How did Hive do in January 2026 from an inflation standpoint? In the past year Hive has been running hot. Let’s take a look how we started 2026!
The projected inflation for Hive for 2025 is around 5.2% on a yearly basis, or around 0.43% on a monthly basis.
Hive has a double currency system, HIVE and HBD, with conversions between them that add or remove HIVE from circulation on top of the regular inflation. Furthermore, the decentralized hive fund DHF, that serves as a DAO converts the HIVE that is in the DHF into HBD.
The 
Because of this additional mechanics the HIVE inflation and supply can be drastically different in real time than the regular/projected one.
To be able to follow the HIVE supply we need to take a look at all the different ways HIVE is created, author, curation, witness rewards, conversions etc, then net that out with the HIVE burned from conversions, accounts fees, null transfers etc. To get the virtual supply we need to do the same for the HBD supply as well.
Here is the chart.
The chart above includes:
These are the regular ways new Hive enters circulation, and all of them are through vested HIVE, aka powered up. The regular inflation is around 72k HIVE per day.
We can notice the drop in the last months for the regular HIVE inflation. This is because since the last HardFork, on November 19, 2025, the base for the inflation levels has changed and the HBD in the DHF doesn’t count anymore towards the inflation.
If we zoom in 2025 - 2026 to see this change we can see this:
We can notice that in the first part of the chart the regular inflation was close to 90k, while after the HF took effect it dropped around 72k. Now this is not static because it is again connected to the HIVE price, but the drop is evident. More than 15k HIVE less per day. Having in mind the latest HIVE price this would have been even higher.
The thing is the conversions are playing a major role in the ecosystem. Here is the chart again, including conversions.
We can notice that the HBD to HIVE conversions are the dominant in the chart. This works in both ways and a big part of them is converted back to HIVE, especially through the work of the stabilizer.
In general, there are less conversions since the summer of 2023 that is mostly because of the stabilizer that has reduced its funding since then and the size of the conversions in both ways. Also, market dynamics influence the conversions a lot, as users usually convert when the HIVE price is low.
Here is the chart.
The above takes into consideration six different ways of HIVE removed:
The HIVE transfers to the DHF are dominant. These are transfers made by the stabilizer. We can see a few spikes in the HIVE to HBD conversions (blue), with one occurring just recently. These were due to the increase in the HBD price. We can also notice the drop since the summer of 2023, same as the opposite conversions due to the lower funds and low volumes that the stabilizer is doing.
When all the above is added and removed, we get this chart for the all-time HIVE supply.
Up until August 2021, the supply was almost steadily increasing with a small fluctuation. Then there was a drop in the supply in September 2021. Since then, from time to time we can see some drops in the supply in February and April 2023.
January 2026 ended with 513M HIVE in circulation.
Here is the chart for the HBD supply.
The light color is HBD in DHF. The HBD in the DHF is not freely circulating HBD and only enters circulation when payouts to the DHF workers are made.
HBD is being created and removed in various ways, but the conversions play the major role here in both directions. Other ways HBD are created are DHF proposal payouts, author rewards and interest.
We can see that after a downtrend in 2022, in the last period the HBD supply is very stable around the 11M HBD.
In the last period the HBD supply has dropped but just for a bit at around 10.8M.
When we add the HIVE equivalent supply from the HBD to the HIVE supply we get the chart below.
I have further separated this chart with the aditional two types of`virtual supply. The first line include the virtual supply from the regular HBD that is around 11M HBD and the second one the DHF as well that is adtional 23M HBD. The base that is used for the inflation is now the middle line.
We can see the sharp increase in the virtual supply in the last month. This is worsening the overall HIVE economy.
We can see that the virtual supply fluctuates a lot, mostly because it is tied to the price of HIVE. As the price of HIVE drops, the virtual supply increases and the opposite.
This chart tells the story of the new HIVE entering circulation in 2025.
We can see that in the first months of 2025 the projected vs realized inflation were close to each other/ Since March these two diverged and the realized inflation started to surpass the projected one. Up until January 2026 the projected inflation in absolute numbers is 29M HIVE, while the realized is at 51M. In terms of percentages, the projected for 2025 is at 5.8%, while the realized annualized inflation is at 9.5%.
If we plot the monthly inflation in 2024-2025, we get this.
This is a chart for the period of 2024-2026.
We can see that November and December 2025 were especially high for the inflation with around 1.4%. January 2026 has dropped a bit, to around 1%, but it is still much higher then the projected 0.43% monthly inflation.
In absolute numbers January 2026 added around 5M new HIVE in circulation, while the regular one is around 2.2M.
The yearly, projected and realized inflation looks like this.
The yearly inflation for HIVE in 2025 the annualized HIVE inflation is at 9.46%. This is higher than the projected 5.5% for 2025. The reason is because of the HBD to HIVE conversions. The HBD supply is almost constant in the period around 11M HBD, and approximately the same amount of HBD that is entering in circulation on a monthly basis is being converted to HIVE. Most of the new HBD that entered into circulation in 2025 was from the DHF.
Here is the new HIVE put in circulation by category for the month.
Conversions are by far at the top in the month with close to 3M! Conversions are the main variable that is changing the Hive inflation and when they are positive the inflation is above, or when they are negative the inflation is below the projected one.
Curation comes second with 960k HIVE added, followed by the authors rewards with around 500k. Note that authors rewards are paid 50% HIVE, 50% HBD, and the HIVE share only is at 500k, while approximately the same amount was paid in HBD equivalent.
Some HIVE was burned for 
All the best
