ETH has actually been mildly inflationary since the Dencun upgrade, not deflationary.

Here’s the current picture:

• Base issuance: ~2,800 ETH/day is created via PoS staking rewards.

• Burn rate: Since Dencun moved L2 data to cheap “blob” space, mainnet burn dropped sharply. Mainnet gas fees have been near historic lows (~0.1 Gwei), meaning minimal burn per transaction

• Net effect: Net supply growth has been running roughly 0.23% to 0.85% annually in recent 2026 measurements i.e., mild inflation, not deflation. Ethereum’s supply has actually grown by roughly 950,000 ETH since the Merge

When it does flip deflationary: only in short bursts of unusually high mainnet activity — big DeFi surges, NFT mints, or fee spikes — where burn temporarily outpaces issuance for a day or a stretch of days. That’s not the steady-state condition anymore.

So the “ultrasound money” (permanently deflationary) narrative from 2021–2023 doesn’t hold at current activity levels — it’s more accurate to call ETH a low-inflation asset than a strictly deflationary one right now It could flip back if mainnet usage (not L2 usage) picks up meaningfully, since L2 activity barely touches mainnet burn anymore.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​