PANews reported on May 5 that according to the official IOTA blog announcement, the IOTA Rebased mainnet upgrade officially started today (May 5, 2025) at 9 AM Central European Summer Time (4 PM Beijing/Tokyo time). This upgrade marks the migration of the network from the original Stardust mainnet to the new IOTA network.
The upgrade process is carried out through the 'Genesis Ceremony' executed jointly by the IOTA Foundation and 12 initial validators including DLT Green, P2P, Luganodes, KILN, Stakin, etc. It involves steps such as shutting down the old network, generating a ledger snapshot, validating data, creating and signing the genesis block, and launching the new network.
For holders of IOTA tokens, this upgrade is seamless, with no need for token migration, and assets are secure. However, users must prepare the private keys, mnemonic phrases, or Firefly/Bloom Stronghold backup files from their original wallets to import and access their assets in the new official wallet (in the form of a browser extension, which will replace the no longer supported Firefly desktop wallet). Users of Ledger hardware wallets will also need to install the new version of the IOTA Ledger app that is compatible with the new mainnet.
During the upgrade, most exchanges supporting IOTA will temporarily suspend deposit and withdrawal services for IOTA tokens, and are expected to resume normal operations shortly after the upgrade is completed. The IOTA EVM is expected to resume operation within 4 to 8 hours after the mainnet launch.
