SOL
Solana · Layer 1 · last updated 13 Aug 2026 · 21:38 UTC
Three-metrics report card
Pass = 1.0 · Moderate = 0.5 · Fail = 0
3.70%/yr protocol mint rate — inside the framework's "great" band (≤5%)
no separate buyback system — 50% fee burn is part of supply math (covered in Metric 1)
Layer 1 base layer with strong AI-theme exposure — rides the AI narrative tailwind.
Inflation
Over the past 30 days, Solana minted 1.92M SOL (~3.70% annualised, hard-coded in the protocol) and burned 106.2K SOL back through transaction fees — the burn covers only 5.5% of issuance. Today the chain has 632.14M SOL total — of which 49.52M (7.8%) is locked across 3,290 vesting wallets, and the remaining 582.61M is circulating.
The supply map
Three parts: max supply, total supply, then circulating supply (the main number).
SOL has no maximum supply. The protocol mints new SOL every epoch, forever. The mint rate declines on a deterministic schedule toward a 1.5%/yr floor, but supply itself never caps.
every SOL ever minted minus every SOL burned
The burn offsets only a small fraction of issuance — Solana is net-inflationary.
what's actually in trading hands today · total supply minus locked
Team grants, Foundation reserves, FTX bankruptcy estate, and locked stake. No single wallet exceeds ~1M SOL.
Real inflation rate
Measured from the change in circulating supply — captures both new protocol issuance and tokens that vested out of the locked registry into circulating supply.
Buyback
Solana has no separate buyback system. The closest analogue is the protocol's built-in 50% base-fee burn — over the past 30 days that destroyed roughly 106.2K SOL (~$8.08M). That's a supply-side mechanic, not a revenue-to-token pipe, and it's already netted against issuance in Metric 1.
Thoughts on SOL
In this framework, Solana scores 2 out of 3 — because the framework rewards coins with low, predictable inflation, and Solana doesn't quite have that yet.
No max supply. SOL mints forever, and tokens from the FTX bankruptcy keep unlocking into circulation.
Nothing soaks up the new supply. Circulating supply grew about 11% over the last 12 months.
Nevertheless — 11% inflation barely matters in a bull market. Solana still has strong upside potential. If a coin runs 5x on news, a slow 11% supply drift is noise.
This page is a reference, not financial advice.