DUSK's token design revolves around a core logic—scarcity. The absolute cap of 1 billion determines the ceiling, while over 90% circulation rate means most tokens are already in circulation. However, there's a subtlety here: the decreasing emission over 36 years after the mainnet ensures that early participants won't be diluted by subsequent inflation, while maintaining long-term incentives. This mechanism avoids the common trap of infinite inflation.

The staking lock-up mechanism and gas burning create multiple layers of deflationary effects; every transaction and validation continuously consumes supply. This is not just a promise on paper but an intrinsic logic of the protocol itself.

From a functional perspective, DUSK carries three roles—gas payments, consensus staking, and on-chain governance. Zedger's privacy security issuance is entirely gas-driven, while Hyperstaking allows for customizable staking logic, such as innovative mechanisms like privacy reward pools, expanding the token's application scenarios.

The real turning point will be in 2026. What will the combination of Lightspeed L2+ upgrade, NPEX compliance construction, and MiCA integration bring? EVM application migration will increase gas consumption, institutional-grade RWA on-chain will amplify staking scale. Optimization of Chainlink data streams will further reduce cross-chain friction, giving DUSK a chance to capture the trillion-dollar RWA market. High circulation rate combined with demand-side explosive growth will, in a physical sense, push prices higher due to supply and demand imbalance.

DUSK's value is anchored in real adoption—compliant DeFi traffic and privacy technology barriers form a clear moat, which is the true confidence for long-term holding.