It’s been nearly three years since Ethereum’s much-hyped “London” hard fork, which introduced a shiny new fee-burning mechanism and was supposed to help tame the beast of ever-expanding supply. Fast forward to April 13, 2025, and… surprise! Ethereum is still inflationary.

Despite burning a whopping 4.58 million ETH via the EIP-1559 fee burn mechanism, Ethereum’s total circulating supply has increased by 3.47 million ETH since August 2021. That’s an annual growth rate of 0.805%. So yes, Ethereum is still printing more than it’s burning.

Burn Baby Burn? Not Quite.

In total, about $7.3 billion worth of ETH has gone up in metaphorical flames since 2021. Sounds impressive, right? But this hasn’t been enough to offset the network’s emission rate, and Ethereum’s dream of becoming deflationary remains just that—a dream.

To add more spice, Ethereum’s inflation rate is actually lower than Bitcoin’s, which logged a 1.517% annual inflation over the same period. However, let’s not forget: Bitcoin has a hard cap of 21 million coins. Ethereum? No such thing. It’s more of a “we’ll see how it goes” monetary model.

Dencun Wrecks the Burn Party

Ironically, Ethereum’s 2021 London upgrade was somewhat neutralized by the 2024 Dencun hard fork. The latest tweak reduced transaction fees significantly—great for users, terrible for burning ETH.

According to data from Ultramoney, the current ETH supply sits at 120.69 million, reflecting an annual growth rate of 0.51%. This clearly contradicts the often-touted goal of sustainable deflation.

“Ultrasound Money” Still Loading…

Let’s be honest. Ethereum fans love the “ultrasound money” meme—a jab at Bitcoin’s “sound money” claim. But right now, it’s less “ultrasound” and more “ultrasonic-in-theory.”

Supporters argue that future upgrades or a massive surge in demand might finally tip ETH into deflationary territory. And sure, anything can happen in crypto. Maybe Vitalik will introduce some magical burn accelerator. But the current numbers reveal a problem: Ethereum’s burn rate, emission rate, and network efficiency are still dancing out of sync.

Until those three factors align, Ethereum’s monetary policy remains a work-in-progress, not the final form of some perfect digital currency.

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Madeline

I have been drawn to technology and science fiction since I was a child. Studying IT has drawn me to the world of cryptocurrencies, where I have been working since 2014. I have learned a lot since then. And I still have a lot to learn. What fascinates me most about them is that they connect so many worlds together and the possibility of free choice. Without limits.