VeChain Nears StarGate Activation—What It Means for Staking, Governance, and Community Involvement

• The VeChain StarGate upgrade launch is set to take place on July 1, 2025.
• Key features of StarGate include a revamped staking model, enhanced governance, and Node tiers.

VeChain (VET) community members are in high spirits, with the launch of the StarGate upgrade just a few hours away. The VeChain StarGate upgrade is part of the Renaissance roadmap, aiming to enhance staking, governance, decentralization, and tokenomics.

VeChain StarGate Activation Begins on July 1

VeChain announced in an X post that the StarGate upgrade will go live on July 1, 2025.   As we covered in our latest report, the VeChain Renaissance upgrade is orchestrated through three phases: Galactica, Hayabusa, and Interstellar.

Galactica, which introduced four major VIPs, has already launched on testnet. This extensive testing phase ensured a smooth transition to the upgraded protocol.

The next phase, Hayabusa, begins with StarGate. The StarGate upgrade will launch on July 1 as an independent platform, before full Hayabusa integration. StarGate promises exciting new features for users who hold and stake the VeChain native token, VET. 

As a key component of the Hayabusa phase, StarGate will introduce a transformative approach to network participation through NFT-based staking collateral. The platform will serve as a bootstrapping period, allowing users to explore the new staking system.

StarGate also introduces a new way for users to receive rewards for early participation. The upcoming upgrade will also allow users to migrate existing Economic Node and X-Node holdings into the NFT-based framework.

StarGate replaces the previous passive VeChainThor (VTHO) yield generation system with an active staking model. Users mint unique NFTs when they stake their VET tokens through StarGate. They can use these NFTs as staking collateral and a means of delegation. Thus, the StarGate upgrade encourages long-term holding and network participation.

In the past, validators could only stake 25 million VET, as we discussed earlier. However, with StarGrate, this limit has now increased to 600 million VET.

Importance of StarGate in Governance and Community Participation

The upcoming StarGate upgrade will also enhance governance in the VeChain blockchain. Users can utilize their Delegator Node NFTs for on-chain governance, granting them the power to contribute to the evolution of VeChainThor.

Furthermore, StarGate introduces new Economic Node tiers that welcome participants at every level. Dawn Node, which is the entry-level permit, allows users to stake 10,000 VET tokens. In the Lightning Node and Flash Node levels, users can stake up to 50,000 VET and 200,000 VET, respectively. 

These multiple Nodes allow complete flexibility in asset allocation. To maximize rewards, users could optimize their strategy by combining all three Node levels. 

In summary, the upcoming StarGate upgrade will end the era of passive VTHO generation. Upon the launch of Hayabusa, VTHO will move exclusively to active network participants who stake VET and secure the blockchain. This creates economic alignment where contribution equals rewards.

Finally, Interstellar will complete the Renaissance vision with full JSON-RPC compatibility and comprehensive EVM alignment. This final phase will make VeChain fully compatible with the entire Ethereum (ETH) toolchain and the broader developer ecosystem.

As regards VET, the coin is currently trading at $0.02, up 1.2% over the past day.