UNIQUE
1 known investors
Unique Network provides a low-carbon blockchain infrastructure for minting NFTs, offering an alternative with far lower CO2 emissions per mint than other chains. It targets creators and organizations that want to use web3 and NFTs with a focus on environmental sustainability.
Also known as Unique Network
Investors · 1
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Unique Network operates purpose-built NFT blockchains within the Polkadot ecosystem. Its main chain, Unique, is a Polkadot parachain built on Substrate and positioned as the stable release environment for the project's feature set, while Opal serves as a free testnet where developers can exercise all chain features using valueless OPL tokens. The company also maintains the related Quartz network on Kusama. The chains support native NFTs and refungible tokens (RFTs), nested NFTs, layered access management, transaction scheduling, sponsored (gas-free) transactions, and interoperability with EVM, Polkadot and other chains.
Alongside the base chains, Unique Network offers a JavaScript SDK and REST-based tooling intended to let mainstream (non-blockchain) developers build NFT dApps, plus a marketplace supporting creation and trading of NFTs on the Unique and Quartz networks. The project frames its offering around three problems: NFT-related carbon emissions, the narrowing of NFT use cases beyond collectibles, and high entry barriers for developers and end users. It states that one NFT mint on Unique Network releases 1.2 micrograms of CO2, compared with 10 million micrograms per mint it attributes to ETH 2.0.
The network's native token is UNQ, used for transaction fees, staking (App Promotion, Reputation and Vote/governance staking) and on-chain governance including treasury supervision. UNQ has a maximum supply of 1,000,000,000 with 67,770,563 at genesis and inflation of 10% in the first year, declining toward 4% by year ten.
Business model
Unique Network runs blockchain infrastructure whose usage is denominated in its native UNQ token, which pays network and micro-gas fees for NFT and smart contract transactions and is used for staking and governance. It works with NFT platforms, brands, games and marketplaces on technology integrations and marketplace deployments, and runs a grant program (the NFTs 2.0 CodeCraft Grant Fund) to fund third-party dApps built on its chains.
Network transaction and micro-gas fees are paid in UNQ; a treasury allocation (24% of token supply at TGE) funds upgrades and ecosystem work under on-chain governance.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market
Market position
Unique Network positions itself as an NFT-specialised parachain in the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems, describing itself as the official NFT XCM creator after a 'Cross Chain NFTs' proposal was approved with 91.9% support in Polkadot OpenGov in 2024. It has been a Polkadot Ambassador since 2019, is a member of the Kusama NFT Strategy Team, and won both the Build a Blockchain Champion and Community Choice awards at Hackusama 2020. It maintains XCM channels with Acala, Astar, Polkadex, Hydration (HydraDX), Asset Hub and Coretime.
Technology
The chains are built on Substrate. The feature set includes native NFTs and refungible tokens, nested NFTs, layered access management, transaction scheduling, sponsored transactions that hide gas fees from end users, and interoperability with EVM, Polkadot and other chains via XCM. Developer tooling comprises a JavaScript SDK and REST-based tools aimed at JavaScript developers rather than specialist blockchain engineers. Opal is the company's testnet for cost-free experimentation. Unique has delivered five completed Web3 Foundation grants covering a Polkadot C++ API, a Substrate API in .NET, an SR25519 library in C/C#, a PostgreSQL indexer and consensus insurer, and an NFT tracking module.
Go-to-market
The company markets through the Polkadot and Kusama ecosystems (parachain auctions, OpenGov proposals, community calls and ecosystem events), a grant fund for third-party builders, hackathons, and co-branded campaigns and case studies with partners such as the Sovereign Nature Initiative, Lemonade, ArtPool, Snark Art, Vernisage and the Conor Daly Indy500 fan-engagement program. It publishes regular blog content and monthly highlights, and offers direct contact for organisations wanting to launch marketplaces.
NFT platforms seeking technology integrations; brands using digital collectibles for customer and community engagement; game studios building freemium titles with in-game economies; marketplace operators; and individual creators and collectors. Developer tooling targets JavaScript developers new to web3.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- UNIQUEunique.network · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does UNIQUE do?
- Unique Network is a Substrate-based Polkadot/Kusama parachain for advanced, low-emission NFTs and NFT applications.
- Who are UNIQUE's investors?
- UNIQUE's investors include Narcissus Ventures.