Aptos token policy: from subsidy to scarcity

The foundation supervising the APT ecosystem is preparing a set of governance proposals that would remap how new tokens enter — and exit — circulation. Their draft pivots away from open-ended minting and toward mechanisms that tie issuance to actual network usage, with net burns potentially outpacing new supply as onchain activity scales.

A headline change under consideration is a fixed maximum supply of 2.1 billion APT, contrasted with the current uncapped model and roughly 1.196 billion tokens circulating today. Another major item reduces nominal staking rewards from roughly 5.19% to about 2.6%, while increasing incentives for longer-term lockups.

To accelerate token removal, the proposals include a plan to boost gas charges by an order of magnitude. Because fees are burned in APT, the foundation argues this adjustment would materially increase the burn rate while still keeping payment transfers extremely inexpensive in absolute fiat terms.

The group also proposes a permanent stake-like lock of 210 million APT; the foundation frames this as the functional equivalent of a burn, with the resulting rewards redirected to fund ongoing operations. Separately, grants will face tighter performance requirements before tokens are released, and a potential buyback or reserve mechanism is being explored to smooth supply shocks.

Timing matters: the organization expects the pressure from scheduled token unlocks to subside significantly after the upcoming four-year cycle ends this October, forecasting a roughly 60% decline in annualized unlocked supply. That easing of unlocked tokens is cited as an enabling condition for more aggressive supply-side reform.

The move is placed in an evolving landscape where large institutional flows are already using the chain, prompting the foundation to argue for sustainable issuance that aligns with real usage rather than ongoing subsidies. The proposals are part technical redesign, part governance test: they would require community approval and coordinated parameter changes across the protocol.

• Fixed-cap proposal: 2.1B APT.
• Staking emission cut: 5.19% → 2.6%, with premium for long commitments.
• Fee policy: 10× gas, increasing burns.
• Permanent lock: 210M APT earmarked for staking-like rewards funding operations.

This proposal set sits alongside a broader industry trend: other layer-1 and DeFi projects have adopted buybacks, burns, and revenue-sharing to retrench supply and reward holders. Recent similar moves by other foundations and protocols show token supply engineering is a live governance frontier.