โทเคโนมิกส์ Stellar (XLM)

Overview

Stellar (XLM) is the native token of the Stellar network, a Layer-1 blockchain designed for payments, asset issuance, and connecting to financial rails. The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) manages the ecosystem and has historically overseen the distribution and allocation of XLM.

Issuance Mechanism

• Initial Supply: At inception, the SDF managed the entire initial supply of 100 billion XLM.
• Inflation: The supply increased by 1% annually via protocol-level inflation until October 28, 2019, when inflation was deprecated by validator vote. Approximately 5.44 billion XLM were created through this mechanism.
• Burns: On November 4, 2019, SDF burned ~55 billion XLM (~52.38% of the initial supply), including tokens earmarked for giveaways and from the SDF operating fund.

Allocation Mechanism

The allocation of XLM has evolved, but major categories and their purposes are as follows:

Note: The above allocations are based on historical unlocks and SDF disclosures. The SDF has also reserved XLM for ecosystem development, use-case investment, and user acquisition, with specific sub-allocations for grants, enterprise investments, and marketing.

Usage and Incentive Mechanism

• Network Utility: XLM is required for:
  • Minimum account balances (2 base reserves; as of Feb 2024, 1 base reserve = 0.5 XLM).
  • Transaction fees (to prevent spam and ensure network health).
  • Medium of exchange and bridge currency for cross-asset swaps on Stellar’s decentralized exchange (SDEX).
• Ecosystem Incentives: XLM is distributed via:
  • Grants for developers and projects (e.g., Stellar Community Fund).
  • Infrastructure and R&D grants.
  • User acquisition and marketing programs.
• No Staking Rewards: As of Feb 2024, XLM holders do not earn protocol-level rewards (e.g., staking, inflation, or validator rewards). The inflation mechanism was deprecated in 2019.
• Bug Bounties: SDF operates a bug bounty program, rewarding XLM for security disclosures.

Locking Mechanism and Unlocking Time

• Locking: Historically, large allocations (e.g., for escrow or ecosystem incentives) were held by the SDF and released according to internal schedules. There is no protocol-enforced locking or vesting for XLM at the network level.
• Unlocking: Unlocks have occurred on an irregular, discretionary basis, as determined by the SDF. Example unlocks include:
  • Marketing/Operations: 3.14B XLM (2015-11-24), 3.35B XLM (2018-02-06), 9.76B XLM (2019-11-03)
  • Ecosystem Incentives: 25B XLM (2019-11-03)
  • Escrow: 3B XLM (2021-01-13), 3B XLM (2022-02-01), 3B XLM (2023-04-05)
• Unlocking Table:

• No Protocol-Level Vesting: Unlocks are not enforced by smart contracts or protocol rules but are managed by the SDF.

Summary Table

Additional Notes

• Governance: Stellar uses Core Advancement Proposals (CAPs) and Stellar Ecosystem Proposals (SEPs) for protocol and ecosystem changes. The SDF and community participate in governance, but XLM does not confer direct voting rights for protocol upgrades.
• Acquisition: XLM can be acquired via exchanges (CEX/DEX), and past airdrops (now discontinued).
• No Staking: There is no staking or delegation mechanism for XLM holders.

Conclusion

Stellar’s token economics are characterized by a large, SDF-managed supply, discretionary unlocks, and a focus on ecosystem growth through grants and incentives. The network’s design emphasizes utility (fees, minimum balances, bridge currency) over direct tokenholder rewards, with no protocol-level staking or inflation as of 2024. All major unlocks are managed off-chain by the SDF, with no enforced vesting or locking at the protocol level.