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What Is Tellor?

Tellor is a decentralized oracle protocol that supplies off-chain data, such as asset prices, to smart contracts on Ethereum and other blockchains. Instead of trusting a centralized data provider, Tellor relies on a network of independent reporters who stake the protocol's native token, TRB, to submit values in response to on-chain data queries. Its central design goal is censorship resistance: producing data that cannot be easily corrupted or shut down by any single party.

The project was founded in 2018 in the United States, growing out of the team's earlier work on Daxia, a derivatives-focused project that needed a reliable price oracle. The co-founders are Brenda Loya (CEO), Nicholas Fett (CTO), and Michael Zemrose (CSO). Tellor was one of the earlier attempts to build a fully permissionless oracle, and it has iterated on its architecture several times over the years in response to both technical needs and security incidents.

Tellor works through a crypto-economic model built around staking and disputes. Any reporter can permissionlessly stake TRB and submit a value for a given data query, and submissions are aggregated (for example by median) into a reported value. Rather than assuming every submission is correct, Tellor treats data as optimistic: once a value is posted, it enters a challenge window during which anyone can raise a dispute. When a dispute is opened, TRB holders vote on whether the reported value was valid, and the losing side is slashed. This makes it costly to submit bad data and rewards honest reporting. Users and applications can also add TRB tips to incentivize reporters to answer specific queries, and the protocol supports standing data sets sometimes described as Enshrined Feeds.

The economic model has changed meaningfully since launch. Early versions of Tellor used a proof-of-work style competition in which reporters (then called miners) raced to solve a computational puzzle for the right to submit data. The modern design centers on staking and disputes rather than mining, moving the security guarantee from computational work to economic stake. Tellor also operates its own Cosmos-based chain with validators, alongside light-client bridges that relay data to other networks.

TRB is the token that powers all of this. It is used as the stake that reporters must lock up, as the reward paid to reporters, and as the instrument used to fund tips and to vote in disputes. TRB is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum at contract address 0x88df592f8eb5d7bd38bfef7deb0fbc02cf3778a0. The circulating supply is small, roughly 2.8 million TRB out of a total of about 2.876 million, and there is no fixed hard cap; the supply grows slowly through ongoing issuance used to reward reporters. At recent prices the market capitalization sits in the tens of millions of dollars.

Tellor has weathered several significant events that are important to understand. On February 15, 2021, a faulty protocol upgrade froze the oracle and the original token, forcing a full one-to-one migration to a new TRB token. That migration produced Tellor3 in May 2021, and a later upgrade, Tellor360, was approved by token-holder vote on October 25, 2022 and removed the contract's upgradability to reduce this class of risk. In September 2022, security researchers flagged an advisory relating to Liquity using Tellor as a fallback oracle, warning that an unsafe integration could be risky; no funds were lost and the integration was patched. Across these events, there has been no successful direct drain of the oracle itself and no major lawsuits against the project.

The single most defining characteristic of TRB as a traded asset is its very low float. With only around 2.8 million tokens in circulation and a large share of supply concentrated in a small number of wallets, TRB's order books are thin and its price can move violently. On December 31, 2023, TRB spiked parabolically to an all-time high around $593 (some venues printed higher) before crashing to roughly $137 within hours, an event that led the entire market in liquidations at approximately $74 million and drew widespread allegations of pump-and-dump manipulation. TRB experienced another crash of about 75% in 2025. Anyone considering TRB should treat this extreme volatility as a real and structural risk rather than a one-off.

Getting Started With Tellor

Getting started with Tellor depends on whether you want to hold TRB, use Tellor data in an application, or participate as a reporter. For most people, acquiring and safely storing TRB is the first step.

  1. Step 1: Set up an Ethereum-compatible wallet such as MetaMask, since TRB is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum.
  2. Step 2: Buy TRB on a centralized exchange or swap for it on a decentralized exchange, and be aware that thin liquidity can cause large price swings.
  3. Step 3: Withdraw your TRB to your own wallet for self-custody rather than leaving it on an exchange.
  4. Step 4: If you want to go further, read the Tellor documentation to learn about running a reporter, funding data tips, or participating in disputes and governance.

Developers who want to consume Tellor data can integrate its oracle contracts and reference the docs at docs.tellor.io for query formats, supported feeds, and dispute mechanics.

How to Get a Tellor Wallet?

TRB is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, so it can be stored in any wallet that supports Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens.

MetaMask

MetaMask is the most widely used Ethereum wallet, available as a browser extension and mobile app. You can add TRB as a custom token using its contract address and use MetaMask to send, receive, and interact with Tellor's smart contracts.

Ledger Hardware Wallet

For long-term storage and stronger security, a Ledger hardware wallet keeps your private keys offline. Ledger supports Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens including TRB, and it can be paired with MetaMask for a secure signing experience.

Rabby

Rabby is a browser-extension wallet built for Ethereum and EVM chains. It supports ERC-20 tokens like TRB and offers transaction previews that help you understand what a smart contract interaction will do before you sign it.

Tellor Resources

How to Buy Tellor?

TRB is available on both centralized and decentralized exchanges. Because of its low circulating supply and thin order books, buyers should use limit orders where possible and be mindful of slippage and sharp price movements.

Centralized Exchanges

TRB is listed on several major centralized exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, KuCoin, and Gate.io, most commonly against USDT. Some venues also offer derivatives on TRB, though the token's history of extreme volatility and large liquidation events makes leveraged trading especially risky.

Decentralized Exchanges

Because TRB is an ERC-20 token, it can be swapped on Ethereum decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap. Connect an Ethereum wallet, confirm you are using the correct TRB contract address, and swap ETH or a stablecoin for TRB. Verify the contract carefully to avoid impostor tokens.

After buying TRB, consider moving it to a personal wallet for self-custody rather than leaving it on an exchange.

Latest Tellor News

Tellor continues to operate its oracle across Ethereum and other EVM environments, with its own Cosmos-based chain, validators, and light-client bridges relaying data between networks. Development activity remains focused on its staking-and-dispute oracle, data feeds, and tooling such as the block explorer, operator dashboard, and feed interfaces.

From a market perspective, TRB remains defined by its low float and history of dramatic price swings. After the December 2023 spike to an all-time high near $593 and the subsequent crash and roughly $74 million in market-wide liquidations, the token saw another decline of around 75% in 2025. These episodes underscore that TRB's price behavior is driven heavily by its small circulating supply and concentrated ownership, a dynamic that anyone following the token should weigh carefully.