Filecoin nears the end of its six-year vesting schedule, cutting FIL issuance by about 75%

Filecoin is about to turn off its biggest token faucet. The six-year vesting schedule for Protocol Labs and the Filecoin Foundation ends on October 15, 2026, and it takes roughly 66.7 to 68 million FIL of annual new supply with it.

At the latest mining pace, yearly additions from vesting and block rewards combined would drop from about 89 million FIL to 21 million. That is a cut of roughly 75%.

What’s actually ending

When Filecoin launched in October 2020, two insider allocations were set to unlock in a straight line over six years. Protocol Labs, the company that built the network, received 300 million FIL. The Filecoin Foundation received 100 million FIL.

Split 400 million FIL across six years and you get the roughly 66.7 to 68 million FIL per year that is about to disappear from the issuance schedule. Once it stops, gross annual issuance is expected to fall from an estimated 88 to 89 million FIL to around 21 to 22 million FIL, depending on mining pace. All of that would come from block rewards.

Storage providers are paid under Filecoin’s dual minting model. That model has two parts: a “simple” component that releases tokens on a fixed decay schedule, and a “baseline” component tied to whether total network storage hits growth targets.

After October 2026, those two components become the only source of fresh FIL. New supply would then represent approximately 2% of circulating supply per year, depending on how many tokens get burned through network fees and how much FIL storage providers lock up as collateral.

Net supply could flatten, or even shrink

Filecoin has two built-in mechanisms that pull tokens out of circulation. Fees burn a portion of FIL permanently. Storage providers must also lock FIL as collateral to guarantee they will keep storing data, which takes those tokens off the market for the duration of their commitments.

Simulations cited in network analysis suggest net FIL growth could decline by as much as 86% to 119% from August 2026 levels by the end of 2027. A figure above 100% would mean net supply actually contracts, with burns and collateral locks removing more FIL than block rewards create.

The demand side is still small, but growing fast

Filecoin is positioning new products to grow paid demand. Those include Filecoin Onchain Cloud and Fil One. Annualized payments through Filecoin Onchain Cloud are expected to climb from $663 in January 2026 to $59,327 by August 2026.

What this means for FIL holders

Traders appear to have noticed the calendar. FIL prices have risen between 10% and 24% ahead of the supply cut, as investors position for less selling pressure from the vesting stream.

For the broader market, Filecoin is a useful test case. Many tokens launched in the same era with multi-year insider vesting schedules. The things to watch are concrete: whether paid usage on Filecoin Onchain Cloud keeps compounding after August 2026; how much FIL storage providers lock as collateral as the network grows; and whether fee burns become large enough to push net issuance toward the contraction scenario in the simulations.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Estefano Gomez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.