Hive Inflation for May 2026 | Still Running Hot!

How did Hive do in May 2026 from an inflation standpoint? In 2026 the Hive inflation has been running hot. Let’s take a look.

The projected inflation for Hive for 2026 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 @hbdstabilizer has also grown and it plays an important role in the overall tokenomics, making conversions and trading on the internal market.
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.

HIVE Created

Here is the chart.

The chart above includes:

• Author rewards
• Curation rewards
• Witness rewards
• Staking rewards

These are the regular ways new Hive enters circulation, and it is around 90k HIVE per day, from the previous 72k.

If we zoom in November 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. In the last months it increased again to the 90k levels because of shift in the authors payouts from HBD to HIVE.

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.

HIVE Removed from Circulation

Here is the chart.

The above takes into consideration six different ways of HIVE removed:

• Ninja Mined HIVE To HBD Conversions In DHF
• HIVE transfers to DHF and converted to HBD
• Transfers to null
• Null as post beneficiary
• New accounts creation fee
• HIVE to HBD conversions

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. There have been some more conversions happening recently due to short HBD price spikes.

Historical HIVE Supply

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, we are mostly up, with a small excetion back in February 2023, and with accelerate rate in the last few months.

May 2026 ended with 548M HIVE in circulation.

HBD Supply

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 in the last period there is a slight decrease in the HBD supply from 11M to around 10M HBD in circulation.

Virtual HIVE Supply

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 10M 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.

Projected VS Realized HIVE Inflation in 2025 - 2026

This chart tells the story of the new HIVE entering circulation in 2025 - 2026.

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 April 2026 the projected inflation in absolute numbers is 38M HIVE, while the realized is at 85M. In terms of percentages, the projected for 2025 is at 5.8%, while the realized annualized inflation is at 9.5%, and for 2026 the projected is 5.2%, while currently we stand at 18%.

Monthly Inflation

If we plot the monthly inflation in 2024-2026, we get this.

This is a chart for the period of 2024-2026.
We can see that the last six months the monthly inflation has been above 1% for every month, with spikes up to 2% monthly inflation in February and March 2026, April dropped a bit and then in May 2026 it increased to 1.6% again.

Yearly Inflation [%]

The yearly, projected and realized inflation looks like this.

Here we can see the big picture. Since the start of the chain and its predecessor the projected inflation in white is that it should go down at approximately 0.5% per year. But due to conversions this has been not the case, and in 2021 it even pushed it to the negative. In most of the years the realized has been higher. In the past two years, 2024 and 2025 it has been around 9%, while the projected close to 5%.

But 2026 is really on a bad start and if the trend from the first half continue we will end the year close to 18% inflation that is higher than the previous record high of 13% back in 2019.

Net HIVE Created by Category in May 2026

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 6M! 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 1M HIVE added, followed by the authors rewards with around 900k.

Some HIVE was burned for @null as beneficiary and account creation fees.

All the best
@dalz

https://www.hbdstats.com/hive.html