Solana · SOL
The fast Layer-1 that settles most of crypto's on-chain trading
The fastest chain in crypto, with genuine must-hold gas and ~68% of supply truly staked — but the money on it is mostly speculative trading, so the story caps at generic Layer-1.
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A mint that keeps shrinking, and a lockup ladder that empties
Solana is the fast Layer-1 that settles most of crypto's on-chain trading and a growing share of its stablecoin payments. There is no supply cap: 583.1M SOL trades freely today out of 632.5M in existence, and the chain mints more every epoch.
Sell pressure — staking issuance of 5.72M SOL over the last 90 days, at a rate that fell from 3.84% to 3.69% a year and keeps stepping down toward a 1.5% floor — plus 2.29M SOL that actually left the lockup ladders and the bankruptcy estate.
Buy pressure — half of every base transaction fee is destroyed — 67.8K SOL burned over 90 days. There is no buyback, so the burn offsets under 1% of the mint.
Net — about +1.36% of supply reached the market over 90 days, and +1.33% is projected next — supply is growing a little faster than 1% a quarter, and the issuance half of it is slowing.
- voteStake-weighted vote on the faster-disinflation and fee-burn packageAug 29, 2026
- 875K SOLSingle lockup cliff comes dueAug 30, 2026
- 634K SOLMonthly vesting trancheSep 7, 2026
- 202K SOLBankruptcy-estate trancheSep 11, 2026
- 635K SOLMonthly vesting trancheOct 7, 2026
Sell pressure · what adds supply
New SOL is minted every epoch and paid entirely to validators and the people who delegate to them. The mint rate fell from 3.84% to 3.69% a year across the window and steps down 15% every year toward a 1.5% floor.
Three monthly lockup tranches worth 1.90M SOL came due inside the window. Reading the stake accounts at both ends, 220K of that is still sitting untouched, so 1.68M actually left. A separate 1.38M SOL cliff that came due Aug 1 2026 has not moved at all.
Watched and unmoved: 29.85M SOL of reserve stake carries no release date at all, 1.68M SOL sat in place after its lock ran out, and 16.97M SOL stays locked out to Mar 2028. No public evidence of release in window — monitored.
The bankruptcy estate holds a ladder of monthly stake tranches of about 202K SOL each. Three came due inside the window and every one emptied to zero — the Aug 11 2026 tranche went to a custody wallet for creditor payouts. 2.63M SOL is still laddered out to Sep 2027.
Buy pressure · what removes supply
Solana runs no buyback. Staking rewards are minted fresh rather than bought on the market, and no treasury bid has ever been disclosed.
Half of every base transaction fee is destroyed — about 754 SOL a day across the window. Priority fees and validator tips are kept in full by the block producer, so only the base half burns.
No open-market buying by the foundation is disclosed, and none is visible in its wallets. No public evidence of release in window — monitored.
There is no protocol lockup programme with a stated size. Listed treasury companies hold roughly 11M SOL and stake most of it, but that is ordinary buying, not a lock the protocol enforces.
Want the full reasoning — how the 583.1M float actually grew, which lockups emptied and which did not, and what the August vote would change?
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