Pyth Network (PYTH): The Oracle Fed Directly by Trading Firms
First-party prices, a ‘pull’ model, and a token since 2023
Pyth Network is an oracle: a service that lets blockchain apps use price data from the outside world. Its data comes straight from where prices are made, such as exchanges and market makers, and it started on Solana in 2021.
1. What it is and who built it
Blockchains cannot see outside prices, so lending and derivatives apps rely on oracles to bring data on-chain, for instance to know what collateral is worth before a liquidation. Pyth began with backing from Jump Crypto, part of the trading firm Jump Trading, and opened on Solana’s mainnet in 2021; today the Swiss-based Pyth Data Association and several development firms run it.
PYTH is a governance token launched in November 2023 with an airdrop (free tokens for early users), with a maximum supply of 10 billion. Holders stake it to vote on fees, new data feeds and reward rules. On the Crypto Nation map, PYTH stands in Solana City, because it was first issued on Solana.
2. First-party data and the ‘pull’ model
Pyth’s publishers are exchanges, market makers and trading firms, so its data is ‘first-party’, from the source rather than through aggregators. Prices from many publishers are combined into one price plus a ‘confidence interval’ showing how certain it is, on Pythnet, a dedicated chain built with Solana technology.
Other chains get data by ‘pull’: an app or user posts the latest update to the target chain with a transaction, and the signed data, carried as a Wormhole cross-chain message, is verified before use. This costs less than constantly pushing prices everywhere, letting Pyth serve more than 100 blockchains.
3. Uses and milestones
Pyth prices serve decentralized derivatives exchanges, lending services and asset-management apps as liquidation thresholds and trade prices. Feeds cover crypto, stocks, currencies and commodities, and products include Entropy, a random-number service, and low-latency data.
In 2024 Oracle Integrity Staking began: PYTH staked behind publishers vouches for data quality, and bad data can cost part of the stake. In August 2025 the US Department of Commerce said it would use Pyth and Chainlink to publish statistics such as GDP on blockchains. Pyth Pro, a subscription service for institutions, followed in late September, and in December a programme began using network revenue to buy PYTH monthly for a reserve.
4. Things to know
Oracles are a critical dependency in DeFi, and one wrong price can trigger mass liquidations. Because apps must post fresh prices themselves in the pull model, a late update can leave stale prices in use, so it matters whether an app checks freshness and filters odd readings.
Reliance on large financial firms as publishers and on bridge technology such as Wormhole are seen as concentration and dependency risks. PYTH’s initial allocations unlock in stages, how the token connects to data-fee revenue is still debated (the buyback is one answer), and competition with oracles such as Chainlink continues.
Written from information public up to October 2026. It does not recommend or rate any coin and is not investment advice. If something is wrong, please tell us through the contact page.