Token burning is a deflationary mechanism in cryptocurrency that permanently removes tokens from circulation, reducing supply and creating scarcity. Used by projects like Ethereum and BNB, it helps control inflation, reward holders, and enhance long-term token value. Understanding token burning, its types, and its impact on tokenomics is essential for crypto investors, developers, and blockchain enthusiasts.
Token burning is one of the most powerful — and most misunderstood — mechanisms in the cryptocurrency world. By permanently removing tokens from circulation, projects like Ethereum and Binance Coin use it to manage supply, fight inflation, and build long-term value for their communities. But does it actually work? And what do the numbers look like in 2026?
In this guide, you’ll learn exactly how token burning works, why projects do it, what the real impact on token price looks like, and how leading blockchains have used it in practice. Whether you’re an investor, developer, or just getting started with crypto, understanding token burning is essential to making sense of today’s blockchain economy.
Table of Contents
- What Is Token Burning?
- How Token Burning Works on Blockchain Networks
- Why Crypto Projects Burn Tokens
- Types of Token Burning Explained
- Token Burning vs Token Minting
- Does Token Burning Increase Token Price?
- Advantages of Token Burning
- Disadvantages and Risks of Token Burning
- Token Burning and Long-Term Project Sustainability
- Transparency, Governance, and Trust in Token Burns
- Real-World Token Burn Examples (2024–2026)
- Future of Token Burning in Web3 and DeFi
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
- Final Thoughts on Token Burning
1. What Is Token Burning?
Token burning is the process of permanently removing cryptocurrency tokens from circulation by sending them to an irretrievable blockchain address, commonly known as a burn address. Once tokens are burned, no one can ever access, spend, or reuse them — which effectively reduces the total supply of that cryptocurrency forever.
Token Burning — Quick Definition
Token burning is a blockchain mechanism that permanently destroys cryptocurrency tokens by sending them to an unusable address, reducing the total circulating supply.
This definition is kept intentionally concise, making it ideal for Google Featured Snippets and voice search queries.
Understanding Token Burning in Simple Terms
Think of it like a company buying back its own shares and shredding them — except on a blockchain, every single burn is publicly verifiable by anyone in the world, in real time.
When you burn tokens, three things happen simultaneously. First, those tokens leave circulation forever. Second, the total supply shrinks. Third, every remaining token now represents a slightly larger share of the network.
Unlike staking (where tokens are temporarily locked) or vesting (where they’re released over time), burning is completely irreversible. There’s no unlock event coming. The tokens are simply gone.
What Is a Burn Address?
A burn address is a blockchain wallet address with one crucial property: nobody holds its private key. That means any tokens sent there are permanently trapped. Common burn addresses look like 0x000000000000000000000000000000000000dead on Ethereum — a string that’s clearly unnatural and publicly monitored by blockchain explorers.
Here’s what makes a burn address reliable:
- It has no private key, so no one can access it
- Every transaction to it is publicly visible on the blockchain
- The balance grows over time, providing an auditable burn history
- Anyone can verify it — no trust in a central authority required
This transparency is one of the reasons token burning has become a core part of modern crypto economics.
Why Token Burning Exists in Crypto Economics
Projects use token burning as a tokenomics tool — a deliberate way to control supply dynamics within their ecosystem. The key economic reasons include preventing excessive inflation, creating measured scarcity, balancing ongoing token issuance, and incentivising long-term holding over short-term speculation.
In many modern projects, burning is coded directly into smart contracts, which removes human discretion and makes the process fully predictable.
Circulating Supply vs Total Supply vs Burned Supply
| Supply Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Total Supply | All tokens ever created minus burned tokens |
| Circulating Supply | Tokens actively available in the market |
| Burned Tokens | Tokens permanently removed from existence |
Burned tokens reduce total supply, which influences circulating supply dynamics over time.
Is Token Burning Mandatory in Crypto?
No — token burning is entirely optional. Some cryptocurrencies have never burned a single token. Others burn consistently, whether through transaction fees, protocol revenue, or governance decisions. Whether a project burns tokens depends entirely on its economic model and long-term strategy.
Token Burning in Centralized vs Decentralized Projects
Centralized projects typically perform manual burns announced by the team, while decentralized protocols embed burning into smart contracts with no human intervention required. Decentralised burns are generally viewed as more trustworthy, since no single entity can pause or manipulate the process.
2. How Token Burning Works on Blockchain Networks
Every token burn is an on-chain transaction — publicly visible, permanently recorded, and impossible to reverse. Unlike off-chain accounting tricks, blockchain-based burning gives anyone in the world the ability to verify that tokens were actually destroyed.
How the Token Burning Process Works (Step by Step)
Here’s exactly what happens when tokens are burned:
Step 1 — Tokens are selected for burning. These may come from transaction fees, project treasury reserves, open-market buybacks, or direct user actions.
Step 2 — Tokens are sent to a burn address. The destination wallet has no private key, making recovery impossible by design.
Step 3 — The transaction is recorded on the blockchain. It looks like any other transfer, but it leads to permanent destruction.
Step 4 — Total supply is reduced. Blockchain explorers update supply metrics automatically and in real time.
Step 5 — The burn is publicly verifiable. Anyone can confirm it using the transaction hash — no need to trust a press release.
Once this process completes, there is zero possibility of manipulation or reversal.
Smart Contracts and Automated Token Burning
Most serious blockchain projects today use smart contracts to manage burns automatically. Smart contracts execute predefined burn rules with no human involvement, making outcomes predictable and trustless. Common automated burn triggers include a percentage of every transaction fee, revenue above a certain threshold, or activity milestones reached by the protocol.
Importantly, once a smart contract is deployed, its burn rules cannot change unless the project’s governance mechanism explicitly votes to upgrade it — adding another layer of accountability.
Manual Token Burns vs Automated Token Burns
| Method | Description | Transparency Level |
|---|---|---|
| Manual Burns | Tokens burned by the team at scheduled intervals | Medium (requires trust) |
| Automated Burns | Tokens burned automatically via smart contracts | High (trustless) |
Automated burning is the gold standard in decentralised ecosystems, while manual burns remain common in early-stage or centrally managed projects.
On-Chain Proof of Token Burning
One of the most compelling aspects of token burning is that you don’t have to take anyone’s word for it. You can verify any burn by checking the transaction hash on a block explorer, viewing the destination burn address, and watching the total supply update in real time. This level of verifiable transparency simply doesn’t exist in traditional finance.
Token Burning Across Different Blockchains
Token burning works similarly across all major blockchains, though the implementation details vary.
Ethereum (ERC-20): Uses smart contract functions like burn() alongside EIP-1559’s fee-burning mechanism, which has destroyed over 4.3 million ETH since August 2021.
Binance Smart Chain (BEP-20): Similar to ERC-20 with faster and cheaper execution. BNB uses a quarterly Auto-Burn formula tied directly to BNB price and block production.
Solana: Tokens are destroyed via program instructions that permanently affect the supply state recorded on-chain.
Bitcoin: Burning occurs by sending BTC to unspendable addresses, though this remains rare and is generally considered economically irrational for BTC holders.
Does Burning Tokens Affect Blockchain Security?
When implemented correctly, token burning does not weaken blockchain security. However, aggressive burns that reduce liquidity too quickly can discourage usage and increase volatility. Well-designed burn mechanisms balance economic incentives without compromising network functionality.
3. Why Crypto Projects Burn Tokens
Crypto projects don’t burn tokens randomly — they do it for very specific strategic, economic, and psychological reasons. Token burning is typically embedded into a project’s tokenomics model to influence supply, demand, user behaviour, and long-term sustainability simultaneously.
Primary Reasons Why Tokens Are Burned
Projects typically burn tokens to reduce total supply, control inflation, increase scarcity, strengthen investor confidence, reward long-term holders, balance token issuance, and improve overall token utility.
1. Reducing Token Supply to Create Scarcity
Scarcity is one of the most fundamental economic principles — when supply falls while demand holds steady or grows, each remaining unit gains relative value. Token burning makes tokens harder to obtain over time, which can encourage holding rather than selling. This is why so many projects promote burning as a deflationary mechanism.
2. Controlling Inflation in Token Economies
Many blockchains continuously mint new tokens to reward miners or validators and fund ecosystem development. Without a counterbalance, this leads to token inflation — gradually eroding purchasing power and diluting existing holders. Token burning offsets newly minted tokens, stabilises long-term supply, and prevents excessive dilution. Some projects even aim for net-zero issuance, where burned tokens roughly equal newly created ones.
3. Increasing Long-Term Holder Value
When tokens are burned, existing holders own a larger percentage of the total supply without receiving any taxable distribution. This indirectly rewards long-term holding without triggering dividend-related regulatory concerns — a meaningful advantage in the current regulatory environment of 2026.
4. Improving Market Confidence and Trust
Regular, transparent burns signal disciplined financial management and long-term project commitment. Projects that publish burn schedules, share on-chain proofs, and maintain clear tokenomics documentation consistently earn stronger credibility among institutional and retail investors alike.
5. Aligning Incentives Between Users and the Network
Some protocols burn tokens based directly on usage — transaction fees, network activity, or protocol revenue. This creates a self-reinforcing loop: higher usage drives more burns, more burns reduce supply, and reduced supply supports token value. It’s one of the most elegant designs in modern tokenomics.
6. Reducing Circulating Supply Without Lockups
Unlike staking or vesting, burned tokens never come back. There is no future unlock risk, no cliff dates to worry about, and no sudden supply shock. This clarity is attractive to both traders managing short-term positions and investors thinking in years.
7. Supporting Governance and Decentralisation
In some ecosystems, users burn tokens to submit governance proposals, cast weighted votes, or prevent spam attacks on the network. In this context, token burning functions as a utility mechanism — not just a financial strategy.
Common Misunderstanding: Burning Doesn’t Guarantee Price Growth
It’s worth being direct about this: token burning does not guarantee price increases. Price ultimately depends on demand, real-world utility, user adoption, market sentiment, and broader macro conditions. Burning is only one input. Without genuine demand driving it, a burn event is largely theatrical.
4. Types of Token Burning Explained
Token burning isn’t a single method — it comes in several forms depending on a project’s goals, governance model, and level of decentralisation. Understanding the differences helps you evaluate whether a project’s burn mechanism is genuinely sustainable or just a marketing play.
4.1 Manual Token Burns
Manual token burns are executed directly by a project’s team or foundation, usually at scheduled intervals or milestone-based events.
How they work: The team announces a burn event, sends tokens from a known wallet to a burn address, and shares the transaction details publicly. Updated supply metrics follow.
Manual burns work well for early-stage projects that need flexibility. However, they require trust in the team — and without clear, published rules, they can easily look like price manipulation tactics rather than economic policy.
Advantages: Simple to execute, flexible in timing, accessible for projects without smart contract infrastructure.
Disadvantages: Centralized, potentially inconsistent, and dependent on team integrity.
4.2 Automatic (Programmatic) Token Burns
Automatic token burns are executed by smart contracts based on predefined rules — no human approval needed. When conditions are met (a transaction occurs, revenue crosses a threshold, a usage milestone is hit), tokens are burned immediately and transparently.
This is widely considered best practice for DeFi and Web3 protocols because it completely removes discretion from the equation. Users and investors know exactly how burns will behave under any market condition.
Advantages: Fully trustless, resistant to manipulation, highly transparent, preferred by institutional participants.
Disadvantages: Requires careful design upfront; difficult to modify after deployment without governance approval.
4.3 Buyback and Burn
Buyback-and-burn is a hybrid model inspired by corporate stock buybacks. The project earns revenue through fees or protocol profits, uses that revenue to purchase tokens from the open market, and then sends those tokens to a burn address.
Why does this work well? Because it creates real buy-side demand in the market while simultaneously reducing supply. It also directly links the protocol’s financial success to token value — the better the protocol performs, the more tokens it removes from circulation.
Advantages: Market-driven supply reduction, signals financial strength, aligns protocol growth with token economics.
Disadvantages: Requires sustainable, verifiable revenue; less effective in low-liquidity markets; can be misused as short-term price signaling.
4.4 Proof-of-Burn (PoB)
Proof-of-Burn is a participation or consensus mechanism where users voluntarily burn tokens to earn specific rights — mining privileges, validator power, or weighted governance participation. Burned tokens serve as proof of long-term commitment to the network.
While PoB is less common than Proof-of-Stake in 2026, it remains an important concept in discussions about alternative consensus design, particularly for projects where energy efficiency and Sybil resistance are priorities.
Advantages: Encourages genuine long-term commitment, prevents hoarding advantages, reduces energy consumption compared to Proof-of-Work.
Disadvantages: Permanent capital loss, complex economic design, limited mainstream adoption.
4.5 Transaction Fee Burning
Some networks burn a portion of every transaction fee paid by users. This links network demand directly to supply reduction — the busier the network, the more tokens are permanently destroyed. Ethereum’s EIP-1559 upgrade (August 2021) made this model famous, and it has since influenced many Layer 2 and Layer 1 designs building in 2025 and 2026.
Comparison of Token Burning Types
| Type | Automation | Transparency | Trust Required | Common Use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manual Burn | Low | Medium | High | Early-stage projects |
| Automatic Burn | High | High | None | DeFi & Web3 |
| Buyback & Burn | Medium | High | Medium | Revenue-generating protocols |
| Proof-of-Burn | High | High | None | Consensus & governance |
| Fee Burning | High | High | None | Layer 1 & Layer 2 networks |
5. Token Burning vs Token Minting
Token burning and token minting are opposite forces that blockchain ecosystems use to manage supply. Burning permanently removes tokens and creates a deflationary effect. Minting creates new tokens, adding to supply and introducing inflation.
Burning serves scarcity, inflation control, and holder rewards. Minting serves validator incentives, developer funding, and ecosystem growth — especially in early-stage networks that need to attract participation.
Neither approach is inherently superior. Burn too aggressively and you reduce liquidity and discourage usage. Mint too freely and you dilute every existing holder. The most successful blockchain projects in 2026 use a calibrated hybrid model — combining controlled minting with systematic, usage-driven burning to sustain network security, ecosystem growth, and long-term economic health simultaneously.
6. Does Token Burning Increase Token Price?
Token burning can support price appreciation, but it doesn’t guarantee it. That distinction matters enormously for investors.
When burning reduces total supply, scarcity increases — and if demand holds steady or grows, each remaining token carries more relative value. However, price is ultimately a function of demand, not supply alone. If a project burns tokens while adoption stagnates or utility fades, the burn provides only a temporary psychological boost followed by correction.
The most effective burns in practice are usage-based ones, where tokens are burned as a direct consequence of network activity. This is why EIP-1559 has been so closely watched since 2021 — it ties Ethereum’s supply reduction to actual network demand rather than arbitrary team decisions.
Token burning also influences investor psychology. A well-publicised, transparently executed burn signals that a team is thinking long-term and managing their token economy responsibly. That confidence effect is real, even if it’s separate from the mechanical supply impact.
In short: token burning works best as one component of a broader economic strategy — paired with genuine utility, active users, and sustainable growth. Treat it as the only lever, and it won’t be enough.
7. Advantages of Token Burning
When thoughtfully integrated into a project’s tokenomics, token burning delivers several meaningful advantages.
The most direct benefit is supply reduction, which increases scarcity and can support or enhance token value when real demand exists. By lowering circulating supply, burning also counteracts inflation in networks that continuously mint new tokens for validator rewards and ecosystem incentives.
Token burning indirectly rewards long-term holders by increasing their proportional ownership of the network — without distributing dividends that might trigger securities regulations. In today’s tighter regulatory climate of 2026, this structural advantage has become increasingly relevant for protocol designers.
When burns are tied to protocol revenue or network activity, they create a direct link between adoption and token value. More users mean more fees, more fees mean more burns, and more burns mean a smaller, scarcer supply. This self-reinforcing dynamic is one of the most elegant features of well-designed burn mechanisms.
Finally, automated burns executed through smart contracts maximise transparency and eliminate manipulation risk. Because every burn is verifiable on-chain, the community doesn’t need to trust anyone — they can simply check the data.
8. Disadvantages and Risks of Token Burning
Despite its appeal, token burning carries real risks that every investor and project builder should understand.
The most common mistake is treating burning as a price guarantee. It isn’t. Without genuine demand, reducing supply produces only short-term market excitement followed by a correction when the hype fades. Many low-quality projects have used burn announcements purely as marketing events with no sustainable economic foundation beneath them.
Excessive or poorly timed burns can reduce market liquidity, making tokens harder to trade and amplifying price volatility. Thin liquidity discourages new participants and can make institutional involvement impossible — a serious long-term cost.
Manual burns introduce governance and trust risks. When a centralised team controls the burn schedule without clear rules, burn events become unpredictable signals rather than reliable economic mechanisms. Inconsistency erodes confidence faster than no burning at all.
Poorly designed burn mechanisms can also backfire on network usability. If burning a large portion of transaction fees makes the network significantly more expensive to use, that can suppress activity — the opposite of what most projects want.
Finally, irreversibility is both a strength and a constraint. Once tokens are burned, they cannot be recovered. This makes careful economic modelling essential before deploying any burn mechanism — there are no second chances.
9. Token Burning and Long-Term Project Sustainability
Token burning supports long-term sustainability only when it’s grounded in real utility, genuine adoption, and sound economic design — not when it’s used as a short-term price lever.
Sustainable burning focuses on maintaining a healthy balance between supply reduction and network growth. When burns are tied to actual usage — transaction fees, protocol revenue, user activity — supply reduction reflects real demand rather than artificial scarcity. That’s a fundamentally different and more durable dynamic.
A well-calibrated burn mechanism can also counterbalance ongoing token inflation, helping prevent excessive dilution while still supporting network security through validator rewards. Over time, predictable and transparent burning helps investors model long-term supply trajectories with confidence.
However, moderation is essential. Over-burning reduces liquidity and discourages participation. Under-burning fails to control inflation. Projects that get this balance right typically rely on automated, rule-based mechanisms governed by smart contracts — minimising reliance on centralised judgment calls.
The bottom line: token burning supports sustainability only when paired with strong fundamentals — active users, ongoing development, clear governance, and real-world use cases. Without those, no burn rate is high enough to save a failing project.
10. Transparency, Governance, and Trust in Token Burns
Transparency and governance aren’t optional extras in token burning — they’re the foundation that determines whether burns strengthen or weaken a project’s credibility.
Because burning permanently removes value from circulation, users need to understand exactly how, when, and why it happens. Transparent burns are fully verifiable on-chain: anyone can confirm transaction details, destination addresses, and updated supply figures through any major block explorer.
Strong governance frameworks take this further. In decentralised projects, burning rules are typically embedded in smart contracts or controlled through on-chain governance votes — ensuring that no single party can arbitrarily change conditions. This alignment with community interests is a key trust signal for sophisticated investors in 2026.
Predictability matters as much as transparency. Clearly defined burn schedules, revenue-based formulas, or usage-triggered mechanisms allow participants to model future supply with confidence. When burn policies are vague, inconsistent, or quietly altered, trust erodes quickly — and in crypto, lost trust rarely recovers.
11. Real-World Token Burn Examples (2024–2026)
Understanding token burning becomes far more concrete when you look at real projects and real numbers.
Ethereum (ETH) — EIP-1559 and the Ultra Sound Money Thesis
Since EIP-1559 launched in August 2021, Ethereum has burned over 4.3 million ETH as of mid-2026 — worth tens of billions of dollars at current prices. The mechanism burns the “base fee” portion of every transaction, meaning burn rate accelerates during periods of high network activity. During the DeFi boom of late 2024 and the NFT/RWA surge of early 2026, ETH’s burn rate temporarily exceeded its issuance rate, making Ethereum deflationary on a net basis.
Binance Coin (BNB) — Auto-Burn Mechanism
Binance introduced its quarterly Auto-Burn system in 2022, replacing the earlier manual burn process. The formula calculates how many BNB to burn each quarter based on BNB’s average price and total blocks produced during the period — making the burn both predictable and resistant to manipulation. By Q1 2026, BNB’s total supply had dropped from its initial 200 million to below 130 million, with burns continuing on schedule. This mechanism is widely cited as a gold standard for transparent, formula-driven token burning.
Shiba Inu (SHIB) — Community-Driven Burn Portal
Shiba Inu operates a community-driven burn portal where users voluntarily burn SHIB in exchange for passive rewards in the project’s Bone (BONE) token. While SHIB’s circulating supply remains in the hundreds of trillions, the burn portal demonstrates how projects can build user participation into their burn mechanism — turning supply reduction into a community activity rather than a top-down decision. Daily burn rates vary significantly but provide ongoing deflationary pressure.
Layer 2 Networks in 2025–2026
Several Layer 2 protocols launched or expanded fee-burning mechanisms in 2025. Optimism, Arbitrum, and newer entrants have experimented with allocating a portion of sequencer fees to burns, aligning their token economics with Ethereum’s EIP-1559 model. This trend signals that fee-based burning is becoming a standard feature of Layer 1 and Layer 2 economic design, not an optional extra.
12. Future of Token Burning in Web3 and DeFi
The future of token burning is closely tied to how blockchain networks evolve — and the direction in 2026 points clearly toward usage-based, automated, and governance-integrated burn models.
As adoption grows and on-chain activity increases, fee-based burn mechanisms will likely become the dominant model across Layer 1 and Layer 2 networks. This approach is superior to manual or arbitrary burns because it ties supply reduction directly to real demand — making the burn rate an honest signal of network health rather than a marketing announcement.
In DeFi, burns are increasingly integrated with governance participation, staking reward design, and liquidity incentive frameworks, creating ecosystems where active engagement drives both utility and deflationary pressure simultaneously. Some newer DeFi protocols launching in 2025–2026 have moved toward dynamic burn rates that automatically adjust based on protocol health metrics — a significant evolution from fixed-percentage models.
However, success will continue to depend on balance and honest design. Protocols that over-burn to generate short-term price excitement at the expense of liquidity and usability will face the same consequences they always have. The projects that will lead Web3 over the next decade are the ones treating token burning as one carefully calibrated component of a comprehensive economic system — not as a shortcut.
13. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1. What is token burning?
Token burning is the permanent removal of cryptocurrency tokens from circulation by sending them to an irretrievable blockchain address, reducing the total supply forever.
2. Why do crypto projects burn tokens?
Projects burn tokens to create scarcity, control inflation, reward long-term holders indirectly, strengthen investor confidence, and align token supply with real network usage.
3. Does token burning guarantee price increases?
No. Burning may support price if demand is stable or growing, but it doesn’t guarantee appreciation. Market sentiment, utility, and adoption are the dominant factors.
4. How is token burning different from minting?
Burning reduces supply (deflationary), while minting increases supply (inflationary). Most sustainable networks use both in a balanced, complementary model.
5. Are burned tokens recoverable?
Never. Once tokens are sent to a burn address with no private key, they are permanently destroyed and cannot be retrieved under any circumstances.
6. What types of token burning exist?
The main types are manual burns, automatic (programmatic) burns, buyback-and-burn, proof-of-burn, and transaction fee burning.
7. How much ETH has been burned?
As of mid-2026, over 4.3 million ETH has been burned through EIP-1559’s base fee mechanism since August 2021. You can track live figures at ultrasound.money.
8. Is token burning good for investors?
It can be, when it’s tied to genuine demand and real network usage. Burns that increase scarcity while adoption grows tend to benefit long-term holders. Burns used purely for marketing, without sustainable fundamentals, typically provide only short-term price effects.
9. What is BNB Auto-Burn?
BNB Auto-Burn is Binance’s quarterly burn mechanism, introduced in 2022, which calculates how many BNB to destroy based on BNB’s average price and the number of blocks produced each quarter — making the process transparent, predictable, and formula-driven.
10. Is token burning safe?
When executed through well-designed, transparent mechanisms, token burning is safe. Poorly designed burns — especially those reducing liquidity too aggressively — can harm usability and discourage participation.
14. Final Thoughts on Token Burning
Token burning has matured significantly from its early days as a simple supply-reduction gimmick. In 2026, the best burn mechanisms are automated, usage-driven, and deeply integrated into a project’s broader economic architecture — not bolted on as a marketing tactic.
When you look at Ethereum’s EIP-1559, BNB’s Auto-Burn, or the growing number of fee-burning Layer 2 protocols, you see a clear pattern: the projects that handle burning well treat it as one carefully balanced input in a larger system, not a magic price lever.
For investors, the key question isn’t whether a project burns tokens — it’s why, how, and whether the burn mechanism reflects genuine demand. Transparent, rule-based, and usage-tied burns are strong positive signals. Manual burns with no clear formula, or aggressive burns masking weak fundamentals, deserve scepticism.
For builders, the lesson is equally clear: token burning only strengthens a project’s long-term viability when paired with real utility, active users, strong governance, and honest communication. Get those foundations right, and a well-designed burn mechanism will amplify your ecosystem’s growth for years to come.