hBTC is an ERC-4626 vault token on Base. It has no fixed supply, no maximum supply, no allocations, and no vesting schedules, because it is not that kind of token. Every hBTC in existence is a receipt: it was minted because someone deposited cbBTC, and it will be burned when someone redeems. This article explains how the supply works and how to verify it.
Minted by deposits, burned by redemptions
New hBTC is created at one moment only: the cohort cutoff, twice a month, when the deposit queue is processed and the whole cohort mints together. No deposits, no new tokens. There is no emission schedule, no inflation, and no discretionary minting.
hBTC is destroyed the same way, in reverse: when redemptions are paid, the redeemed tokens are burned. Redemptions do not earn the period in which they exit.
Supply therefore expands and contracts with one thing: capital entering and leaving the strategy. A growing supply means depositors added capital. Nothing else can grow it.
The count stays still; the value moves
hBTC is non-rebasing. The number of tokens in your wallet never changes on its own. Strategy returns do not arrive as new tokens: they accrue in the price.
One worked example, with illustrative numbers. Suppose the most recent finalized NAV is 1.02 cbBTC per hBTC. A deposit of 10.2 cbBTC processed at the cutoff mints 10 hBTC. Those 10 hBTC remain 10 hBTC forever; what changes at each published NAV is how much cbBTC they redeem for.
The published price follows the standard vault arithmetic:
price per hBTC = the fund's attested value ÷ hBTC tokens outstanding at the snapshot
Both inputs are checkable: the attested value comes from the administrator's report, and the tokens outstanding are readable from the contract by anyone.
Everything in circulation
Circulating supply equals total supply, at all times. All hBTC is freely transferable from the moment it mints. There are no team allocations, no investor allocations, no treasury reserve, no locked or vesting wallets, and no wallets excluded from circulation.
Campaign rewards do not change this. Rewards for holding hBTC are distributed from tokens that were already minted through the same deposit process and are already counted in the supply, held by the campaign's reward contract and visible onchain. Reward distribution moves existing tokens; it never creates new ones.
Verify it yourself
- Token contract (Base): 0x9c2dcdbdb3f0a0f628d1112bbcabd9ae75353df3
- Live supply endpoint: api.backup.syntetika.io/vault/75142b34-9345-48b3-80e5-765b81e75302
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