NuCypher's native token, NU, is used to incentivize network participants for performing key management services and accessing delegation/revocation operations on the network.

NuCypher is a decentralized encryption, access control, and key management system (KMS) for public blockchains. It uses proxy re-encryption technology to allow users to share private data between a number of participants in public consensus networks. This decryption technology makes NuCypher much more secure and protected than traditional blockchain projects based on public-key encryption.

NuCypher was co-founded by Mikhail Egorov (the founder of Curve) and MacLane Wilkison. The white paper for NuCypher was first published in June 2017, but the testnet did not launch until November 2018. Egorov formerly served as the CTO of NuCypher.

NuCypher launched its private testnet in 2018. The public testnet of NuCypher began in October 2019. However, the incentivized public testnet began in January 2020. The mainnet of NuCypher launched in October 2020 after distributing $45 million in NU tokens to nodes.