit tokens into a smart contract) in order to list their virtual private network (VPN) services to other Orchid users. VPNs encrypt a user’s online browsing activity making it impossible for outside parties to track what you are doing.

Orchid’s distributed operation of its VPN runs on the Ethereum blockchain by matching users who need bandwidth to sellers willing to share theirs. OXT price has seen various highs and lows, mainly coinciding with the broader crypto market.

Orchid’s OXT has a total supply of 1 billion tokens, although not all of them are in circulation. The tokens were created when the project was launched in 2017, with over 40% residing in the treasury of Orchid Labs, the organization that developed the tokens. However, no more than 10 million OXT can be released from the treasury per month.

The OXT price recorded its all-time high of $1.03 in April 2021. The price trended steadily downward, hitting a bottom of under $0.22 in late June. OXT spent the subsequent months fluctuating around $0.40.

Orchid uses the Ethereum network to provide a decentralized and distributed VPN product. The Orchid Protocol matches bandwidth buyers and sellers, and payments occur through the OXT cryptocurrency.

Peer-to-peer connections between buyers and sellers are encrypted before routing data through the sellers’ internet servers.

Bandwidth users can connect to the decentralized VPN through the Orchid app on a compatible device. Bandwidth sellers are network nodes – owners have to stake OXT – to sell bandwidth to others.

Bandwidth buyers benefit from the multi-hop configuration over layer encryption provided by the Orchid protocol. In addition, the multi-hop architecture enables additional encryption by chaining eligible VPN servers together.

As Orchid runs on the Ethereum blockchain, it is compatible with smart contracts. The native application is a decentralized application (dapp), to let users connect to its decentralized VPN network.

Orchid Labs was founded by computer programmer Brain Fox, software engineer Jay Freeman, investor Stephen Bell and venture capitalist Steven Waterhouse in 2017.

Orchid Labs has completed five funding rounds to the tune of $47.8 million. Notable backers include Compound, Threshold, Andreessen Horowitz, Kinetic Capital Partners, Sequoia Capital, MetaStable Capital, Blockchain Capital, Polychain Capital, Visary Capital and BoxGroup. Most recently, the project raised $7 million in May 2019 in a private offering.

Documents filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in 2018 revealed that Orchid Labs had a funding target of over $125 million.