Question 1

What is ML?

Accepted Answer

ML is the native coin of the Mintlayer network, used to pay network fees and participate in its proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus. Mintlayer is a sidechain for the Bitcoin ecosystem that provides functions such as native token issuance, atomic swaps, and order trading; ML is therefore both the network's fee asset and the asset used to participate in block production.

Question 2

What is ML used for?

Accepted Answer

ML is used to pay transaction fees on Mintlayer, as well as additional fees for certain operations such as token issuance. In other words, ordinary network use consumes ML as fees, while operations such as creating assets or changing asset settings may have separate ML costs prescribed by the protocol; this is not the same as holding tokens with the same name or mapped versions on other networks.

Question 3

How can ML participate in staking and earn block rewards?

Accepted Answer

ML holders can delegate any amount of ML to a staking pool or establish a pool themselves to participate in block production. An owner establishing a pool must stake at least 40,000 ML, approximately 0.01% of the initial supply; the pool participates in consensus as a block producer and receives corresponding block rewards only after producing blocks. Block rewards are paid in ML, but only during the network's first ten years: the reward per block declines from 202 ML in year 1 to 15 ML in year 10, and is zero after the tenth year. Therefore, staking participation does not generate rewards directly through a fixed rate; rewards first depend on whether the pool produces blocks and the reward rules in effect, while a delegator's specific allocation also depends on the arrangements of the chosen pool.

Question 4

How is ML's supply formed and changed?

Accepted Answer

ML has a maximum supply of 600,000,000 coins, of which 400,000,000 coins are pre-minted; the remaining issuance comes from block rewards during the network's first ten years. The pre-minted portion is not all freely circulating at the same time: documentation lists different allocation categories and unlock types, and the initial unlock at the token generation event (TGE) is 15,820,000 ML. Therefore, maximum supply, amount created, amount unlocked, and circulating supply should be distinguished. Subsequent block rewards increase the amount issued, while protocol-specified burn operations reduce total supply; no individual metric can be directly equated with the amount immediately tradable on the market.

Question 5

Which operations burn ML, and how much is burned?

Accepted Answer

Mintlayer designs some asset operations with fixed ML burn fees. When an operation is executed, the corresponding amount of ML is burned, reducing total supply. The documentation lists: issuing a fungible token burns 100 ML, issuing a non-fungible token burns 5 ML, and changing the supply or freezing a fungible token each burns 50 ML. Changing permissions or metadata URIs for fungible or non-fungible tokens each burns 20 ML, and storing data also burns 20 ML. Burning is a protocol cost for specific on-chain operations; it does not distribute returns to holders and cannot by itself establish a price outcome.

Question 6

What is the difference between mainnet ML and ERC-20 ML, and what are the migration arrangements?

Accepted Answer

Native ML coin on the mainnet and ERC-20 ML on Ethereum are different asset forms on different networks. Only native ML can be used directly for Mintlayer's native staking and on-chain fees; ERC-20 ML must be converted to mainnet ML through the official migration process before becoming a native coin usable on the mainnet. The official page states that ERC-20 ML is being phased out: the migration portal will close permanently on November 1, 2026; from August 1, 2026 until closure, processing will occur once every two weeks. After closure, unmigrated ERC-20 ML will remain locked in the Ethereum smart contract and will not be burned. Therefore, holders need to first confirm which network version they hold before determining whether migration applies.

Question 7

What community matters can ML holders participate in?

Accepted Answer

ML holders can express views on protocol development, for example by helping determine priorities for roadmap items and proposing feature suggestions. This participation is an expression of community views on the development of an open-source protocol; the documentation does not describe it as company equity, and holding ML does not inherently grant direct control over every decision.

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