Kraken's Swing Vote Secures Solana Disinflation Proposal Passage

A highly contentious proposal to adjust Solana's (SOL) inflation rate has passed with a razor-thin margin of just 0.33 percentage points, securing approval from exactly two-thirds of participating validators.

The vote, labeled SGP-0002, instructs the network to continue creating new SOL but shrink the inflation rate twice as fast, effectively doubling it from 15% to 30%. This change is expected to reduce future SOL issuance by approximately 18.9 million tokens over six years.

Kraken's validator, labeled 'Kraken 2,' played a crucial role in tipping the voting outcome with its 8.9 million SOL staked and 90.34% of it cast in favor of the measure. The exchange was mathematically decisive but not solely responsible for securing a winning margin.

Despite the change, Solana will remain inflationary at a positive rate, as the terminal (or 'long tail') inflation rate is expected to be kept at 1.5%. However, estimates suggest that this terminal rate may now be reached approximately two years earlier than initially projected.