Aptos updates token economic model: supply cap of 2.1 billion tokens, with the foundation permanently locking 210 million APT

Deep Tide TechFlow News, February 19 — Aptos announced an update to the APT tokenomics model, shifting to a performance-driven token supply mechanism that links APT’s supply to the network’s actual usage. The main changes include:

• Significant reduction in staking rewards: annualized reward rate decreased from approximately 5.19% to 2.6%, with new frameworks exploring incentives for long-term stakers.
• Gas fees increased tenfold: still maintaining very low costs (around $0.00014 for stablecoin transfers), aiming to reduce inefficient usage and support deflation.
• Introduction of a new deflationary mechanism: large-scale APT burns via on-chain DEXs such as Decibel.
• Fixed supply cap: 2.1 billion APT, with no further issuance beyond this limit (current circulating supply ~1.196 billion, remaining reserve ~904 million, about 43%).
• Permanent foundation lock-up: 210 million APT permanently staked and locked, never to be sold or distributed.
• Grant and reward performance-based: future foundation funding/rewards will only be distributed after achieving key milestones in the “Global Transaction Engine.”
• Programmatic buyback initiation: the foundation commits to exploring market buyback plans for APT, with opportunities to repurchase and potentially burn or reserve tokens.