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Particl

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

A Bitcoin-based staking coin with optional private payments and a peer-to-peer marketplace

By

$0.19021.95%Snapshot · October 20, 2026 · updates live
Market cap
$3.03M
24h volume
$25.43
Rank
#2027
Circulating
15.94M PART
Max supply
No fixed cap
All-time high
$58.77 December 10, 2022

PART price chart

7-day snapshot. Chart data from CoinGecko.

Read this first — caution flag. Trading is extremely illiquid, with only a few offshore venues and tiny daily volume, and the marketplace desktop app has had no release since November 2023. How to evaluate a project.
Not on major US exchanges. As of October 2026 Coinbase and Kraken do not offer PART; the project's coin page points buyers to MEXC, NonKYC and the BasicSwap DEX. How to buy crypto safely.

What is Particl?

Particl is a proof-of-stake cryptocurrency launched in 2017 on a Bitcoin-derived codebase. Users choose between public, amount-hiding and fully private transactions, and the coin underpins a peer-to-peer marketplace and is used on the BasicSwap atomic-swap exchange.

Utility Lens

What Particl actually does

Gives users a staking coin with selectable privacy levels to pay for and trade goods and coins directly with each other, without a middleman.

Real-world usage
speculativeThe marketplace and swaps work, but there is little visible activity and centralized trading volume is tiny.
Token necessity
integralPART is needed for staking, fees and marketplace listings, though BasicSwap also trades many coins that never touch PART.
Decentralization
moderateAnyone with PART can stake without a minimum and holders vote on proposals, but a small group of developers maintains the core software.
Track record
longRunning since July 2017 with regular core releases and no major hack we could find, though its desktop marketplace app has not had a release since 2023.

How we rate

What it’s used for

PART holders stake public balances from Particl Desktop, vote on community proposals and pay listing fees on the Particl Marketplace. The same team's BasicSwap software lets people swap PART, Bitcoin, Monero and other coins through atomic swaps without an exchange. Centralized trading is now extremely thin, with MEXC and NonKYC among the few venues the project lists.

Role of the PART token:

paymentsgasstaking securitygovernance

Evidence of real use

  • Particl's blockchain launched on July 17, 2017, and cold staking reached mainnet that same year. Source
  • Stakers voted in October 2025 to cut emission and end automatic treasury funding, and the team shipped mandatory node releases for the February 1, 2026 hard fork, showing the core software is still maintained. Source
  • The most recent Particl Desktop release, v3.3.2, dates from November 2023. Source

Privacy: what’s hidden, what isn’t

Privacy model
optional (user chooses shielded/private)
What it hides
Blind transactions hide amounts; anon transactions hide amounts and the sender and receiver addresses. Marketplace messages are encrypted.
What stays visible
Everything in public transactions, including all staking balances; addresses in blind transactions; and the movement of coins between public and private balances.
Reality check
Because privacy is optional and staking requires a public balance, many coins sit in the open, and moving funds between public and private modes can leave clues. The EU AML Regulation counts coins with optional anonymity features as anonymity-enhancing coins, and regulated providers may not handle them from July 2027.

Privacy coins, explained

How Particl works

Particl lets each payment use one of three modes. Public transactions look like Bitcoin ones, with visible addresses and amounts, and only public balances can stake. Blind transactions use Confidential Transactions, so amounts are hidden but addresses stay visible. Anon transactions add ring signatures on top, a scheme known as RingCT, to hide both the parties and the value; users can raise the number of decoys for more cover at a higher fee.

The network is secured by proof-of-stake, and there is no minimum amount needed to stake. In 2017 Particl introduced cold staking, which lets an online node that holds no coins do the staking work for coins kept on an offline or hardware wallet, so they can still earn rewards. The code is derived from Bitcoin and tracks its upgrades, which brings SegWit, Taproot and Lightning Network support. Holding PART also gives a vote in the project's community governance.

The Particl Marketplace is an app on the same network where people list goods, pay listing fees in PART and help moderate listings, with no company running the store. To protect a deal, buyer and seller can lock funds in a two-party escrow that needs no outside arbiter. BasicSwap, an atomic-swap exchange, was built on Particl's encrypted peer-to-peer messaging layer, SMSG. It trades across different blockchains, including Monero, so neither side has to hand coins to a custodian.

Key moments

  1. 2017Particl's blockchain launches on July 17, and cold staking goes live on mainnet later that year.
  2. 2019The first BasicSwap atomic-swap protocol is built on Particl's SMSG messaging layer.
  3. 2022BasicSwap gains its first user-facing graphical interface.
  4. 2023BasicSwap adds two-way atomic swaps with Monero, and Particl Desktop v3.3.2 is released in November.
  5. 2026A hard fork on February 1, approved by stakers the previous October, lowers yearly emission to 3.5% and ends automatic treasury funding.

Supply

PART has no fixed supply cap, and new coins come from staking rewards. Stakers approved CCS Proposal #25 in October 2025, and a hard fork on February 1, 2026 cut yearly emission to 3.5% of the money supply and made treasury donations optional, set to zero by default. Under that plan the rate falls by half a percentage point each year until it reaches 1%. The project says there was no ICO or premine.

Risks to understand

  • Trading volume is extremely low and centered on a few offshore venues; Coinbase and Kraken do not offer PART.
  • Only public balances can stake, so staking holders give up the privacy of blind or anon balances.
  • The marketplace desktop app has not had a release since November 2023, which raises questions about how actively it is maintained.
  • From July 10, 2027 EU-regulated crypto service providers may not handle coins with built-in anonymity features, including optional ones like Particl's.

Particl FAQ

Is Particl private by default?

No. Users choose between public, blind and anon transactions. Only anon transactions hide both the parties and the amount.

What is cold staking?

A feature Particl launched in 2017 in which an online node with no coins of its own does the staking for you, so funds kept offline can still earn rewards.

What is BasicSwap?

A decentralized exchange built on Particl's messaging network that uses atomic swaps, so people can trade coins like Bitcoin and Monero directly without a custodian.

Can I buy PART in the US?

Not on major US platforms. As of October 2026 Coinbase and Kraken do not offer it.

Sources

  1. PART coin privacy specs — Particl Academy
  2. Staking explained — Particl Academy
  3. Particl coin — Particl
  4. Particl: 2017 year in review — Particl News
  5. About BasicSwap — BasicSwap
  6. New Mandatory Particl Core Release — Particl News
  7. Particl Desktop v3.3.2 — Particl (GitHub)
  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