Aptos has accelerated its token burn process, destroying 174,195 APT over the past 30 days. Since the mainnet launch on October 12, 2022, the network has burned a cumulative total of 1.9 million APT. This recent activity represents an annualized burn rate of approximately 2.1 million tokens, marking a significant increase compared to historical figures.
The rise in burn volume follows a governance decision in 2026 to increase network gas fees tenfold. Despite this adjustment, average transaction costs remain low at approximately $0.0005. Every transaction fee on the blockchain is permanently removed from circulation, as no portion of these fees is allocated to validators or a treasury.
Despite the increased burn rate, the network remains inflationary due to staking emissions. The protocol generates approximately 1.5 million new APT per month to reward validators and delegators. This results in a net supply growth of roughly 1.4 million APT monthly, which continues to dilute holders who do not participate in staking.
The Aptos Foundation has implemented measures to manage supply, including the permanent locking and staking of 210 million APT. Additionally, the AIP-140 governance measure has set a temporary maximum supply cap of 2.1 billion APT. Future shifts in the supply balance depend on increased on-chain transaction volume rather than further fee hikes.
