Gnosis is one of Ethereum’s oldest infrastructure companies — founded in 2015, launching the first major prediction market (Gnosis Prediction Market) and the Safe (formerly Gnosis Safe) multisig wallet framework, which became the standard multisig used by virtually every major DeFi protocol, DAO treasury, and institutional crypto operation. GNO is used for staking on the Gnosis Chain (an EVM-compatible sidechain originally created as the xDai chain, using a dual-token model with xDAI stablecoin for gas) and as the governance token for GnosisDAO. The Safe product was spun off as an independent protocol in 2022.
| Stat | Value |
|---|---|
| Ticker | GNO |
| Price | $119.10 |
| Market Cap | $314.27M |
| 24h Change | +1.5% |
| Circulating Supply | 2.64M GNO |
| Max Supply | 3.00M GNO |
| All-Time High | $644.20 |
| Contract (Ethereum) | 0x6810...6b96 |
| Contract (Xdai) | 0x9c58...cedb |
| Contract (Energi) | 0xf452...66fe |
| Contract (Arbitrum One) | 0xa0b8...6cf1 |
How It Works
Gnosis Chain:
An EVM-compatible sidechain (formerly xDai) where:
- xDAI (bridged DAI from Ethereum) is the gas token — 1 xDAI = ~$1
- GNO is staked by validators for consensus
- Block time: ~5 seconds; very low fees
- Full EVM compatibility — all Ethereum dApps deployable
Safe (multisig wallet):
Safe (spun off from Gnosis in 2022) is a modular smart contract wallet requiring M-of-N signatures for transactions. It holds $100B+ in assets and is used by Gnosis DAO itself, Uniswap, Aave, and virtually all major protocol treasuries.
CoW Protocol (formerly Gnosis Protocol):
Gnosis built the CoW (Coincidence of Wants) DEX protocol, which matches trades peer-to-peer before routing to AMMs — minimizing MEV and slippage.
Karma (prediction markets archive):
Gnosis’s original 2017 prediction market product; eventually deprecated in favor of other ecosystem projects like Polymarket.
Tokenomics
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Max Supply | 10,000,000 GNO |
| Circulating | ~2.6M GNO |
| Staking | GNO staked to run Gnosis Chain validators |
| Validator Minimum | 1 GNO (one of lowest in PoS) |
| Rewards | ~10–15% APY in GNO |
Use Cases
- Validator staking — GNO staked to secure the Gnosis Chain
- Governance — GNO used in GnosisDAO voting via Snapshot
- mGNO — Minted for validator staking (32 mGNO = 1 GNO per validator)
- Liquidity — GNO-xDAI liquidity on Gnosis Chain DeFi
History
- 2015 — Gnosis founded by Martin Köppelmann and Stefan George
- 2017 — GNO token ICO sells out in 11 minutes; Gnosis Prediction Market launches
- 2018 — Gnosis Safe (multisig wallet) launches; becomes dominant protocol multisig
- 2021 — xDai chain merges with Gnosis; relaunched as “Gnosis Chain”; GNO becomes validator token
- 2022 — Safe spins off as independent company; SAFE token discussed
- 2022 — GNO ATH ~$720; Gnosis Chain sees DeFi/NFT activity
- 2023 — GnosisDAO treasury diversification; continued infrastructure focus
Common Misconceptions
“Gnosis made Safe.” True, but Safe is now an independent entity — Gnosis spun it off. Gnosis retains a stake but doesn’t control Safe’s operations.
“Gnosis Chain is not a real blockchain.” The former xDai chain (now Gnosis Chain) is a legitimate EVM sidechain with 100+ validators and real usage — but it is a sidechain, not an L2, and does not inherit Ethereum’s security directly.