What is Burn?
Permanently destroying tokens by sending them to an unspendable address, reducing supply. Used by projects to make their token scarcer — genuinely or theatrically.
Burning destroys tokens permanently by sending them to an address no one can spend from — provably removing them from supply. Projects burn for various reasons: to pay out value to holders indirectly (fewer tokens, same project), to run deflationary fee models where part of every transaction is destroyed, or to correct an over-minted launch.
The honest read: a burn changes the denominator, not the business. Destroying half the tokens of a project nobody uses doubles each token's share of nothing. Burns attached to real usage — where activity mechanically retires supply — carry more meaning than one-off theatrical bonfires announced for the headline. As always, the market cap, not the token count, is the number to watch through any burn.
See it in practice
Related terms: Market cap · Exchange token · Fully diluted valuation (FDV) · full glossary
FAQ
Does burning tokens make the price go up?
Mechanically it reduces supply, which raises price only if demand holds — and markets usually price announced burns in advance. A burn is a supply story; value still comes from whether anyone wants the project.
How can I verify a burn actually happened?
Burns are on-chain: tokens sent to a recognised dead address are publicly visible forever. A project claiming burns that can't point to the transaction is telling you something.
General information only, not financial advice. Definitions are maintained in our fact database and reviewed with the daily rebuild.