Quant in one paragraph
Quant is a London-based company that sells Overledger, a piece of enterprise software that lets an existing system talk to several blockchains through one interface. QNT is the Ethereum token (ERC-20) the company uses to license that software. That is the whole picture: a private company, a product, and a token that gates access to the product. Everything else you read about Quant, from bank pilots to CBDC work, has to be read through that lens.
Overledger: a gateway, not a chain
Overledger is not a blockchain and does not have its own ledger. It is an API layer. An application sends a request to Overledger, Overledger prepares the transaction for the target network, the customer signs it with keys it controls, and Overledger submits it and reads the result back in a unified format. Supported targets include public networks such as Ethereum, Bitcoin and the XRP Ledger as well as permissioned ledgers used inside banks. A company that wants to touch three networks integrates once instead of three times.
The product is aimed at institutions: banks, payment companies and central banks experimenting with tokenised deposits or a CBDC. Quant has taken part in public-sector experiments in this area, for example Project Rosalind, the Bank of England and BIS Innovation Hub work on an API layer for a retail CBDC, and the UK Regulated Liability Network experimentation phase. Those were pilots, not production payment systems. In 2024 the company also announced Fusion, a layer intended to connect public chains and their liquidity; check its current status before relying on anything built on it.
Why the token exists
- Licence key. Access to Overledger is licensed in QNT. Fees are quoted in fiat, settled in QNT and the tokens are locked for the term of the licence. That is the token's only designed function.
- Fixed supply. About 14.6 million QNT exist after the unsold portion of the 2018 sale was burned. There is no inflation, no staking reward and no emission schedule.
- No gas role. QNT does not pay for anything on any network. Moving it costs ETH, like every other ERC-20.
The consequence is that demand for QNT is tied to licence sales, and licence sales are reported by the company, not by a chain. You cannot audit Overledger usage from a block explorer.
What 'institutional adoption' means and what you can check
Claims about Quant tend to arrive as headlines. Here is what each type of claim looks like from the outside:
| Claim | Where to verify | What the Ethereum chain shows |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot with a bank or central bank | The institution's own publication | Nothing: Overledger calls are off-chain |
| Licence revenue or customer count | Company statements only | Nothing directly |
| Tokens locked under licences | Treasury addresses, if disclosed | Balances and transfers, not the reason behind them |
| Total supply and holder count | The QNT token contract | Exactly this |
| Partnership announcement | The counterparty's press release | Nothing |
The honest summary: on-chain you can verify supply, transfers and holder distribution. Everything about product usage is a corporate claim. That is not unusual for an enterprise-software token, but it is different from a network token like ETH or SOL where usage is the chain itself.
How to hold QNT
QNT is a standard ERC-20 contract on Ethereum, so any Ethereum wallet works: MetaMask, Rabby, a hardware wallet with an Ethereum app. Your address is a 0x address. Three things matter:
- Keep some ETH in the same wallet. Transfers, approvals and swaps of QNT are Ethereum transactions and are paid in ETH. A wallet holding QNT and zero ETH cannot move the QNT until you top it up.
- Verify the contract address. Take it from two independent sources, for example the project site and a block explorer, before adding the token. Tokens with the same ticker and a different contract are a common scam.
- Stay on Ethereum mainnet. The canonical QNT is on Ethereum. If a wallet or bridge offers QNT on another network, understand that it is a wrapped representation with its own risks.
How to get QNT without an account
QNT is available in the swap form on the homepage. The typical route starts from USDT TRC-20 (cheap to send, one confirmation) or from BTC.
- Pick the pair, for example USDT TRC-20 to QNT, and enter the amount.
- Paste your Ethereum 0x address as the destination. Optionally add a refund address on the sending network.
- Click Swap now. You get a unique deposit address and a status page; there is no login.
- Send exactly the shown amount. The floating rate locks when the deposit reaches the required confirmations: 1 for USDT TRC-20, 2 for BTC.
- QNT arrives at your address as an ERC-20 transfer.
The cost is the network fee you pay to send the deposit, plus the exchange spread and the payout network fee, both built into the quote. Because the payout is an Ethereum transaction, the quote already accounts for that gas; what it does not give you is ETH for your own later transactions. A small separate swap, USDT TRC-20 to ETH, to the same address solves that.
Mistakes to avoid
- Landing QNT in a wallet with no ETH. Nothing is lost, but the tokens sit there until you fund gas.
- Reading 'partnered with' as 'runs on'. A pilot or a partnership does not mean an institution settles anything through Overledger today.
- Sending to a contract address. A QNT payout to a smart contract that does not expect it can be unrecoverable. Use a wallet address you control.
- Mistaking the QNT contract for an address. The contract address is where the token lives, not where your balance goes.
- Expecting a staking yield. There is none. QNT is a fixed-supply licence token.
Related pages
- USDT TRC-20 to ETH for gas after a QNT payout
- BTC to ETH
- ETH to USDT TRC-20
- Ethereum and the USDT network comparison
USDT (TRC-20) → ETH
BTC → ETH
ETH → USDT (TRC-20)