In December 2025, we launched StarGate alongside the Hayabusa protocol upgrade. Hayabusa transitioned VeChainThor from Proof of Authority to Delegated Proof of Stake, the most significant consensus change in our history. StarGate gave our community a direct way to participate: stake VET, earn protocol rewards, and contribute to network security and decentralization. In 3 months, total VET staked grew from 2.52 billion to 13 billion tokens. Staking TVL is one of the clearest signals of community conviction: it requires locking capital and accepting a time horizon in exchange for protocol rewards.(VeChain)