QUAI Tokenomics: Supply, Emissions and Unlock Schedule (2026)
How QUAI's supply works in 2026: circulating supply, the genesis unlock schedule, mining emissions, SOAP burns, and the Singularity and Polaris forks.
QUAI's supply follows one formula: genesis unlocks plus mining emissions, minus SOAP burns. As of October 20, 2026, 1.13B QUAI is circulating and SOAP has bought and burned 229.6M QUAI on the open market. Two forks, Singularity and Polaris, have burned 1.90 billion genesis QUAI, and the remaining genesis QUAI unlocks at about 3.7 million a month until early 2029.
This page explains each piece. Live numbers change daily, so for the latest figures use the QUAI supply tracker.
QUAI supply at a glance
Live from supply.qu.ai, updated hourly. Last updated October 20, 2026.
The supply formula
Since the Singularity fork, QUAI's total supply is:
Total supply = genesis unlocks + mining emissions − SOAP burns
- Genesis unlocks add the original allocation to circulation on a monthly schedule. Both forks cut this sharply, and it ends in early 2029.
- Mining emissions add new QUAI as miners secure the network. This is the only source of QUAI that continues after 2029.
- SOAP burns remove QUAI from circulation permanently, funded by mining rewards from other Proof-of-Work chains.
When SOAP burns more than miners add, circulating supply shrinks. In SOAP's first 14 days, circulating supply fell by 3.27 million QUAI, according to the supply tracker.
Genesis allocation, and how two forks burned most of it
QUAI launched with a genesis allocation of 3 billion tokens, split between the Quai Foundation, community incentives, the team, investors, the development company, testnet rewards and exchange liquidity, each with its own vesting schedule. See the tokenomics docs for the original breakdown.
Two forks have since burned most of the QUAI that was still waiting to unlock:
The Singularity fork (March 19, 2026)
At Prime block 1,530,500, a set of investors, Dominant Strategies and the Quai Foundation burned their future vested unlocks: about 1.67 billion QUAI, or 81.1% of all future genesis unlocks. The protocol's monthly unlock schedule now skips those addresses, so those tokens can never enter circulation. Singularity also introduced the supply formula above and doubled the workshares allowed per block from 16 to 32. Read the Singularity announcement.
The Polaris fork (October 2026)
Announced on October 13, 2026, Polaris takes full effect at the next unlock cutoff: the October 30, 2026 unlock is the last at the old size. The founders and the Dominant Strategies team burned their remaining genesis unlocks: 236,456,538 QUAI. Together with Singularity, 1.9 billion of the original 3 billion genesis QUAI has been burned.
- Monthly genesis unlocks fall from about 13M to about 3.7M QUAI, starting with the November 29, 2026 unlock.
- Genesis QUAI left to unlock fell from 327M to about 90M, fully unlocked by early 2029.
- Genesis inflation fell from 13% to under 4% a year.
Read the full Polaris breakdown.
QUAI unlock schedule
The next genesis unlocks, estimated from block height. The October 30, 2026 unlock is the last at the old size; with Polaris in full effect, the schedule then settles at about 3.7 million QUAI a month, roughly 0.3% of circulating supply.
| Estimated date | Block | Unlock | % of circulating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 30, 2026 | 10,886,400 | 12.6M QUAI | 1.109% |
| Nov 29, 2026 | 11,404,800 | 3.7M QUAI | 0.329% |
| Dec 29, 2026 | 11,923,200 | 3.7M QUAI | 0.329% |
| Jan 28, 2027 | 12,441,600 | 3.7M QUAI | 0.328% |
| Feb 27, 2027 | 12,960,000 | 3.7M QUAI | 0.322% |
| Mar 29, 2027 | 13,478,400 | 3.7M QUAI | 0.324% |
Source: supply.qu.ai, October 19, 2026. Dates are estimates; unlocks happen at the listed block.
Mining emissions: how new QUAI and QI are created
After genesis, all new QUAI and QI comes from Proof-of-Work mining. The two tokens are issued on different curves:
- QUAI reward ∝ log₂(difficulty). Each doubling of mining difficulty raises QUAI issuance by only one step, so QUAI gets scarcer as the network grows.
- QI reward ∝ difficulty. QI issuance rises in line with difficulty, so each QI is designed to represent a constant amount of energy. See What is QI?
Miners choose whether to take rewards in QUAI, QI or a mix. In the 30 days to October 19, 2026, mining added about 1.2 million QUAI a day. Mining is projected to account for over half of all QUAI ever emitted by July 2028, as genesis unlocks wind down.
Lockups. Mining rewards are locked for two weeks by default. Miners can lock for longer to earn more: as of October 19, 2026, the supply tracker lists +2.72% rewards for a 3-month lock, +7.21% for 6 months and +15.05% for 12 months.
Conversions. The protocol converts between QUAI and QI at a rate set by relative mining difficulty. Conversions execute at the next Prime block and are locked for two weeks. See the conversion docs.
SOAP: buybacks and burns funded by other chains
SOAP, the Subsidized Open-market Acquisition Protocol, went live on December 17, 2025 at Prime block 1,171,500. Quai miners also merge-mine Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Ravencoin. SOAP routes the rewards from those parent chains to the protocol, which uses them to buy QUAI on the open market and burn it.
- Burned to date: 229.6M QUAI (supply.qu.ai, October 20, 2026).
- Recent pace: about 1.0 million QUAI burned a day in the 30 days to October 19, 2026, against about 1.2 million mined.
- At full pace, SOAP burns over 300 million QUAI a year, more than 75% of newly mined QUAI, according to the Polaris announcement.
SOAP turns external hashrate into steady demand for QUAI: the more SHA-256 and Scrypt miners point at Quai, the more QUAI is bought and burned. Track it live at soap.qu.ai, and read how SOAP reshapes Proof-of-Work economics.
QUAI inflation
Combining the three pieces, the Polaris announcement projects total QUAI supply growth of about 8.7% in the 12 months after the fork: 3.8% from genesis unlocks and 4.8% from mining net of SOAP burns, down from 18.2% without Polaris. As unlocks end in early 2029, only mining emissions and SOAP burns remain, and mining inflation after burns is currently estimated at about 4.85% a year.
At the same age, year 3 after launch, QUAI's inflation is 8.3%. Bitcoin's was 59%, Litecoin's 49.4%, Monero's 23.7% and Kaspa's 17%. By year 5, QUAI's supply grows at roughly 4%.
QI supply
QI started from zero when mining activated on April 16, 2025. As of October 20, 2026, 208.6K QI is in circulation. QI has no genesis allocation and no unlocks: every QI was minted by mining, so its supply grows only as miners choose QI rewards or convert QUAI into QI.
Tokenomics timeline
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Feb 4, 2025 | Genesis block mined |
| Feb 19, 2025 | QUAI becomes transferable |
| Apr 16, 2025 | QI mining activates, starting from zero supply |
| May 21, 2025 | Wrapped QI (WQI) launches for DeFi |
| Dec 17, 2025 | SOAP goes live: merge-mining rewards buy and burn QUAI |
| Mar 19, 2026 | Singularity fork: about 1.67B genesis QUAI burned |
| Oct 13, 2026 | Polaris fork announced: 236.5M genesis QUAI burned |
| Oct 30, 2026 | Polaris takes full effect: last unlock at the old size |
| Nov 29, 2026 | First monthly unlock at about 3.7M QUAI |
| Jul 2028 | Mining projected to pass genesis as the main source of emitted QUAI |
| Early 2029 | Genesis unlocks complete |
See the full Quai roadmap for every release.
QUAI tokenomics FAQ
What is QUAI's max supply?
QUAI has no fixed maximum, because mining keeps issuing new QUAI. But supply growth is capped in practice: 1.9 billion of the 3 billion genesis QUAI has been burned, genesis unlocks end in early 2029, and SOAP burns offset most new mining. The Singularity announcement describes a soft supply cap of about 1.4 billion QUAI.
When is QUAI fully unlocked?
Genesis unlocks finish in early 2029. After the October 30, 2026 unlock, about 90 million genesis QUAI remains, released at about 3.7 million a month.
Is QUAI deflationary?
It can be. When SOAP burns more QUAI than mining and unlocks add, circulating supply shrinks, as it did in SOAP's first 14 days. Whether QUAI is deflationary over a given period depends on how much hashrate merge-mines through SOAP.
Where can I check QUAI's current supply?
The supply tracker shows circulating supply, locked genesis, upcoming unlocks, SOAP burns and QI supply, updated live. SOAP buybacks are at soap.qu.ai.
How do I get QUAI?
Buy it on exchanges such as Kraken, MEXC, Gate.io and LBank, or mine it with GPUs, SHA-256 or Scrypt hardware. See How to get QUAI and the Quai Network FAQ.
Circulating supply, SOAP burns and QI supply update hourly from the supply.qu.ai API. Other figures are as of October 19, 2026; see supply.qu.ai for the latest. This article is for information only and is not financial advice.
