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Grin

GRIN · Field entry
PrivacyPayments & moneyPrivacyCaution flagNot on major US exchanges

A volunteer-run Mimblewimble coin with hidden amounts and one new coin every second

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$0.011215.60%Snapshot · October 20, 2026 · updates live
Market cap
$9,747.08
24h volume
$1,453.15
Rank
#9282
Circulating
871,023 GRIN
Max supply
No fixed cap
All-time high
$25.09 January 16, 2019

GRIN price chart

7-day snapshot. Chart data from CoinGecko.

Read this first — caution flag. Very thin trading, no major US exchange listing, and a history of a 51% attack on its small proof-of-work network. How to evaluate a project.
Not on major US exchanges. As of October 2026 Grin is not tradable on Coinbase, Kraken or Robinhood; it trades in very small volumes on a handful of smaller venues. How to buy crypto safely.

What is Grin?

Grin is a proof-of-work cryptocurrency that went live in January 2019 as one of the first networks built on the Mimblewimble protocol. It hides transaction amounts, has no on-chain addresses, and issues new coins at a fixed rate with no planned cap. It launched with no ICO, premine or founder reward and is maintained by volunteer developers funded by donations.

Utility Lens

What Grin actually does

Aims to be lightweight digital cash in which amounts stay hidden and old transaction data can be pruned so the chain stays small.

Real-world usage
earlyThe network and wallets work, but payment use is small and trading volume is very low.
Token necessity
essentialGRIN is the only asset on the chain and pays both miner rewards and transaction fees.
Decentralization
moderateNo company, foundation or individual controls Grin, but its small hashrate let one miner take majority control during the 2020 attack.
Track record
provenLive since January 2019; it suffered a 51% attack in November 2020, and researchers have shown its transaction graph can be partly linked.

How we rate

What it’s used for

A small community uses GRIN for private peer-to-peer payments and mining. Because sending requires the receiving wallet to take part in building each transaction, everyday use is less convenient than address-based coins. Trading activity is thin, and major US exchanges do not list it.

Role of the GRIN token:

paymentsgas

Evidence of real use

  • Grin's documentation says one new grin is created every second with no end date, so the emission never stops. Source
  • Coinbase's Grin price page states that Grin is not tradable on Coinbase. Source
  • In November 2020 CoinDesk reported that Grin was undergoing a 51% attack, with one unknown miner controlling 57.4% of the hash power according to the 2Miners pool. Source

Privacy: what’s hidden, what isn’t

Privacy model
default (every transaction)
What it hides
Transaction amounts on every payment, and there are no public addresses on the chain to tie payments to a person.
What stays visible
Which outputs a transaction spends and creates (the transaction graph) can often be seen by well-connected nodes before transactions are merged, along with timing, fees and block data.
Reality check
Researcher Ivan Bogatyy reported in 2019 that he could link 96% of Grin transactions from a single well-connected node; Grin developers said this exposes links between outputs, not identities. Exchange support is minimal, and EU rules restrict providers from handling privacy coins from July 2027.

Privacy coins, explained

How Grin works

Grin uses Mimblewimble, a design where coins live in outputs whose values are hidden behind cryptographic commitments. There are no reusable addresses on the chain. Instead, the sender's and receiver's wallets swap data to build each payment together, which is why both sides usually need to be online or exchange a file or message. Many transactions in a block can be merged, and spent outputs can later be dropped from the history so new nodes download far less data.

To make it harder to see where a transaction started, a new payment is first passed privately along a short chain of peers before it is broadcast widely, a technique called Dandelion. Mining now relies on Cuckatoo32+, a puzzle from the Cuckoo Cycle family that is designed to suit specialized chips; a chip-resistant variant, Cuckaroo, was gradually phased out over Grin's first two years. Blocks arrive roughly once a minute.

Development is open source and run by volunteers, and there is no built-in developer fee; the project pays for work through donations. Version 5.5.2 of the node software was published on GitHub in October 2026. Grin's documentation argues that a fixed block reward keeps paying miners for security over the long run instead of leaning on fees, while the yearly dilution shrinks: below 10% after ten years and below 5% after twenty.

Key moments

  1. 2016Coding on Grin begins after the Mimblewimble idea is published by a pseudonymous author.
  2. 2019Grin's mainnet launches in January with no ICO, premine or founder reward.
  3. 2019A Dragonfly Capital researcher publishes an attack that links most Grin transactions; Grin developers dispute what it reveals.
  4. 2020In November an unknown miner gains majority hashrate and carries out a 51% attack.
  5. 2026Node release 5.5.2 is published on GitHub in October.

Supply

Grin has no supply cap. Every block pays a fixed 60 GRIN and blocks target one minute, so the network adds about one coin per second forever. The amount added each year stays the same, so the percentage inflation keeps falling as the total supply grows.

Risks to understand

  • Grin's privacy has limits: a 2019 study linked the inputs and outputs of most transactions by watching the network, though amounts stayed hidden.
  • A small hashrate makes the chain cheaper to attack, as the November 2020 51% attack showed, so large payments deserve extra confirmations.
  • Trading is extremely thin and major US exchanges do not list GRIN, so buying or selling can be slow and costly.
  • The project depends on volunteer developers and donations, with no company or treasury guaranteeing long-term funding.
  • From July 10, 2027 the EU's anti-money-laundering regulation bars crypto service providers there from handling anonymity-enhancing coins, which may further shrink exchange access.

Grin FAQ

Is Grin legal in the US?

As of October 2026 owning and using GRIN is legal in the US, but Coinbase, Kraken and Robinhood do not list it.

Does Grin have a maximum supply?

No. It issues 60 GRIN per one-minute block indefinitely, which works out to about one coin per second.

Why do I need the receiver to respond when sending Grin?

Mimblewimble has no addresses, so the two wallets must exchange data to create each transaction together.

Sources

  1. Grin: the Mimblewimble blockchain — Grin project
  2. Emission — Grin Documentation
  3. Proof of Work — Grin Documentation
  4. mimblewimble/grin releases — GitHub
  5. Privacy Coin GRIN Is Victim of 51% Attack — CoinDesk
  6. What's Really Private in Crypto? Research on Grin Raises Questions — CoinDesk
  7. Grin price page — Coinbase
  8. Regulation (EU) 2024/1624 (Anti-Money Laundering Regulation) — EUR-Lex, Official Journal of the EU

Last reviewed October 20, 2026. Written by . Utility Lens ratings are editorial judgments, not investment advice. Market data from CoinGecko. Spot an error? Request a correction.

About the author

Dave McNaught has worked in IT since 1999 and founded All Business Technologies (ABT) in 2003, a Boston-area firm providing Managed IT, Cybersecurity, Managed AI, Web Design and App Development. He publishes The Crypto Guide.

Full bio