Althea: 2025 in Review
As we step into 2026, we want to take a moment to reflect on 2025, a pivotal year for Althea’s infrastructure and ecosystem. The past year brought volatility and pressure to both the telecom and blockchain industries, but within the Althea ecosystem, deliberate, long-term work reached a defining milestone. Althea L1 was unlocked, and the Althea protocol is now ready to expand scalable and sovereign infrastructure on the L1 blockchain.
Transforming the intrinsic systems of funding and operating utilities and telecom is no small feat, nor is it a quick process. Since its development, the Althea protocol has changed how critical infrastructure is funded, owned, and operated. The protocol empowers operators of all sizes to build locally owned networks while returning choice for end users. Now with Althea L1, a purpose-built platform reliable enough to scale, the Althea protocol will finally be ready to reach its full potential.
2025: A Year in Review
Over the course of the year, the Althea protocol and its ecosystem crossed several major milestones:
- Unlock of Althea L1, after a year of preparation Althea L1 is ready to enable new scale, reliability, and DeFi capabilities for Althea Protocol users.
- Deployment of the iFi DEX, an exchange purpose-built for the needs of utilities and telecom. Designed for efficiency, it features Liquidity Fusion, which combines ambient liquidity with knock-out and limit orders in a single pool.
- Community governance decisions, including votes to:
- Manage the iFi DEX parameters
- Launch an incentives program for the iFi DEX
- Unlock transfers of the Althea token, now listed on Kraken
- Final prep of Althea L1 firmware for routers, enabling machine-to-machine payments directly between network devices using the Althea L1 blockchain.
- Expansion of Liquid Infrastructure, which uses the Althea L1 blockchain and the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatibility to bring the power of DeFi financing to broadband networks. Read the Arizona case study.
Expanding the Stack: Cellular & Mobility
2025 also delivered meaningful progress in cellular infrastructure. Enhancements to the cellular stack now enable roaming between private and public mobile networks. Enabling unprecedented access to powerful cellular tools to build in the mobile space, use licensed frequencies, and connect a variety of devices. Contact the Althea Foundation if you are interested in building using roaming cellular on Althea L1 - more to come on this in 2026!
Looking Ahead to 2026
In 2026, the work will continue to evolve Liquid Infrastructure for scale and to connect DeFi directly to telecom and utilities revenue.
Users of Althea L1 continue to innovate DeFi primitives with pooled Liquid Infrastructure Tokens (LITs) that represent diversified revenue streams. This could include applications such as lending or auction markets, or wrapped pooled tokens. Development of applications for Althea is permissionless, and the Althea L1 platform can be utilized for a wide variety of DeFi and RWA applications. Apps and tokens can be added to the althea.link front-end through token holder governance.
Through real-world deployments and operator adoption, the Althea protocol has demonstrated a vital alternative to brittle legacy systems, one that preserves local ownership, user choice, and sovereignty. We build because this movement matters. The fundamentals are now in place, and the Althea protocol is ready to scale on its rightful home: the Althea L1 blockchain.
Participate in the discussion at forum.althea.net to add your voice to Althea’s evolution.