Livepeer

Livepeer (LPT) is a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) for video, an open marketplace where independent GPU operators perform video transcoding and real-time AI video processing in exchange for fees. LPT is the staking token that coordinates the network, with orchestrators and delegators staking it to earn work and inflationary rewards.

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What Is Livepeer?

Livepeer (ticker LPT) is a decentralized network for video infrastructure, one of the earliest examples of what is now called DePIN, or decentralized physical infrastructure. Instead of renting video processing capacity from a cloud provider, developers send work to an open marketplace of independent GPU operators. The network began as a way to make video transcoding, the conversion of a video stream into the many formats and bitrates needed for smooth playback on different devices, dramatically cheaper. It has since expanded into real-time AI video compute, positioning itself as "the open network for real-time AI video."

Overview - Table of Contents
What Is Livepeer?
Getting Started With Livepeer
How To Get A Livepeer Wallet?
Livepeer Resources
How To Buy Livepeer?
Latest Livepeer News

Livepeer was founded by Doug Petkanics and Eric Tang, who published the project's whitepaper in April 2017. Notably, the LPT token was not sold in a public ICO. Roughly 63 percent of the initial supply of 10 million LPT was distributed in 2018 through a process called the MerkleMine, in which anyone could claim tokens by submitting cryptographic proofs on Ethereum, an unusual attempt at a broad, permissionless distribution; the remainder went to the founding team, private pre-sale purchasers, and a long-term project endowment. In 2025 the project introduced the Livepeer Foundation, a neutral entity that stewards the network's growth and ecosystem coordination.

The network has three main participant roles. Orchestrators run GPU hardware and stake LPT to advertise their capacity; they perform the actual transcoding and AI inference work and are paid fees, denominated in ETH, by those who use the network. Gateways (formerly called broadcasters) are the nodes that accept jobs from applications and route them to orchestrators. Delegators are LPT holders who do not run hardware themselves but stake their tokens toward orchestrators they trust, sharing in that orchestrator's rewards and fees. An orchestrator's total stake, its own plus delegated stake, influences how much work it receives, so staking acts as the network's coordination and security mechanism.

The protocol originally ran on Ethereum mainnet, but rising gas fees made participation expensive for smaller operators. In February 2022 the "Confluence" upgrade migrated the protocol's smart contracts to Arbitrum One, an Ethereum layer-2 network, cutting transaction costs sharply and making it economical for far more node operators to claim rewards and participate.

LPT has an inflationary monetary policy with no fixed maximum supply. New tokens are minted every round (roughly one day) and distributed to orchestrators and their delegators in proportion to stake. The inflation rate is not fixed; it adjusts algorithmically toward a target participation rate of 50 percent of all LPT staked. If less than half the supply is staked, inflation ticks up each round to encourage staking; if more than half is staked, it ticks down. From the 10 million genesis tokens, the supply has grown to roughly 50 million LPT. The 2023 "Delta" upgrade also created a community-governed onchain treasury, funded by a portion of inflationary emissions, that pays for public goods and ecosystem development.

Livepeer's biggest strategic shift came in 2024, when it launched an AI subnet that lets orchestrators put their GPUs to work on AI inference jobs, organized into "pipelines" such as text-to-image, image-to-video, speech-to-text, and live video transformation. This evolved into a focus on real-time AI video: generating, transforming, and interpreting live video streams with low latency. It is an honest acknowledgment that demand for pure transcoding alone was modest for years; the AI pivot has given the network's GPU supply a second, faster-growing source of demand.

Getting Started With Livepeer

Most people participate in Livepeer either by delegating LPT to earn staking rewards or by building on, or supplying GPUs to, the network:

Step 1: Set up an Ethereum-compatible wallet such as MetaMask or Rabby. LPT is an ERC-20 token, and the protocol itself lives on Arbitrum One.
Step 2: Acquire LPT on an exchange and withdraw it to your wallet. If your tokens are on Ethereum mainnet, bridge them to Arbitrum to interact with the protocol.
Step 3: Use the Livepeer Explorer to delegate your LPT to an orchestrator. Delegators earn a share of inflationary LPT rewards and the ETH fees their orchestrator generates.
Step 4: If you have capable GPU hardware, consider running an orchestrator node to earn fees directly, or explore building video and AI applications using the network's documentation.

How to Get a Livepeer Wallet?

LPT is an ERC-20 token, so any wallet that supports Ethereum and Arbitrum can hold it. Staking and delegation happen through the Livepeer Explorer on Arbitrum.

MetaMask

MetaMask is the most widely used Ethereum wallet, available as a browser extension and mobile app. It supports Arbitrum One, so you can hold LPT and connect directly to the Livepeer Explorer to delegate, claim rewards, and vote on governance proposals.

Rabby

Rabby is a browser-extension wallet designed for multi-chain Ethereum use. It switches networks automatically and previews transactions before signing, which is convenient when moving LPT between Ethereum and Arbitrum.

Hardware Wallets

A Ledger or Trezor device can be paired with MetaMask or Rabby to keep private keys offline. This is the recommended setup for larger holdings and long-term staking positions.

Livepeer Resources

How to Buy Livepeer?

LPT trades on both centralized and decentralized exchanges.

Centralized Exchanges

LPT is listed on major exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, OKX, and Gate, typically against USD or USDT pairs. Buying on an exchange and withdrawing to your own wallet is the simplest route for most users.

Decentralized Exchanges

As an ERC-20 token, LPT can be swapped on Uniswap on both Ethereum mainnet and Arbitrum One. If you plan to delegate, acquiring or bridging LPT on Arbitrum saves a step, since that is where the staking contracts live.

Latest Livepeer News

Livepeer's recent story is the maturing of its AI pivot. In June 2025 the project launched the Livepeer Foundation to steward the network's decentralization and ecosystem growth, and in late 2025 it published an updated network vision centered on real-time AI video, reporting network fees tripling year-over-year. By the first quarter of 2026, network usage and fees hit all-time highs, with AI inference accounting for roughly 60 percent of protocol revenue, a sign that the GPU network's second act is outgrowing its original transcoding business.

Ongoing roadmap work focuses on upgrading the gateway software to improve reliability and make integration easier for developers. Because staking yields, participation rates, and the mix of transcoding versus AI demand change constantly, the Livepeer Explorer, documentation, and official blog are the best sources for the current state of the network.