Aptos Targets Greater APT Scarcity With New Supply and Burn Rules

Aptos has approved a major overhaul of its tokenomics, introducing a set of rules designed to curb inflation and make $APT structurally scarcer over time. The changes, pushed through community governance, mark a significant shift from the network's original model of uncapped token issuance.

Hard Cap, Lower Rewards, Higher Fees

The Aptos network approved proposal AIP-140, a sweeping tokenomics overhaul that introduces a hard supply cap of 2.1 billion APT, slashes annual staking rewards nearly in half, and cranks gas fees up by a factor of ten. Before AIP-140, there was no ceiling on how many tokens could ever exist. The proposal passed almost unanimously, with 335.2 million APT voting in favor and only 1,500 opposed. Participation reached 39%, above the 35% quorum requirement, showing strong confidence in the new model.

Annual staking rewards dropped from 5.19% to 2.6%, nearly halving the new APT paid out to validators and delegators each year. Transaction costs on Aptos are now ten times higher than they were before the proposal, and 100% of collected gas gets permanently burned, removing tokens from circulation forever.

As of mid-September 2026, the network had burned roughly 1.8 million APT cumulatively since its mainnet launch in October 2022. That figure is expected to grow sharply as network activity scales.

Locked Supply and the Path to Deflation

The Aptos Foundation has permanently locked and staked 210 million APT from its own holdings, with those tokens never to be sold or distributed. That represents 18% of the current circulating supply and 37% of the Foundation's original allocation at the time of mainnet launch.

Decibel, the Aptos fully on-chain perpetuals DEX, launched in February 2026. Every order, match, and cancel occurs on-chain, resulting in high transaction volume. At scale, Decibel could burn over 32 million APT annually.

The changes are designed to shift the network from an inflation-subsidized model built for early-stage growth toward one where supply declines and burns scale with actual network activity. Once the 2.1 billion limit is reached, validators will rely primarily on transaction fees, a model that replicates the long-term logic of Bitcoin.

The four-year unlock cycle for initial investors and core contributors concludes in October 2026, which will reduce annualized supply unlocks by 60%, adding further tailwind to the deflationary case.

Sources:
Aptos Foundation: Tokenomics Update (Official)
Crypto Briefing: Aptos overhauls tokenomics with 10x gas fees and 2.1B APT hard cap
CryptoNews: Aptos Overhauls Its Tokenomics With Supply Cap, Fee Hikes, and a Path to Deflation