The rate at which a protocol issues new tokens as rewards; a continuous supply stream that yield figures usually ignore.
Emissions pay miners, validators, liquidity providers and farmers. They are how a protocol buys participation before it has organic revenue, and they dilute existing holders to do it.
Any advertised yield must be read against them. A 60% APY paid in a token inflating 80% a year is not a 60% gain; it is a race between the reward and the dilution it causes, and the farmer usually sells.
Example: 10m tokens emitted monthly into 200m circulating is 5% monthly dilution, about 80% annualised. Sustained demand must exceed that just to keep price flat. Compare with real-yield, which pays from fees rather than issuance.
Original diagrams for the ideas on this page. Illustrative, not real market data.
The bid-ask spread. Buy orders sit below, sell orders above, and the gap between the best bid (50.01) and best ask (50.04) is the spread you pay to cross. Bar length shows the size resting at each price.
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