Update, October 2026: Pharos’s official claim portal now shows “Claim Ended,” confirming that the 180-day PROS airdrop claim window closed after October 25, 2026; late claims are no longer available through the portal. Yield Period II of the pAlpha vault was scheduled to end on October 20, but we could not find a dated official settlement or rollover notice, so depositors should verify their position directly in the official Pharos interfaces. Use only the official Pharos claim portal and ignore unsolicited claim links.
Pharos spent most of 2025 as one of the busiest testnets in crypto, with the Atlantic Ocean phase alone pushing billions of transactions through its explorer. That chapter is closed. The Pacific Ocean mainnet and the PROS token went public on April 28, 2026, the first airdrop has already been allocated, and anyone still running daily testnet check-ins in the hope of a genesis drop is working toward something that has already happened. This article explains what Pharos is, how the airdrop was actually run, what the claim window looks like now, where the remaining opportunities sit, and how to avoid the many fake Pharos claim pages that have appeared since launch.
Pharos in brief
Pharos is an EVM-compatible layer 1 built for what the team calls “RealFi”: tokenised real-world assets such as Treasuries and real estate, moved and settled on-chain with compliance and privacy built in. The company says it was founded by leaders and engineers from Ant Group, and its chief executive is Wish Wu. Funding totals $52 million, made up of an $8 million seed round and a $44 million Series A backed by investors including Hack VC and Faction VC, plus a strategic partnership with Hong Kong-listed GCL New Energy.
Technically, the Pharos documentation describes a three-layer design. L1-Base handles data availability and hardware acceleration, L1-Core is the globally distributed network that delivers sub-second finality, and L1-Extension hosts Special Processing Networks (SPNs), purpose-built networks for workloads such as high-frequency trading or machine-learning proofs that inherit security through native restaking. The pitch to institutions is deep parallel execution plus compliance tooling; the pitch to users is cheap, fast transactions and access to yield-bearing real-world assets through ordinary wallets.
From Atlantic Ocean testnet to Pacific Ocean mainnet
The Atlantic Ocean testnet phase launched in October 2025 and quickly became a magnet for airdrop hunters. Reported figures for that phase include nearly 3 billion transactions and 23 million blocks at roughly 0.5-second block times, with infrastructure providers such as ZAN and Nirvana supplying RPC capacity. Across the whole testnet period, Pharos says the network processed more than 4.3 billion transactions from 209 million wallets in under a year, with more than 60 dApps live by the end of 2025.
Those wallet numbers deserve a second look. A figure in the hundreds of millions is far larger than any plausible count of real human users, and it tells you the testnet was dominated by scripted and multi-wallet farming. That context explains a lot about how the airdrop was eventually filtered.
Mainnet came in two steps. A private mainnet phase began on December 12, 2025, and the public Pacific Ocean mainnet launched with PROS on April 28, 2026, after a roadmap target of the first quarter slipped. The launch announcement highlighted integration with OKX Wallet and Topnod Wallet, USDC and Circle’s CCTP for regulated stablecoin flows, a $10 million Hong Kong-based incubator called the RealFi Alliance, and around 50 dApps expected at launch. Mainnet uses chain ID 1672, PROS as the gas coin, and the PharosScan explorer.
PROS tokenomics and the public sale
Pharos published its first PROS tokenomics on April 20, 2026, together with a public sale it called the RealFi Access Program. The officially stated points are:
- Genesis supply: 1 billion PROS.
- Utility: gas fees, staking and validator operations, governance, and future RWA use cases.
- Team and investors: a 12-month cliff followed by 36 months of vesting. Some treasury and incentive pools vest over 48 to 60 months.
- Staking inflation: zero for the first six months after launch, then 5% a year from month seven.
- Public sale: 0.1% of supply at a $1 base price, a target raise of $1 million, commitments from $100 to $50,000, and an option to take an effective $0.80 price in exchange for a six-month lock. Oversubscription was handled bottom-up, filling smaller orders first.
Community breakdowns circulating on X put the community and ecosystem bucket at 21% and the airdrop at 6% of supply, with 1% unlocked at launch. Those specific numbers did not appear in the official text, so treat them as unconfirmed. Coinbase has announced support for PROS on Base, which matters mainly because it adds a recognised venue where the token can be held and moved.
How the PROS airdrop actually worked
The airdrop was run in partnership with OKX Wallet, which served as the official eligibility checker. Four groups were eligible, and anyone who qualified through more than one route received a single merged entitlement:
- Testnet participants who completed on-chain tasks and daily check-ins.
- Contributors to the “Stake Before the Stake” pre-staking campaign in OKX Wallet.
- Discord community members holding qualifying roles.
- Users who completed the OKX Wallet Boost Giveaway quests.
The timeline was short. Registration ran from April 23 to April 25, 2026, closing at 12:00 UTC on the 25th. During registration, each user chose how to receive tokens: an instant claim on April 28, or a lock that boosted the allocation by 1.05x for 30 days, 1.12x for 60 days or 1.2x for 90 days. Users who chose nothing defaulted to the instant option. Claiming opened on April 28 at 11:00 UTC, and Pharos pre-allocated 0.05 PROS to each eligible wallet to cover the claim fee. By late July, even the 90-day locks had expired.
Plenty of long-time testnet users found they did not qualify, and complaints were loud. The heavy sybil footprint described above is the obvious reason filters were strict. In an X Spaces session, the team reportedly said that a second season focused on governance is being prepared, but no rules, dates or allocation have been published, so it is not something to plan around.
Where the claim stands now
The claim window runs for 180 days from April 28, which puts the scheduled close on October 25, 2026. Pharos has not described an extension or a grace period, and unclaimed PROS are set to return to the Pharos Foundation. If you registered and have not claimed, the practical steps are:
- Open the official claim portal from a link posted by the Pharos X account or the pharos.xyz site, not from search results or a direct message.
- Connect the same wallet you registered with. Eligibility from multiple routes is merged into that one entitlement.
- Check the user guide on the claim site before signing anything. Access may be blocked from some regions by IP address, and using a VPN to get around a regional block can breach the terms.
- Confirm the transaction on PharosScan afterwards and keep the hash with your records for tax purposes.
If you did not register between April 23 and April 25, there is no late-registration route that Pharos has announced. Anyone offering one is lying.
What is still worth doing on Pharos
With the genesis airdrop allocated, the honest question is whether there is anything left for a user who missed it. There are three areas, each with different risks.
Using RealFi apps on mainnet
The ecosystem is built around tokenised assets, lending and trading. Using these apps with small amounts teaches you how the chain behaves and positions you for any future governance-oriented season, but nothing published guarantees that mainnet use will be rewarded. Bridge only through routes listed by Pharos, and remember that RWA tokens can carry redemption restrictions, KYC requirements and jurisdiction limits that ordinary crypto tokens do not.
The pAlpha vault
The pAlpha High Yield RWA Vault drew more than $15 million in early phases, and its $50 million capacity was reported filled within days of launch. Pharos runs it in yield periods; Yield Period II began on July 20, 2026 and is scheduled to end on October 20, 2026. Yields depend on the underlying assets and market conditions, and a vault like this adds smart-contract and counterparty risk on top of the assets themselves. Read the withdrawal rules for each period before depositing, because exit is handled through action windows rather than instant redemption.
Staking PROS
Because staking inflation is set at zero for the first six months, early stakers should not expect issuance-based rewards in that period; check what the staking interface actually pays before locking tokens. Emissions of 5% a year begin from month seven, which falls around late October 2026. Stakers should check validator commission and any unbonding period, and should be aware that a slashing event on a validator also cuts delegated stake.
The testnet
The testnet remains useful for developers who want to deploy before touching mainnet. For airdrop purposes, it no longer has an announced role, and testnet PHRS or PROS has no value.
Spotting fake Pharos claim pages
Pharos combines several things scammers love: a recent airdrop, a live claim window with a fixed deadline, and a large population of disappointed farmers looking for a second chance. Independent URL scanners have flagged drainer kits built to imitate the Pharos claim flow. Keep it simple:
- The official site is pharos.xyz, documentation lives on docs.pharos.xyz, and the official X account is @pharos_network. Navigate to the claim portal from there.
- Lookalike domains such as pharos-claim, pharosnetwork-airdrop or pros-rewards are not official, nor are links in Discord DMs or Telegram groups.
- The real claim pre-funds the fee with 0.05 PROS. A site asking you to send tokens first to “unlock” your allocation is a scam.
- Never sign an approval or permit that grants spending rights over your assets in order to receive an airdrop.
- Posts promising a “Season 2 checker” or “missed airdrop recovery” are fishing for exactly the users who were filtered out.
Frequently asked questions
Is there still a Pharos testnet airdrop to farm?
No. The genesis airdrop has been allocated and registration closed on April 25, 2026. Pharos has mentioned a future governance-focused season but has not published any rules for it.
When does the PROS claim close?
The 180-day window that opened on April 28, 2026 is scheduled to close on October 25, 2026. Unclaimed tokens go back to the Pharos Foundation.
Why was my active testnet wallet not eligible?
Pharos has not published its full filtering criteria. Given the scale of multi-wallet activity on the testnet, wallets with thin or repetitive activity were likely screened out. Missing the registration window would also exclude an otherwise eligible wallet.
Is PROS the same as the PHRS tokens on testnet?
No. Testnet tokens were for testing only. PROS is the mainnet coin with a genesis supply of 1 billion.
Verdict
Pharos did what many airdrop hunters hoped: it launched a mainnet and a token and rewarded a slice of its community. It also did what experienced farmers expected, filtering hard after a testnet that recorded more wallets than most countries have people. If you are eligible and have not claimed, do it through the official portal well before October 25. If you missed out, there is no back door; what remains is a young RWA-focused chain with yield products and staking that carry real risks, and a vaguely signposted future season. Use it if the products interest you, size positions accordingly and ignore anyone selling a shortcut.
This article is for information only and is not financial advice. Token prices, reward programs and deadlines can change without notice.
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