ADA · Reserve-drain staking vs Treasury accrual.
45B immutable hard cap from 2017 genesis with 37B circulating. Every 5-day epoch drains 0.3% of the remaining Reserve into a rewards pot — 80% routes to stakers (~281M / 90D), 20% to an on-chain Treasury that is only spendable via Project Catalyst governance vote (~70M / 90D). No buyback, no fee burn — fees recycle into the rewards pot. Net ~+0.57% / 90D.
Reserve drain: ρ = 0.3%/epoch × Reserve (~6.5B) × 18 epochs per 90D = ~351M gross drain. 80% (post-τ) routes to stake pool operators + delegators. Reserve half-life ~4.5y; emission stops permanently when Reserve hits 0.
ICO distribution (Jan 2017) is fully complete. IOG / Emurgo / Cardano Foundation founder allocations were released at genesis without a vesting schedule.
Founder entities (IOG / Emurgo / Cardano Foundation) are funded by genesis ADA already in their wallets, NOT by an ongoing protocol-mint mechanism. No scheduled release in window — monitored.
No bankruptcy estate. Staking lockup is operational (≤2 epochs / ~10 days), not long-term.
PoS chain with no protocol-revenue buyback mechanism.
Cardano does NOT burn transaction fees. Fees recycle into the rewards pot.
No Foundation buyback programme.
20% τ skim from each epoch's rewards pot diverts to the on-chain Treasury before staker payout. Treasury is only spendable via Project Catalyst governance vote — functionally locked from spot.
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