# The Helium Network Token

> The HNT token: max supply cap, halving schedule, burn-and-mint economics, and net emissions mechanism.

The Helium Network Token (HNT) is the native cryptocurrency and protocol token of the Helium
Network. The first HNT was emitted on July 29th, 2019. There was no pre-mine of HNT before the
launch of the Network.

The Helium Network migrated from its own purpose-built blockchain to the Solana blockchain on April
18, 2023. The mint address for HNT is [`hntyVP6YFm1Hg25TN9WGLqM12b8TQmcknKrdu1oxWux`][hnt-mint-addr]
on the Solana blockchain.

## HNT Usage

HNT serves the needs of the two primary parties in the Helium Ecosystem:

1. **Hotspot Hosts and Operators**. Hosts are rewarded in HNT network tokens while deploying and
   maintaining network coverage. Operators are also rewarded in HNT.
2. **Enterprises and Developers** use the Helium Network to connect devices and build Network
   applications. [Data Credits][datacredit], which are a \$USD-pegged utility token derived from
   HNT, are used to pay transaction fees for wireless data transmissions on the Network.

## HNT Token Economic Concepts

The Network uses three token economic concepts to ensure HNT supply is both plentiful for usage
needs and relatively scarce, with a known maximum.

<TopLedgerEmbed
  title="Daily Net Emissions"
  client="helium"
  queryId="7417"
  visualizationId="21858"
  apiKey="gmq5liGNsuNxbesxmL3y3CbWgE02BWvAMI6k6YaU"
/>

### Max Supply

The Network targeted the distribution of 5,000,000 HNT per month at launch. Following the community
approval of HIP-20, the Network uses a two-year halving schedule, resulting in an initial maximum
HNT supply of 240,000,000 HNT, but slow blockchain times in year 1 resulted in an issuance that was
~17,000,000 HNT less than the schedule targeted. Thus, at the time HIP-20 was approved, max supply
had decreased to ~223,000,000 HNT.

| Year |       Year Start | HNT at Year Start | Target HNT Emission |
| :--: | ---------------: | ----------------: | ------------------: |
|  1   | August 1st, 2019 |                 0 |          60,000,000 |
|  2   | August 1st, 2020 |        60,000,000 |          60,000,000 |
|  3   | August 1st, 2021 |       120,000,000 |          30,000,000 |
|  4   | August 1st, 2022 |       150,000,000 |          30,000,000 |
|  5   | August 1st, 2023 |       180,000,000 |          15,000,000 |
|  6   | August 1st, 2024 |       195,000,000 |          15,000,000 |
|  7   | August 1st, 2025 |       210,000,000 |           7,500,000 |
|  8   | August 1st, 2026 |       217,500,000 |           7,500,000 |
|  7   | August 1st, 2027 |       225,000,000 |           3,750,000 |
|  8   | August 1st, 2028 |       228,750,000 |           3,750,000 |

> The full token emission schedule can be viewed in the HNT section of this document: [Token
> Emissions as of Solana Migration][sol-emissions].

[^1]:
    Year 1 starts on **August 1st, 2019**. The first halving happened on day one of year three,
    **August 1st, 2021**.

### Burn and Mint Economics {#burn-and-mint-economics}

[Data Credits][datacredit] (DC) are a $USD-pegged utility token derived from HNT and are used to pay
fees on the Helium Network. DC is only produced by burning HNT. This HNT to DC relationship is based
on a design commonly called a [burn and mint equilibrium][bme] and is intended to allow for the
supply of HNT to respond to network usage trends.

### Net Emissions

As the halving schedule progresses, it is possible that the HNT minted per epoch is not sufficiently
divisible for data transfer rewards. Therefore, to ensure that miners are incentivized to continue
transmitting data and ensure a healthy, robust network, the Net Emissions mechanism was instituted
in August 2021.

Net Emissions give the protocol enough HNT for rewards in perpetuity by monitoring the number of HNT
burned in a given epoch and adding that to the number of HNT to mint that epoch. Because HNT
produced via Net Emissions do not add to the total outstanding, they do not violate max supply.
However, to ensure that the deflationary pressure is still present, the Net Emission is capped at 1%
of the epoch emissions at the time HIP-20 was approved.

Initially, Net Emissions counted only HNT burned for Data Credits but now account for all HNT
burned, though they do not include HNT not emitted.

Review the [complete Net Emissions discussion in the HIP][hip-20] for more information. Note that in
HIP-20, the cap was 34.24 HNT because the epoch was every 30 minutes at the time HIP-20 was written.
The current epoch is on a 24-hour basis, yielding a cap of 1,643.83561643 HNT. The cap is not
affected by the two-year emissions halvings.

The up-to-date value can be verified
[on chain](https://explorer.solana.com/address/BQ3MCuTT5zVBhNfQ4SjMh3NPVhFy73MPV8rjfq5d1zie/anchor-account).
Move the decimal point 8 positions left to measure `Net Emissions Cap` in HNT.

HIP-20 proposed a Net Emissions Pool, which would smooth out the effects of large individual burn
events occurring infrequently over several days. Without smoothing, large HNT burns for DC would be
extremely capped as the burn and cap would happen only on one day. This pool was implemented as part
of [HRP 2025-03][hrp-2025-03] using a similar smoothing calculation to that for the Utility Score
described in [HIP-141][hip-141]. With smoothing, large burns on one day can increase Net Emissions
over several days, rather than just one day.

Every day, a Net Emissions Target is calculated, which takes into account the daily burn of HNT and
the Net Emissions Target of the previous day, and smooths it. The target amount of HNT is then
re-emitted as Net Emissions, up to the cap of 1,643.83561643 HNT.

The smoothing calculation takes yesterday's uncapped and smoothed HNT burned amount, multiplies it
by 6/7, and then adds today's actual HNT burned amount multiplied by 1/7; the resulting number then
has the Net Emissions Cap applied to provide the calculated Net Emission HNT number for today.

$$
\text{Net Emissions Target}_{\text{Today}} = \text{Net Emissions Target}_{\text{Yesterday}} \cdot \frac{6}{7} + \text{HNT Burn}_{\text{Today}} \cdot \frac{1}{7}
$$

$$
\text{HNT Net Emissions}_{\text{Today}} = \min\left( \text{Net Emissions Target}_{\text{Today}},\ 1643.83561643 \right)
$$

<figure className="screensnippet-wrapper">
  <NetEmissions />
</figure>

[bme]: https://multicoin.capital/2018/02/13/new-models-utility-tokens/
[datacredit]: /tokens/data-credit
[hip-20]: https://github.com/helium/HIP/blob/master/0020-hnt-max-supply.md#net-emissions
[hip-141]:
  https://github.com/helium/HIP/blob/main/0141-single-token-governance-and-release-proposals.md#smoothing-function
[hrp-2025-03]:
  https://github.com/helium/helium-release-proposals/blob/main/releases/20250312-core-devs.md#1-hnt-token-net-emissions-smoothing
[iot]: /tokens/iot-token
[mobile]: /tokens/mobile-token
[sol-emissions]:
  https://github.com/helium/HIP/blob/main/files/0077/token-emissions-as-of-solana-migration.pdf
[hnt-mint-addr]: https://explorer.solana.com/address/hntyVP6YFm1Hg25TN9WGLqM12b8TQmcknKrdu1oxWux