Tokenomics

info

Status. The utility layer (gas, staking discounts, consensus, governance, fee-driven buyback) is built and live. The economic parameters below — total supply, allocation, vesting, fee split, and the staking multiplier curve — are final. Tier thresholds and the fee split are network parameters that governance can tune within the bounds stated in Governance. Total supply is fixed and cannot be changed by governance.

TL;DR

MTF is the native token of MetaFlux — an independent proof-of-stake L1 that runs a perpetuals DEX core and an EVM sidechain. MTF does five things:

1. Gas — pays for execution on the MetaFlux EVM sidechain.
2. Fee discount — staking MTF discounts your taker fee by tier.
3. Security — staked MTF is the validator stake that secures consensus.
4. Governance — staked MTF is the voting weight over protocol parameters.
5. Value accrual — 70% of net protocol fees buy MTF on the open market and lock it away permanently.

The economic frame is fee-driven deflation on a fixed supply. Net trading fees (after maker rebates and broker/referral credits) are split 70% buyback / 20% stakers / 10% treasury. The buyback leg buys MTF and removes it from circulation forever; the staker leg is converted to MTF on the open book and paid to time-locked stakers. There is no emission schedule and no minting function: total supply is 1,000,000,000 MTF, fixed at genesis, and only ever goes down.

Token utility

Everything in this section is live.

1. Gas on the EVM sidechain

MTF is the gas token of the MetaFlux EVM sidechain. It is an 18-decimal asset at the EVM layer; every deployment and transaction on the sidechain is metered and paid in MTF. The DEX core and the sidechain share one native asset, so demand for on-chain compute is demand for MTF.

2. Staking → taker-fee discount

Staking MTF grants a discount on your taker fee, scaled across ten tiers up to 50%:

Tier	Effective-weight threshold	Taker discount	Seats
Tier 1	> 100	5%	uncapped
Tier 2	> 500	8%	uncapped
Tier 3	> 2,000	12%	uncapped
Tier 4	> 8,000	15%	uncapped
Tier 5	> 30,000	20%	uncapped
Tier 6	> 100,000	25%	uncapped
Tier 7	> 500,000	32%	uncapped
Tier 8	> 1,500,000	35%	uncapped
Tier 9	> 5,000,000	40%	uncapped
Tier 10	> 10,000,000 and ranked #1	50%	1 seat

Tiers 1–9 are pure thresholds. Tier 10 is a single competitive seat, reassigned in real time to whichever account holds the highest effective weight. The discount applies to the taker rate only and stacks with volume-based fee tiers and maker-rebate tiers. Full rate card on the Fee schedule.

Thresholds are denominated in effective weight, not raw tokens — see Time-weighted staking. Flexible (no-lock) stakers reach Tier 1 only, regardless of size.

3. Staking → revenue-share

Locked stakers (≥ 1-month lock) receive 20% of net fee revenue. The share accrues in the quote asset to the validator pool, which periodically buys MTF on the open book; that MTF is distributed through your validator pro-rata by effective weight. It is a separate purchase from the 70% buyback leg — bought MTF that is paid out, not locked. Flexible stakers earn no revenue-share. This is the only staking yield at steady state; nothing is minted to pay it.

Why MTF rather than the quote asset. Paying lockers in USDC would be a cash yield that never touches the token. Paying in MTF means 90% of net fees are market buys of MTF — 70% locked forever, 20% delivered to lockers — a locker can compound by restaking, and there is one reward bucket and one claim path shared with the bootstrap rewards. The cost is that reward MTF is liquid while the principal is locked: a locker who wants cash sells the reward, not the stake.

4. Staking → consensus security

MetaFlux is proof-of-stake. Validators self-bond MTF and accept delegations; the active set, proposal weight, and vote weight are derived from committed stake. Double-signing, downtime, and voting an invalid fork are slashed. See Staking.

5. Staking → governance weight

Staked MTF is the voting weight over protocol parameters. See Governance.

6. Fee value accrual → buyback & permanent lock

After maker rebates and broker/referral credits are paid off the top, net fee revenue is split three ways in the quote asset. The 70% buyback leg buys MTF on the open market — up to a manipulation-resistant, governance-anchored price ceiling, in slices rather than single orders — and sends every token acquired to a keyless address. The deflation rate is a direct function of trading volume. Details under Value accrual and on Fees.

Supply & allocation

Total supply

1,000,000,000 MTF, fixed. There is no mint function in the protocol and governance has no supply lever. The only supply-changing operation is the buyback lock, which reduces circulating supply permanently.

Genesis allocation

Bucket	Share	Tokens	Unlock	Purpose
Community airdrop	30%	300,000,000	100% claimable at TGE on mainnet; optional lock bonus (see below)	Active traders, market makers, and points-program participants from the 6-month testnet
Core contributors	20%	200,000,000	12-month cliff, then 72-month linear	Founders and core team. Zero unlock in year one.
Liquidity & market making	12%	120,000,000	Governance-released; ≤ 6% of bucket per quarter	Protocol-owned liquidity vault seed (MIP-2), market-maker token loans
Validator bootstrap	8%	80,000,000	Emitted via the stake-curve reward schedule, sized to a 36-month runway	Early staking APR before fee revenue carries the yield
Ecosystem & incentives	20%	200,000,000	≤ 5% of total supply per year (50,000,000 MTF/yr cap)	Airdrop lock bonus, builder/integrator grants, trading incentives, future distribution rounds
Treasury	10%	100,000,000	≤ 3% of total supply per year (30,000,000 MTF/yr cap)	Protocol reserve, governance-controlled
Total	100%	1,000,000,000

Notes:

• No private sale, no VC allocation. There are no investor tokens with a lower cost basis than the community.
• Contributors are locked longest. Nothing unlocks in year one; the 72-month linear tail keeps the team aligned well past launch.
• Release caps are hard-coded. The per-year and per-quarter caps on the liquidity, ecosystem, and treasury buckets are protocol parameters that governance can lower but not raise.

Airdrop lock bonus

The 30% airdrop is fully claimable at TGE. Claimants may instead commit their allocation to a ve-lock at claim time and receive a bonus, funded from the Ecosystem & incentives bucket:

Choice at claim	Bonus	Lock
Claim now	—	none
Lock 6 months	+25%	6-month ve-lock, 2.5× weight
Lock 24 months	+50%	24-month ve-lock, 4.0× weight

The bonus pool is capped at 60,000,000 MTF (6% of supply). If total bonus demand exceeds the cap, bonuses scale down pro-rata; the base allocation is never reduced. Locked airdrop tokens earn the fee discount and revenue-share from day one like any other locked stake.

Circulating-supply trajectory

genesis            : 1,000,000,000 MTF, fixed

TGE (mainnet)      : 300M airdrop claimable (locked portion earns bonus, out of float)
                     liquidity bucket begins quarterly releases
                     validator bootstrap begins emitting on the stake curve

year 1             : contributor cliff — zero contributor unlock
                     float growth = airdrop claims + liquidity releases + bootstrap
                     + ecosystem/treasury releases (capped)

month 12           : contributor 72-month linear vesting begins

years 2–7          : contributor unlock ~2.8M MTF/month
                     bucket releases continue only under caps and governance vote

steady state       : buyback lock outpaces residual unlocks; float shrinks

The design intent is that buyback removal exceeds the total unlock rate well before contributor vesting completes. The maximum unlock rate from the table above is roughly 170M MTF/yr (contributors ~33M, ecosystem 50M, treasury 30M, bootstrap ~27M, liquidity ~29M). At the 2.5 bps assumption in Implied buyback yield, the buyback overtakes that once average daily volume exceeds roughly 2.7 billion × the MTF price in USD — about $270M/day at $0.10, or $800M/day at $0.30.

Emission & inflation

There is none. Staking yield comes from two non-dilutive sources:

1. Validator bootstrap (early): the 80M bucket emits along a stake curve — flat at or below a floor stake, decaying as 1/√stake above it — so the budget lasts longer when more is staked. Current APR and its inputs are readable from the live staking_state path.
2. Revenue-share (ongoing): 20% of net fee revenue, converted to MTF on the book and paid to locked stakers via validators.

The trade-off is explicit: if fee revenue does not grow to carry the yield before the bootstrap budget is drawn down, headline APR falls. Yield is earned from volume, not printed.

Value accrual & flywheel

The flow

1. Collect trading fees in the quote asset on every fill.
2. Pay maker rebates and broker/referral credits off the top. The remainder is net fee revenue.
3. Split net fee revenue in the quote asset:

Destination	Share	What happens
Buyback	70%	Executor buys MTF on the open market in slices, up to the governance-anchored price ceiling; every token bought is sent to a keyless address.
Stakers	20%	Accrues in the quote asset to the validator pool, which periodically buys MTF on the book; validators take commission and pass the rest to their locked delegators pro-rata by effective weight.
Treasury	10%	Protocol reserve in the quote asset, governance-controlled.

The executor must be told which asset id is MTF before it can buy at all, and it spends its balance in slices rather than one order — see Fees for both votes.

TRADERS ──fees──▶ COLLECTED FEES
                       │ maker rebates + broker/referral credits off the top
                       ▼
                  NET FEE REVENUE (quote asset)
                       │
        ┌──────────────┼──────────────┐
        ▼              ▼              ▼
   70% BUYBACK    20% STAKERS    10% TREASURY
   buys MTF,      buys MTF,      quote-asset
   locks forever  pays lockers   reserve
        │         (via validators)
        ▼
   FLOAT SHRINKS ──▶ scarcity + real yield ──▶ demand to hold & lock

Three reinforcing rings:

• Lock ring. Volume → fees → buyback → MTF permanently removed. Primary value-accrual path; live.
• Yield ring. Volume → validator pool buys MTF → MTF yield to locked stakers → incentive to acquire and lock → less float.
• Security ring. Locked MTF secures consensus; a more valuable token is a more expensive chain to attack, which makes the venue safer to trade on.

The protocol-owned liquidity vault (MIP-2) provides resting depth from day one so the flywheel can start before external market makers arrive.

Implied buyback yield

The model is only as good as the volume it attracts. The table below shows what the 70% buyback leg does at different volume levels, assuming a blended net fee rate of 2.5 bps of notional after rebates and credits. It is a calculator, not a forecast.

Avg daily volume	Annual net fee revenue	Annual buyback (70%)	Buyback yield at $200M circulating cap	at $1B
$100M	$9.1M	$6.4M	3.2%	0.6%
$500M	$45.6M	$31.9M	16.0%	3.2%
$2B	$182.5M	$127.8M	63.9%	12.8%
$5B	$456.3M	$319.4M	159.7%	31.9%

Buyback yield = annual buyback ÷ circulating market cap. It measures how fast the float is being retired at a given valuation. The 20% staker leg is a second buy flow on top of this — MTF bought on the book and paid out to locked holders.

Staking

Full operational detail on the Staking page. Economics summary:

Benefit	Source	Notes
Taker-fee discount	Ten-tier ladder by effective weight	5% → 50%
Revenue-share	20% of net fees, converted to MTF, via validator	Locked stakers only
Bootstrap yield	80M validator bucket, stake curve	Early period
Consensus weight	Validator stake / delegation	Slashable
Governance weight	Staked MTF	See below

Time-weighted staking (ve-style)

effective_weight = staked_amount × time_multiplier(committed_lock_duration)

Stake mode	Multiplier	Fee discount	Revenue-share
Flexible (no lock)	0×	Tier 1 only	none
Lock 1 month	1.0×	Full ladder	yes
Lock 6 months	2.5×	Full ladder	larger slice
Lock 24 months (cap)	4.0×	Full ladder	largest slice

The multiplier rises continuously between the marked points. It is set by the lock duration you commit to upfront and applies in full after the universal 24-hour activation delay — you do not wait out the lock to reach the tier. You cannot unstake before the committed term elapses.

Flexible staking is the market-maker lane. It grants the Tier 1 discount on taker flow with no lock, at the cost of zero revenue-share. Capital that will not commit time gets a fee break but not a cut of the revenue.

Worked example

A whale stakes 2,000,000 MTF:

flexible : 2,000,000 × 0×   → Tier 1 only, no revenue-share
1-month  : 2,000,000 × 1.0× = 2,000,000 → Tier 8 (35%)
6-month  : 2,000,000 × 2.5× = 5,000,000 → not strictly > 5,000,000; still Tier 8
24-month : 2,000,000 × 4.0× = 8,000,000 → Tier 9 (40%)

Tier 10 requires clearing 10,000,000 effective weight and being ranked #1. A holder above 10M who is not #1 sits at Tier 9. The seat reassigns in real time.

Timing model

Concept	What it is	Floor
Committed lock	Term chosen at stake time; sets multiplier; no early exit	flexible, else ≥ 1 month
Activation delay	Universal delay before benefits turn on	24h (code-level floor)
Exit cooldown	Unbonding period after lock elapses	24h (code-level floor)

Governance can raise the network-set durations, never lower them below 24h.

State	Earns benefits?	Slashable?
Activating (first 24h)	no	yes
Active & locked	yes	yes
Unbonding	no	yes
Unbonded (claimable)	no	no

Governance

Staked MTF is the voting weight. Governance moves protocol parameters, not user funds.

In scope: fee tiers and rebate tiers; staking-discount thresholds; the fee split (within the bounds below); risk and margin parameters; oracle weighting; market listings; liquidity-vault provider whitelist; releases from the liquidity, ecosystem, and treasury buckets within their caps.

Bounded parameters: the buyback share of net fees cannot be set below 50%; bucket release caps can be lowered but not raised; activation and unbonding floors cannot go below 24h.

Out of scope: governance cannot mint MTF (there is no mint function), cannot alter total supply, cannot raise contributor unlock speed, cannot seize user balances or positions, and cannot alter past committed state.

Actions require a stake-weighted quorum; jailed validators are excluded from the tally.

See also

• Fees — the fee split and the buyback mechanics
• Fee schedule — the volume, maker-rebate, and staking-discount rate card
• Staking — validators, delegators, slashing, unbonding, APR
• MIP-2 Metaliquidity — the protocol-owned liquidity vault
• Vaults — the protocol-operated and user vault families
• Glossary — protocol-specific terms

FAQ

Show FAQ

Q: Is total supply final? A: Yes. 1,000,000,000 MTF, fixed at genesis, no mint function.

Q: Is MTF inflationary? A: No. Nothing is minted after genesis. Staking yield comes from a finite bootstrap bucket and from fee revenue.

Q: What does the 20% revenue-share pay in? A: MTF. The validator share accrues in the quote asset, is converted to MTF on the book, and is paid out through your validator's claim_rewards. See Staking.

Q: Can I take the airdrop without locking? A: Yes, 100% of your base allocation is claimable at TGE. Locking is optional and earns a bonus.

Q: I'm a market maker — can I stake without locking? A: Yes. Flexible staking gives the Tier 1 discount with no lock and no revenue-share.

Q: Does my multiplier grow over time? A: No. It is set by the lock you commit to upfront and applies in full after 24h.

Q: Can a whale buy Tier 10 with size alone? A: No. Tiers are keyed on effective weight, and Tier 10 is a single seat that also requires ranking #1.

Q: Do I need MTF to trade? A: No. MTF is required for sidechain gas; the perp core does not require holding it.