Venice (VVV) official keys symbol, from the Venice brand kit. VVV is the Venice.ai token.
Venice cuts annual VVV emissions to 2 million as deflationary push continues
The Erik Voorhees-backed AI platform has now trimmed its token issuance by approximately 86% since launch
Venice has lowered annual VVV token emissions from 2.5 million to 2 million, effective October 1, 2026. The change appears onchain via basescan.org and marks the latest step in a long campaign to shrink new supply.
A staircase of cuts
Venice.ai, the private AI platform started by ShapeShift founder Erik Voorhees, did not get here in one move. It walked emissions down in stages.
The token generation event in January 2025 set yearly issuance at 14 million VVV. From there, the schedule tightened repeatedly.
The first major cut took emissions from 14 million to 6 million on May 1. A further step brought the figure to 5 million, also listed under May 1.
On June 1, emissions dropped to 4 million. July 1 brought them to 3 million, and September 1 lowered them again to 2.5 million.
The October 1 cut to 2 million completes the current sequence. By early October 2026, emissions sat approximately 86% below where they started at launch.
Who gets the new tokens, and who loses them
Venice routes 100% of new VVV emissions directly to stakers. There is no carve-out for the team or a foundation.
Cumulative burns have exceeded 33.7 million VVV, including a large burn tied to the airdrop in March 2025.
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The project also uses revenue to fund buybacks and burns. The stated goal is a net deflationary trend, meaning more VVV leaves circulation than enters it.
Why the token exists at all
VVV is not a decorative governance token. Staking it grants access to AI inference on the Venice platform, which focuses on private and uncensored AI models.
Holders can also use VVV to mint DIEM, a token that supports API credits.
The business behind the token
On August 17, 2026, the company announced it had reached a $100 million annualized revenue run rate.
A month earlier, in July 2026, Venice closed a $65 million Series A at a $1 billion valuation.
Because Venice funds buybacks from its income, a growing top line can translate into more tokens removed from circulation.
Price action around the cuts
VVV hit an all-time high above $34 in September 2026. That came during the same month emissions were reduced to 2.5 million.
Past emission cuts have lined up with price increases.
What this means
For VVV holders, the October cut tightens supply further at a time when the platform is reporting rapid growth. Stakers now receive a smaller stream of new tokens, but that stream dilutes the overall supply less.
The deflationary goal depends on Venice’s revenue holding up. Buybacks and burns are funded by income, so the $100 million run rate is doing heavy lifting in the tokenomics model.
The key indicators to track are the pace of burns relative to the 2 million annual issuance, the staking rate, and whether Venice continues reporting revenue growth.