2025 was a defining year for FIO Protocol. We celebrated half a decade of making blockchain usable, landed our biggest integration yet, revolutionized domain ownership economics, and strengthened our governance for the road ahead.
Celebrating 5 Years of Web3 Usability
In March, FIO Protocol celebrated its 5th anniversary! This was a major milestone that few blockchain projects reach, and fewer still reach while staying true to their original mission.
When FIO launched in March 2020, backed by Binance Labs’ $5.7 million Series A investment, the vision was clear: make blockchain transactions as simple as sending an email. Five years later, that vision has become reality for millions of users.
The numbers tell the story:
2.1 million FIO Handles registered
30,000+ FIO Domains claimed
100+ integrated platforms across the ecosystem
156 million FIO tokens staked by year’s end
But beyond the metrics, our 5th anniversary was a moment to reflect on the community that made it all possible. From the early adopters who believed in human-readable addresses before they were mainstream, to the developers building on our protocol today. This milestone belongs to everyone who chose usability over complexity.
Trust Wallet: Bringing FIO to 130 Million Users
In January, we announced that Trust Wallet selected FIO Handles as their default naming solution, bringing human-readable addresses to over 130 million users.
Trust Wallet serves over 130 million users across 100+ blockchains and 10 million+ digital assets. With this integration, every one of those users can now replace complex wallet addresses with simple, human-readable handles like jane@trust or cryptoguru@trust, completely free.The impact is profound. In Web3, transactions are irreversible. One wrong character in a wallet address means permanent loss of funds. FIO Handles help mitigate that risk. Instead of copying and pasting a 42-character string and hoping you got it right, you simply send to a name you can read and remember.
“Previous technology adoption cycles have shown that usability is key to ensuring mass adoption.” Trust Wallet’s decision to make FIO their default validates what we’ve been building for five years, and brings our mission to a scale we’ve never reached before.
Forever Domains: Own Your Identity Until 2075
What if you could secure your Web3 identity once and not think about it again for 50 years?
That’s now possible thanks to FIP-51, a community-driven proposal that dramatically reduced domain renewal fees. The change transforms the economics of digital identity ownership:
Before
Register a domain: ~$40
50 years of renewals: ~$1,960
Total cost: ~$2,000
After
Register a domain: ~$40
50 years of renewals: ~$5
Total cost: ~$45
That’s a 97.75% reduction. This turns web3 domain ownership from an ongoing expense into a one-time investment.
This matters because true ownership has always been Web3’s promise. Your FIO Domain is an NFT secured by your private key. You control it completely. You can transfer it, customize it, build on it, or pass it down as a legacy. Now you can do all of that knowing your domain is secured for the next half-century.
No more renewal reminders. No more expired domains. No more losing your digital identity because life got busy. Pay once for 50 years and build your Web3 presence with confidence.
Lightweight SDK: Making Integration Easier Than Ever
In late 2024, we released our lightweight TypeScript SDK, and throughout 2025 it became the go-to tool for builders across the ecosystem.
The SDK allows developers to sign and broadcast any transaction to the FIO Chain, generate keys, sign nonces, and decrypt FIO Request and FIO Data content — all with minimal overhead. It’s designed for speed and simplicity, lowering the barrier for any wallet, exchange, or dApp looking to add FIO support.
This developer-first approach paid off. The SDK helped accelerate integrations throughout the year and ensures that as Web3 grows, FIO grows with it.
Expanding our Reach
FIO’s presence grew significantly in 2025, with new integrations, major exchange listings and on the global stage.
Palma Wallet integrated FIO to simplify crypto across Africa, NEO brought FIO Handles to the Neo X ecosystem, DeTrip enabled users to book travel using their FIO Handle instead of wallet addresses, and Coinplus combined FIO Handles with NFC-enabled cold wallet cards. Top-tier platforms added FIO futures trading, including Binance Futures (75x leverage), Kraken Pro (20x leverage), and Gate.io (50x leverage), reflecting growing institutional interest and providing the liquidity our community needs.
Meanwhile, the FIO team connected with builders and partners at the industry’s biggest events: WAGMI Miami and Web3 Amsterdam (where FIO hosted booths), Consensus By CoinDesk in Hong Kong, Token2049 in Dubai and Singapore, Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas, NFT.NYC (where Wayne Marcel spoke on NFT mainstream adoption), Thailand Blockchain Week, and Binance Blockchain Week Dubai to close out the year.
Strengthening FIO Governance
Decentralized governance only works when the right people are guiding the ship. In 2025, FIO welcomed two significant additions to our leadership structure.
Franck Mikulecz was elected to the Board of Directors through a community vote. Franck brings decades of experience in financial markets, having built FX technology solutions for Tier-1 banks worldwide. His focus on making crypto markets more accessible to institutional participants aligns perfectly with FIO’s mission of mainstream usability.
Nicolas Mazuryk was appointed to the Steering Committee by the Board. Nicolas represents AlephOne, a technical partner that has worked with FIO for over four years, building critical infrastructure including the FIO Dashboard, oracle software, and DevOps systems. His deep knowledge of the protocol ensures operational excellence as we scale.
These appointments reflect FIO’s commitment to community-driven decision making. Token holders elect the Board. The Board appoints the Steering Committee. And together, they guide a protocol that remains truly decentralized.
The Year Ahead
2025 proved that usability wins. When you make blockchain simple enough for anyone to use, adoption follows.
With Trust Wallet bringing FIO to 130 million users, Forever Domains securing identities for decades, and strengthened governance guiding our path forward, the foundation is set for our most ambitious year yet.
Thank you to every community member, partner, and builder who made 2025 unforgettable. The mission continues: make crypto simple and safe for everyone.
About FIO:
FIO, the Foundation for Interwallet Operability, is a decentralized consortium that supports the ongoing development, integration, and promotion of the FIO Protocol. The protocol, built on the FIO Chain, a dPoS blockchain, serves as an open-source, decentralized usability layer solution that works across all blockchains. FIO Protocol uses human-readable Handles to replace the complexity, risk, and inconvenience associated with blockchain-based transactions. Users register FIO Domains (like @wallet or @edge) and create FIO Handles (like alice@wallet) on those domains.These web3 domains and handles can map to blockchain addresses across every chain. Fueling the ecosystem utilization is the FIO Token ($FIO), which powers transactions and incentivizes network participants.
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FIO Protocol: 2025 Year in Review was originally published in FIO Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.