Ether Burns Offset Just 3.2% of New Issuance Over 30 Days

Ether (ETH) fee burns offset only about 3.2% of new issuance over a recent 30-day period, leaving supply growth dominant and challenging the deflationary case for the asset. When burns fall short of issuance, supply keeps growing.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin argued in a Sunday, Nov. 8, post that burns are too volatile to serve as a dependable valuation floor because they rise and fall with crypto market activity. Buterin supports EIP-1559, which burns Ethereum’s base transaction fees, but said the network should not regret the mechanism if burns remain below 10% of new issuance over the long term. He argued that chasing higher fees to sustain more burns could harm decentralization and Ethereum’s long-term development.

Ethereum burned about 1.48 million ETH, worth roughly $3.6 billion, in 2022. From the start of 2026 through Nov. 8, burns totaled about 19,200 ETH, valued at roughly $43 million. Annualizing that year-to-date dollar figure produces about $50 million in burns. Dividing that amount by a 4% discount rate yields a theoretical value of about $1.25 billion, compared with a roughly $270 billion market capitalization. That arithmetic depends on treating burns as a stable stream, even though the annual totals vary sharply.

A separate 24-hour supply snapshot ending Oct. 25 recorded issuance of 2,984.195 ETH and burns of 16.334 ETH, for net supply growth of nearly 2,968 ETH. The snapshot ended at 11:50:47 a.m. ET (15:50:47 UTC).

Beyond fee destruction, Buterin pointed to Ethereum’s decentralization, censorship resistance, open-source software, privacy and security as sources of value. He also argued that systems not controlled by one entity may become more valuable as artificial intelligence advances.

ETH has no fixed supply cap, and protocol upgrades can change its issuance rules. A monetary premium that holders assign to Ether is harder to measure than fee burns, which can be counted.