The non-profit Aptos Foundation has announced a significant overhaul of its tokenomics aimed at enhancing APT's deflationary measures.
— Aptos (@Aptos) February 18, 2026
The foundation will propose governance changes to transition the ecosystem from its current subsidy-based emission model to mechanisms tied to network activity.
Reduction of APT Emission
Among the key initiatives is the introduction of a supply cap of 2.1 billion APT (currently, there are 1.196 billion in circulation). The coin currently has no maximum emission limit.
New tokens are continuously minted to fund development, grants, and staking rewards.
Large token unlocks often pressure the market. However, the Aptos Foundation noted that the impact of unlocks is diminishing and will continue to decrease after the completion of the next four-year cycle in October. Consequently, the annual token issuance will drop by 60%.
The team emphasized that the ecosystem has matured enough, with giants like BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Apollo investing “hundreds of millions of dollars on-chain.” This indicates that APT's tokenomics should become more stable.
“If nothing changes, the emission will continue indefinitely—without a hard cap, performance linkage, or any connection to real network activity,” the foundation summarized.
Other Proposals
Developers also suggested reducing the annual staking rate from 5.19% to 2.6% and increasing rewards for long-term token lock-ups. This aims to decrease staking-related emissions while incentivizing the most dedicated participants, the foundation noted.
Other changes include:
- Increasing gas fees tenfold. The Aptos Foundation believes that even after the increase, transaction costs will remain low. Since transaction fees are burned, this will create additional deflationary pressure;
- Permanently locking tokens. The foundation proposed to permanently lock 210 million APT in staking, which is “functionally equivalent to burning them.” Rewards from this lock-up will fund the foundation's operations;
- Tightening grant policies. Implementing strict KPIs for grant recipients to ensure assets are allocated only for real results;
- Buyback program. The Aptos team is exploring the possibility of creating a reserve or launching an APT buyback program to balance market supply.
Following this news, the project's token dropped by 4.1%. Over the past month, the coin has lost nearly 46% of its value. At the time of writing, the asset is trading around $0.8.
For reference, at the end of December, the community of the decentralized exchange Uniswap approved the UNIfication initiative, which introduces a “fee switch” that redirects part of the trading fees to the protocol instead of liquidity providers.