Flow Foundation is taking a series of concrete actions to strengthen FLOW. This post outlines three initiatives: a token buyback & burn, continuous token acquisition with structural improvements to liquidity, and long-term inflation management.
Why This Matters
A healthy token economy underpins everything built on the network. Developers evaluate where to build based on the economic strength and sustainability of the ecosystem. Validators commit resources to networks where the economics are structurally sound. Users engage with applications where they trust the underlying infrastructure. When the token economy functions well, every participant benefits.
The Foundation recognizes its responsibility here. Protocol development alone does not sustain a healthy network economy. The network requires deliberate economic management to ensure that FLOW functions effectively as a staking asset, a transaction currency, and a medium of exchange across the ecosystem.
The actions outlined below represent a commitment by the Foundation to deploy capital toward the long-term economic health of FLOW. These represent the initial phase of an ongoing commitment, not a one-time intervention.
1. Buyback and burn of 50 million FLOW
On February 23, 2026 at 12:00 PM PT, the Foundation will permanently destroy 50,343,896.87 FLOW tokens, removing them from circulation entirely. These tokens were acquired through a combination of open-market purchases and Foundation treasury funds collected over a two-month period from December 27, 2025 through February 22, 2026. This represents approximately 3% of total FLOW supply.
Once burned, these tokens cannot be recovered or reintroduced to circulation. The burn transaction will be permanent, irreversible, and verifiable on-chain via block explorers. Transaction hashes will be added to this article following execution.
Update - This burn has now been completed, and you can see that onchain here: https://www.flowscan.io/tx/1dbba95678f7b61e392cb4ed3f528f187fd7c34ac749daaa01864dcc3bcfa403
2. Continued Accumulation and Improved Liquidity
Flow Foundation is committing to acquiring a minimum of an additional 50,000,000 FLOW from the open market over the coming months, to be held in the Foundation treasury. This is a direct, sustained investment in the long-term health of FLOW.
Alongside this, the Foundation is working to secure improved liquidity infrastructure and market-making partnerships across multiple platforms, with the goal of ensuring healthy order book depth and efficient price discovery for participants globally.
3. Reducing Effective Inflation Through Protocol Economics
In December 2025, a network-wide transaction fee update went live on mainnet, transitioning Flow from subsidized growth to a self-sustaining economic model. The update increased transaction fees so that a greater share of validator rewards is funded by network activity rather than new token issuance.
This model is designed to make FLOW net deflationary at a sustained throughput of 250 transactions per second, the point at which fees collected exceed new tokens issued for staking rewards. The network is expected to reach this threshold through the growth of consumer applications including Peak Money, NBA Top Shot, Flowty, and others. Even with the fee increase, transaction costs on Flow remain among the lowest of any Layer 1 network.
What this means for FLOW holders
No action is required. Staking and FLOW token mechanics remain unchanged. Staking rewards continue to be distributed at the current rate (approximately 9% APY). None of these actions affect user assets, staking operations, or reward calculations.
Summary
This combination of a buyback & burn, ongoing accumulation, improved liquidity, and inflation management collectively strengthens the long-term economics of the FLOW token. These activities will happen over the course of 2026, with the first one - the permanent destruction of 50M FLOW - scheduled for Monday, February 23, 2026.
For more on the token economics of FLOW, visit flow.com/flow-tokenomics/technical-overview.
