PancakeSwap has reduced CAKE’s maximum supply from 450M to 400M following community approval.
The protocol confirms ongoing support for emissions-based incentives, while holding 3.5M CAKE in its Ecosystem Growth Fund to avoid inflationary changes

PancakeSwap has confirmed that the CAKE token’s maximum supply has been reduced from 450 million to 400 million after a governance proposal passed with broad community support. The change does not affect the current circulating supply but reflects PancakeSwap’s deflation-focused direction and long-term design.

PancakeSwap says the current supply stands at 350 million CAKE, and a 50 million token buffer remains between the circulating and maximum supply. This buffer gives the protocol room to operate during unexpected conditions but is not expected to be used under normal market activity.

The CAKE Max Supply Reduction Proposal has passed!

Max supply has now been adjusted to 400M CAKE

Thank you to our community for the thoughtful discussion and votes

With CAKE’s max supply reduced to 400M, we’re reinforcing long-term sustainability and a… https://t.co/9wzsGbcbOl

— PancakeSwap (@PancakeSwap) January 19, 2026

The reduction was done after Tokenomics 3.0, a proposal approved in April 2025 that ended the veCAKE model and halved the daily output to around 22,500 CAKE. This shift resulted in a net burning of 8.19% of the supply in 2025, and it is part of a deflationary run that had started in September 2023.

The new max supply is perceived to be more in line with the current trends of emission and deflationary activity on the platform. It is also useful to rectify fully diluted value (FDV) estimates on external exchanges, such as Binance and CoinMarketCap, which continue to use old maximum supply estimates. According to PancakeSwap, the change is supposed to minimize the confusion of users who would use the data point to evaluate the markets.

PancakeSwap Ecosytem Divided on Proposal 

PancakeSwap has maintained controlled emissions through its core smart contracts. Liquidity providers receive a fixed daily amount of roughly 22,500 CAKE across farms, lottery incentives, and ecosystem programs. Concurrently, the team said reducing this stream in favor of weekly buybacks would introduce inconsistency, possibly harming LP confidence and migration behavior.

There was a certain level of skepticism in community debates regarding the proposal. An X user, ChefMaroon, was worried about the elimination of the emissions buffer altogether. They reasoned that the lack of extra emission space would cause functioning strain when unexpected slumps occurred and said, “This harms LPs’ confidence in PCS as a venue where they can expect a steady stream of yield.”

However, the protocol continues funding growth through its Ecosystem Growth Fund, which holds around 3.5 million CAKE. This reserve allows PancakeSwap to avoid increasing emissions even during expansion. PancakeSwap’s leadership has reiterated that inflation is not expected to return unless conditions drastically change.

This supply cap update follows major protocol upgrades throughout 2025 with the launch of CAKE.PAD in October, replacing the older Initial Farm Offering (IFO) model. Under CAKE.PAD, users can participate in early-stage token launches by simply holding CAKE in a noncustodial wallet. 

The platform is also expanding into tokenized assets. As CNF outlined, PancakeSwap partnered with Ondo Finance to bring tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) to its platform. 

Meanwhile, despite being bullish in the last 30 days, the CAKE price has fallen into a bearish grip amid the EU-US trade war fears. At press time, the CAKE price was changing hands at $1.96, a 2.87% decline.

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Filed under: Bitcoin - @ January 20, 2026 10:22 am