iExec is a confidential computing network: it lets applications run code on data that the person operating the code never sees, inside hardware-secured enclaves, with an onchain record of each run. RLC is the network's native token. Workers stake it to contribute computing power, and payment for work settles in RLC. In 2026 the project closed its own Bellecour sidechain and now runs on Arbitrum and Ethereum.
The latest: Bellecour closed, Arbitrum and Ethereum now
- July 2, 2026: the Ethereum–Bellecour RLC bridge closed. An iExec announcement, quoted by the news aggregator CoinLore, said the bridge "sunsets July 2" and told holders to "self-bridge by June 30 (bridge-bellecour.iex.ec) or receive an automatic Ethereum credit", adding that "No RLC will be lost." CoinLore shows the post without its year. Securities.io dates the closure to 2 July 2026. We could not open iExec's original post, so the exact credit threshold (reported as 0.1 RLC) is not verified.
- September 23, 2026: iExec's own code says Bellecour is gone. A pull request in iExec's public iexec-mcp-server repository says "Bellecour is shut down" and "The server now runs on Arbitrum only." The pull request was still open, not merged, when we checked.
- Nox is on testnets. iExec posts collected by CoinLore say "Nox is live on @ethereum + @arbitrum testnets." iExec's Nox documentation carries a banner saying it is still under development. We found no confirmation of a Nox mainnet launch.
- The Arbitrum move started in 2025. A sponsored press release dated September 8, 2025 (Paris, Chainwire) said iExec had deployed its privacy framework on Arbitrum, as the first phase of a rollout to more chains. The iExec developer docs now show "Arbitrum One" as the active network.
If you still hold RLC from Bellecour (called xRLC), check iExec's official channels for the status of your balance. Don't rely on third-party summaries for this.
What iExec does
The iExec website describes the network as built on its PoCo (Proof of Contribution) protocol. Its main pieces:
DataProtector
DataProtector lets an owner encrypt a dataset, register it onchain, and grant or revoke access app by app and user by user, with optional pricing. The developer docs describe this as controlling who can access data, which privacy applications may use it, and at what price, all set through "orders".
iApps and the iApp Generator
iApps are custom programs that run in Intel TDX enclaves on independent workers. The iApp Generator is a tool for building and deploying them. The docs call it a way to "Bootstrap your Privacy Apps on TEEs" (trusted execution environments).
Confidential AI
iExec presents confidential AI as one of its uses: models and agents run on data without exposing that data.
Nox
According to the project's materials, Nox lets smart contracts work with encrypted values while off-chain runners compute on them inside attested TEEs. Its Solidity library uses encrypted types such as euint256 in place of uint256. Treat it as testnet-stage software.
Where RLC fits
RLC is the payment and staking asset. Workers stake RLC to contribute compute, workers confirm results by consensus, and payment for completed work settles in RLC (iex.ec).
Adoption figures (self-reported)
The iExec homepage lists 70+ builders onboarded, 100+ apps deployed and 1.2M+ TEE transactions. These figures are undated and come from the project itself. We found no independent audit of them.
Token facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Ticker | RLC |
| Standard | ERC-20 on Ethereum |
| Contract | 0x607F4C5BB672230e8672085532f7e901544a7375 |
| Max total supply | 86,999,784.986845492 RLC (Etherscan) |
| Decimals | 9 |
| Name in the contract | "iExec Network Token" |
| Can it be mined? | No. The supply was created at issuance. |
Circulating supply and market value change constantly. Check a live block explorer or market data page for them.
History
- End of 2016: iExec was founded in Lyon, France, as a spin-off from Inria. Journal du Net (May 9, 2017) names Gilles Fedak, an Inria researcher, as founder and Haiwu He, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as president. Fedak said the pair had worked together for about ten years on distributed computing grids.
- April 19, 2017: the token sale reached its $12 million target in a few hours. Cointelegraph reported about 10,000 BTC from more than 1,200 participants. Its headline says six hours and its body says three.
- Name: RLC is widely expanded as "Run on Lots of Computers". This is not verified against an iExec primary source.
- December 22, 2025: iExec published "The 2026 Privacy Roadmap" on its Medium blog. We could not read the full text, so its goals are not summarised here.
The project began as a decentralised cloud computing marketplace for renting out spare compute. It has since narrowed to confidential computing and data privacy. Older descriptions of iExec as a general "decentralised cloud" are out of date.
Risks to weigh
- Hardware trust. Confidentiality depends on TEEs such as Intel TDX. A flaw in the enclave hardware or its attestation would weaken the privacy guarantee.
- Migration risk. Moving from Bellecour to Arbitrum and Ethereum changed bridges, tooling and supported chains. Some iExec repositories were still being updated in September 2026.
- Early-stage products. Nox is on testnets, and its documentation is marked as under development.
- Unverified usage. Adoption numbers are self-reported. High trading volume in RLC does not show that the protocol is being used.
- Token volatility. RLC's price has moved sharply in 2026, including a reported gain of about 41% in 24 hours on October 9, 2026 (Cryptoast).
Official links
- Website: https://www.iex.ec/
- Developer docs: https://docs.iex.ec/
- Whitepaper (v3, now hosted on GitHub): https://github.com/iExecBlockchainComputing/whitepaper/tree/master/V3
Limitations: the 2026 bridge dates come from an iExec post quoted by aggregators, not from the original post; adoption figures are self-reported. This article is not investment advice.
