In cryptocurrency, burning refers to the process of permanently removing tokens or coins from circulation by sending them to an inaccessible wallet address (a burn address). This effectively reduces the total supply of the asset, which can increase scarcity and potentially support price appreciation. Token burns are used by various projects as a deflationary mechanism and are a key feature of protocols like Ethereum's EIP-1559, which burns a portion of transaction fees. Burns are publicly verifiable on the blockchain.
Example
“Ethereum burns a portion of the base fee from every transaction, and since the Merge, more ETH has been burned than newly issued during periods of high network activity.”