Stellar (XLM) Tokenomics

The native asset of the Stellar network, Lumens (XLM), is central to the network's functionality, serving as a medium of exchange, a bridge currency, and a mechanism to prevent network spam. The token economics have undergone significant changes, notably a large token burn in 2019 that established the current total supply.

Issuance Mechanism

The Stellar network's issuance mechanism has evolved significantly:

• Initial Inflation (Deprecated): Stellar initially had an annual supply inflation rate of 1.00%. This mechanism minted weekly XLM rewards, which were intended to be donated to projects building on Stellar. However, the majority of these inflationary rewards reportedly accrued to the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) or individual account holders.
• Inflation Deprecation and Burn: The annual inflation mechanism was deprecated on October 28, 2019, following a validator vote. Subsequently, on November 4, 2019, the SDF announced a massive burn of approximately 55.00 billion XLM (about 52.38% of the initial total supply).
• Current Supply: This burn reduced the total token supply to approximately 50.00 billion XLM. As of February 26, 2024, approximately 28.47 billion XLM (~56.94% of the total supply) are circulating, while 21.53 billion XLM (~43.06% of the total supply) are non-circulating.

Allocation Mechanism

The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) controls the non-circulating supply and administers several allocation categories to support the ecosystem. The SDF's most recently disclosed controlled allocations sum to approximately 29.95 billion XLM (~59.90% of the total token supply).

The primary allocation categories administered by the SDF include:

Note: The initial distribution of the original 105 billion XLM included allocations for direct development (50%), community (25%), airdrops to BTC and XRP holders (20%), the SDF (3%), and seed investor Stripe (2%). The 2019 burn significantly altered these initial percentages.

Usage and Incentive Mechanism

XLM serves several critical utility functions within the Stellar network:

• Medium of Exchange and Bridge Currency: XLM is used for sending and receiving value across the ecosystem. Crucially, it acts as a bridge currency to facilitate conversions between two different fiat-backed stablecoins or assets on the network when direct liquidity is insufficient.
• Minimum Balance Requirement: To prevent spam and maintain network integrity, every Stellar account must maintain a minimum XLM balance of two base reserves. As of February 26, 2024, one base reserve is 0.50 XLM, an amount that can be changed by Stellar validators.
• Incentive Programs: The SDF administers several programs to incentivize ecosystem growth:
  • Stellar Community Fund (SCF): Provides XLM grants to projects building on Stellar and Soroban. The community votes on which projects receive grants, with the SDF selection panel using the vote as a signaling mechanism, though the intention is to eventually rely fully on community voting via Neural Quorum Governance.
  • Bug Bounty Program: The SDF operates a bug bounty program, offering XLM rewards for vulnerabilities discovered in the Stellar protocol or code repositories.
• No Direct Rewards for Holding/Validation: XLM tokenholders and Stellar users do not earn fees, additional tokens, or compensation simply by holding XLM or acting as a validator. The Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP) does not rely on staking or locking XLM for network security, unlike Proof-of-Stake systems.

Locking Mechanism and Unlocking Time

The Stellar network itself does not have a general token locking mechanism for XLM holders to earn rewards, as it does not use a Proof-of-Stake consensus model. However, the SDF utilizes escrow and time-locked mechanisms for its own controlled allocations.

The following table details significant historical unlock events for XLM, which represent the release of previously restricted tokens into the circulating supply:

The largest single unlock event occurred on November 3, 2019, releasing 34.76 billion XLM, which represented a massive 173.33% increase relative to the circulating supply at that time. This event coincided with the SDF's announcement of the 55 billion XLM burn, fundamentally resetting the token's supply dynamics. More recent unlocks, such as the 3 billion XLM releases in 2021, 2022, and 2023, have been substantial, representing over 11% of the circulating supply at the time of each event.

The SDF also holds a significant portion of the non-circulating supply in specific addresses, such as the "SDF Escrow Jan 1 2023" address, which held approximately 3.00 billion XLM (~6.00% of the total supply) as of February 26, 2024, indicating the use of time-locked mechanisms for foundation-controlled funds.