In a decisive governance move, the PancakeSwap community has overwhelmingly approved a proposal to permanently reduce the maximum supply of its native token, CAKE, from its previous cap to 400 million tokens. The vote concluded with 100% support from participating CAKE holders, signaling strong community alignment on the platform's tokenomic direction.
The new hard cap represents a significant reduction and establishes a clear, finite supply for the token. According to the proposal details, the current circulating supply stands at approximately 350 million CAKE, leaving a buffer of about 50 million tokens between the circulating supply and the new maximum. The PancakeSwap team emphasized that this buffer is not intended for routine use and would only be activated under "exceptional circumstances."
This change is the latest step in PancakeSwap's multi-year evolution of its tokenomics. The proposal referenced Tokenomic Proposal 3.0, implemented in April 2025, which retired the veCAKE model and reduced daily CAKE emissions from roughly 40,000 to 22,250. These prior adjustments led to a net burn of 8.19% of the CAKE supply throughout 2025, decreasing the total supply from about 380 million to the current ~350 million.
The primary goals of the supply cap reduction are to boost token scarcity, support sustainable long-term value, and align with the protocol's shift from a high-yield decentralized exchange (DEX) to a more mature and sustainable DeFi ecosystem. The team believes the 400 million cap will be sufficient to meet all future protocol growth needs, especially given the existing Ecosystem Growth Fund, which holds approximately 3.5 million CAKE to be used for initiatives before any new token emissions are considered.
