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Not always. The Merge cut the amount of new ETH issued by ending mining rewards, but validators still receive newly issued ETH. Supply shrinks only when ETH burned exceeds ETH issued over the period you measure. That balance changes with network activity and staking.
What determines whether ETH supply grows or shrinks?
The supply calculation is straightforward: net supply change = new issuance − ETH burned. If burning is greater than issuance during a chosen interval, supply falls in that interval. If issuance is greater, supply grows.
This describes the number of ETH in circulation under the protocol; it does not tell you whether ETH’s market price or purchasing power is rising or falling.
How Ethereum burns ETH
EIP-1559, introduced in the August 2021 London upgrade, divides transaction fees into a base fee and a priority fee. The base fee is burned, removing that ETH from supply; the priority fee goes to the block producer. How much is burned varies with network conditions. Ethereum.org’s gas documentation explains the fee mechanism.
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How proof of stake issues ETH
Validators receive newly issued ETH for participating in proof of stake. The Merge ended proof-of-work miner issuance, but it did not end issuance altogether. Whether supply is deflationary therefore depends on the relationship between validator issuance and fee burning—not on a permanent property of ETH.
What The Merge changed—and what it did not
On September 15, 2022, Ethereum Mainnet switched from proof of work to proof of stake by joining its execution history with the Beacon Chain’s proof-of-stake consensus. The Merge was a consensus transition, not a token redenomination: holders did not need to move funds or change wallets. Ethereum.org’s Merge overview describes the transition.
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After the Merge, execution-layer proof-of-work issuance fell to zero, while consensus-layer issuance to validators continued. Ethereum.org’s issuance analysis, last updated June 6, 2026, estimates that the change reduced total new issuance by about 88% under the assumptions stated on that page. The issuance analysis gives approximate explanatory figures: about 13,000 ETH per day in miner issuance before the Merge, plus about 1,700 ETH per day in staking issuance; after the transition, about 1,700 ETH per day remained, assuming roughly 14 million ETH staked. These are estimates for explaining the change, not live rates or guarantees.
The same page offers a further illustration: an average gas price of at least 16 gwei for a day would effectively offset roughly 1,700 ETH in issuance under its assumptions. That is a conditional example, not a timeless threshold; both issuance and burning conditions change.
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Why the answer depends on the time window
ETH can be deflationary over one interval and inflationary over another. A period with enough transaction activity to burn more ETH than validators receive can reduce supply; a quieter period can leave issuance ahead of burn. A claim that “ETH is deflationary” is incomplete unless it says which interval it covers.
The key timeline helps separate the mechanisms:
- August 2021: The London upgrade introduced EIP-1559’s base-fee burn.
- September 15, 2022: The Merge ended proof-of-work mining rewards on Ethereum Mainnet but left validator issuance in place.
- April 2023: Shanghai/Capella enabled withdrawals of validator balances. Withdrawals should not be confused with issuance or fee burning when assessing supply change.
Ethereum.org’s EIP-1559 specification summarizes the conditional relationship: “If more is burned on base fee than is generated in mining rewards then ETH will be deflationary and if more is generated in mining rewards than is burned then ETH will be inflationary.” The EIP-1559 specification includes this explanation in its “ETH Burn Precludes Fixed Supply” section.
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How to check whether ETH is deflationary now
Use a live supply or burn tracker, choose the interval you care about, and compare ETH burned with new issuance over that same interval. Ethereum.org points readers to Ultrasound Money for real-time supply, issuance, and burn rates, and Etherscan’s supply metrics for supply data. Check the displayed dates and units rather than treating a snapshot as a permanent status.
No dated live supply snapshot is available here, so a current net inflation or deflation figure is not stated. The reliable conclusion is about the mechanism: The Merge made issuance much lower, while EIP-1559 burning continues to fluctuate with network use.
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