The Injective community has approved a governance proposal that moves INJ into a more aggressive deflationary phase, tightening the token’s long-term supply dynamics.
The vote concluded on Jan. 19 after four days, with 99.89% of participating voters in favor. The proposal, submitted as IIP-617, updates Injective’s inflation parameters and accelerates the pace at which new INJ issuance declines.
Once implemented, fewer new tokens will enter circulation over time, while existing burn mechanisms will continue unchanged. Members of the Injective Foundation disclosed their participation in the vote, underscoring internal alignment around the shift.
What the changes mean for INJ supply
INJ functions as the core asset securing the Injective network and coordinating activity across its ecosystem. Since mainnet launch, Injective has relied on recurring token burns to permanently remove supply. To date, roughly 6.85 million INJ have been burned.
The newly approved framework further restricts issuance at the protocol level, working alongside the Injective Community BuyBack program. That program uses ecosystem-generated revenue to repurchase INJ from the open market and burn it on a regular basis.
Rather than introducing new mechanisms, the proposal strengthens existing ones by directly cutting issuance. The goal is to make deflation a built-in feature of the network rather than something dependent on market activity or usage levels.
Built on earlier deflation upgrades
This shift builds on prior governance decisions. In 2024, Injective passed IIP-392 with near-unanimous support, increasing deflation by 400% and linking policy changes to staking participation. Later updates tied supply reductions to Bitcoin’s halving cycle, extending the contraction over multiple years.
The latest proposal tightens those parameters further, reinforcing the long-term supply-reduction roadmap.
Market response remains mixed
Despite the structural changes, price action has not followed in a straight line. INJ has remained volatile throughout 2025 and into early 2026 and is still down roughly 75% year over year, keeping some traders cautious despite the sharper supply cuts.
With multiple deflationary levers now operating at the same time, Injective is clearly pushing INJ toward a more supply-restricted model. For now, however, price movements continue to be driven more by broader crypto market sentiment than by token mechanics alone.
