Solana validators began voting on three proposals — two of which would reduce the amount of $SOL in circulation — on Sunday, with voting running until Thursday at about 15:30 UTC.
The votes are weighted by how much $SOL is staked, meaning locked up to help run the network. That gives the say to validators, the operators who run Solana's computers, and to ordinary holders who have handed their coins to a validator to stake on their behalf.
Two of the three proposals address supply. SGP-0002 speeds up the rate at which Solana stops printing new $SOL. The network currently cuts the amount it creates by 15% a year, and this would double that to 30%, reaching the floor sooner.
SGP-0003 changes what a transaction costs and where the money goes. The fee would be split in two. A fixed portion goes to whoever produces the block, and a separate portion, scaled by how much computational work the transaction demands, is permanently destroyed.
CoinDesk reported earlier this month that the change would increase daily burns from roughly 650 $SOL to between 7,500 and 9,000 $SOL, worth about $61,000 and $846,000, respectively, at Monday’s price.
Less $SOL created, and more of it destroyed, is why holders are paying attention, though neither proposal addresses demand.
The final proposal, SGP-0001, does not touch supply but ratifies a document the network is calling the Solana Constitution, which sets out how decisions are made and switches on the software that runs those votes. Changes to Solana have until now been agreed informally among developers and the largest operators.
All three votes are running simultaneously, which puts the sequence in an odd place. SGP-0001 is the proposal that formally establishes Solana's voting system, yet the two supply proposals are being voted on right now through that same system — and the results will be counted before anyone knows whether the rules governing the count have been ratified.
$SOL was trading above $96 early Monday, up 1.6% over the past 24 hours and 28% over the past week.