How Canton’s Fee Model Removes Gas Volatility for Institutions

TL;DR

• Public-chain gas fees are hard for institutions to forecast because they spike with congestion and are quoted in a volatile native token.
• Canton solves this by quoting fees in USD and settling them through CC burn at the live on-chain USD/CC rate, so token price swings change the coin count burned while the dollar figure holds.
• The USD/CC conversion rate is set by Super Validators and recorded on-chain each minting round, keeping the dollar price governance-controlled rather than market-driven.
• Traffic is metered in MB and priced in USD per MB, with a free base tier per validator and paid traffic beyond it, commonly referenced near $60 per MB (governance-set, verify live).
• CC is burned when paid traffic is purchased or topped up for a validator, and individual transactions then draw that balance down, so burning happens at purchase.
• An earlier regressive transfer-fee schedule was set to zero by CIP-0078 in September 2025, leaving USD-priced traffic as the dominant live fee.
• The burn feeds a burn-and-mint equilibrium (BME) that targets roughly 2.5B CC minted per year at steady state, tying supply to real usage.
• Predictable USD pricing lets finance teams forecast settlement, treasury, and high-volume costs in dollars, unlike congestion-priced networks such as Ethereum.
• Everstake offers a white label solution across public networks of different architectures.

Why do unpredictable gas fees make public blockchains hard for institutions to use?

Public-chain gas fees are hard to forecast because they spike with network congestion and are quoted in a volatile native token. A project team cannot commit to a per-transaction cost when both the demand-driven fee and the token’s dollar value move independently.

On most networks, gas rises when block space is contested and users bid against each other. The same operation can cost a few cents one hour and a few dollars the next.

Denomination adds additional uncertainty. A fee priced in the native token converts to a different dollar amount every time the token’s market price changes.

Cost planning becomes unpredictable across three institutional functions:

• treasury,
• settlement,
• high-volume workflows.

Everstake works across these networks daily and sees how fee variance complicates operational forecasting for institutional operators.

How does Canton price fees in USD but settle them in Canton Coin?

Canton quotes fees in USD per MB of traffic and settles them by burning the matching amount of CC at the prevailing on-chain USD/CC conversion rate. The dollar figure is the fixed input, and the coin count is derived from it.

The conversion rate is governed by Super Validators who each propose a price, and the median of those proposals becomes the official on-chain rate, recorded and refreshed each minting round.

The rate refreshes frequently to stay close to the live market. Reporting from network documentation puts the Super Validator proposal cadence at roughly every 10 minutes.

Because the rate is governed and published, both sides of the calculation are transparent. Users see the USD price, the on-chain rate, and the resulting CC burn.

What are traffic fees, and when is Canton Coin burned?

Traffic fees pay for data submitted to the Global Synchronizer, the shared service that orders and confirms transactions across the network. Every transaction carries a data footprint, so the network meters usage in megabytes (MB) and prices that data in USD per MB.

A common point of confusion is burn timing: CC is burned at the moment paid traffic is purchased or topped up for a validator, after which each transaction draws down the balance.

Every validator receives a free base-tier allowance of traffic. This free amount covers baseline activity before any paid traffic applies.

Paid traffic is the burned portion. When a validator needs capacity beyond the free tier, CC is burned to create a traffic balance, and individual transactions then draw that balance down over time.

Anyone can fund the burn to top up a validator’s balance, with credits accruing to that target node:

• a validator operator,
• an application provider,
• a third-party service.

If both free and paid traffic are exhausted, the sequencer denies further writes.

Reporting commonly references an extra-traffic price near $60 per MB. That figure is governance-configurable and should be checked for relevancy with live network data before use in any planning.

What does the regressive fee schedule mean for large transactions?

The original Canton Coin design included a regressive transfer-fee schedule, where the percentage fee stepped down as transfer size grew. Larger transfers paid a lower percentage, making the model cheaper per dollar moved at institutional scale.

The whitepaper set four transfer-value tiers, each charging a lower percentage than the one below it.

Transfer value tier	Transfer fee rate
First $100	1.0%
Up to $1,000	0.1%
Up to $1,000,000	0.01%
Above $1,000,000	0.001%

The tiering implied a large transfer paid a far lower effective rate than a small one. A $100 transfer would pay 1.0%, while a $1,000,000 transfer would pay a blended rate far below that, since only the top slice is located in the lowest tier.

NOTE: This schedule is no longer active. CIP-0078, approved in September 2025, set CC transfer and lock fees to zero, making the regressive transfer schedule historical context.

The dominant live fee mechanism is now USD-priced traffic, still settled through CC burn.

How does USD denomination keep costs predictable when the token price swings?

USD denomination fixes the dollar cost of a transaction regardless of the CC market price, because the dollar figure is set by governance and the coin count adjusts to match. A rising or falling CC price changes the count of coins burned while the USD amount the institution pays holds.

Consider a fixed $60 charge for 1 MB of paid traffic, which covers a batch of transactions. If CC trades at $0.10, the burn is 600 CC; if CC doubles to $0.20, the same $60 charge burns 300 CC.

The institution’s ledger shows $60 in both cases. This way the burn quantity absorbs token volatility. A dollar-denominated fee behaves like a dollar cost, which is what settlement, treasury, and accounting functions require.

How does Canton’s fee model fit into burn-and-mint equilibrium?

The USD-denominated burn feeds Canton’s burn-and-mint equilibrium (BME), a supply model where fees destroy coins and network participation creates new ones. Minting is the creation of new CC, and the network hands out the right to mint in proportion to useful activity.

Usage drives the burn, minting follows a predefined supply curve, and real activity determines whether the total coin supply contracts or expands.

On the burn side, paid traffic purchases destroy CC permanently. On the mint side, participants accrue minting rights, allowances to create new CC, for three activities:

• infrastructure operation,
• application activity,
• validator uptime.

Currently, the long-run target is roughly 2.5B CC minted per year at steady state. If burns exceed minting, supply contracts; if burns fall below minting, supply expands.

The loop is self-regulating. Because fees are fixed in USD, a higher CC price means each dollar of fees burns fewer coins, which eases supply pressure and steers the network back toward its target burn rate.

What does predictable, USD-based pricing enable for institutional planning?

Predictable USD pricing lets institutions forecast on-chain settlement cost the same way they forecast any other dollar-denominated operating expense. Reliable unit economics support settlement, treasury, and high-volume workflow planning.

Application providers achieve the same clarity. A provider can model traffic cost per transaction in dollars and decide how to recover it commercially.

The cost-recovery choice is flexible, since providers can charge users in one of four asset types, then use the proceeds to get traffic for the hosting validator:

• CC,
• fiat,
• stablecoins,
• another supported asset.

Long-term planning is an advantage for every party. Stable per-transaction dollar cost lets finance teams commit to multi-quarter budgets without pricing in native-token volatility.

• Settlement teams can forecast per-transaction cost in dollars.
• Treasury functions avoid re-pricing fees each time the token moves.
• Application providers can model and pass through costs cleanly.
• Operators get stable unit economics for high-volume activity.

How does Canton’s approach compare to gas on Ethereum and other networks?

Canton fixes fees in USD and settles them in CC, while networks such as Ethereum price gas directly in the native token and adjust it through congestion-based auctions. The two models produce different cost behavior for the same workload.

On Ethereum, gas is quoted in ETH and rises when block space is contested. Users bid priority fees, so cost tracks demand and the ETH price at once.

On Canton, the USD price is governance-set and the burn quantity floats with the CC rate. Congestion leaves the dollar cost unchanged.

The two models diverge most on where cost lands during busy periods and how token price feeds through. The table sets them side by side.

Attribute	Canton	Ethereum-style gas
Fee denomination	USD	Native token (ETH)
Price mechanism	Governance-set per MB	Congestion auction
Cost during congestion	Fixed in USD	Rises with demand
Token price effect	Changes coins burned while USD cost holds	Changes both fee and its USD value
Rate setter	Super Validators	Market bidding

Both models tie fees to real usage. The difference is where volatility lands: on Canton it lands on the coin count, and on congestion-priced networks it lands on the dollar cost the user pays.

Canton’s Fee Model for the Institutions

Canton prices fees in USD and settles them by burning CC, so an institution’s per-transaction cost stays stable while the coin count absorbs token volatility. For teams evaluating on-chain settlement, that dollar-denominated predictability is the model’s core proposition.

Everstake operates as a validator and staking provider across public networks, having supported 130+ networks to date. That operational vantage point across differing fee designs is why Everstake treats Canton’s USD-denominated model as a reference case for institutional cost planning.

If you’re interested in exploring the option of running your own Canton validator, Everstake offers a customized, institutional white label validator solution.

FAQ

Is the Canton fee rate fixed?

No. The rate is governance-configurable, set by Super Validators and checked against live on-chain data. The USD price per MB can change through governance.

Who sets the USD/CC conversion rate?

Super Validators set the conversion rate through median voting, and the result is recorded on-chain each minting round roughly every 10 minutes.

What is the current per-MB traffic price?

Reporting commonly references a figure near $60 per MB for extra traffic. This value is governance-set and should be verified live before use in planning, since it can change through the governance process.

Does every transaction burn CC?

No. CC is burned when paid traffic is purchased or topped up for a validator. Individual transactions then draw down that pre-purchased traffic balance, with no separate burn each time.

Why are fees denominated in USD instead of CC?

USD denomination keeps the dollar cost of a transaction stable when the CC price moves. The coin count burned adjusts to the live rate, so, institutions budget in dollars while the token absorbs the volatility.

Is there a free tier before fees apply?

Yes. Every validator on the Global Synchronizer receives a free base-tier traffic allowance before any paid traffic applies. Paid traffic beyond the free tier is the portion that burns CC, purchased at the on-chain USD/CC rate.

Disclaimer:
Everstake is a software platform that provides infrastructure tools and resources for users but does not offer investment advice or investment opportunities, manage funds, facilitate collective investment schemes, provide financial services or take custody of, or otherwise hold or manage, customer assets. Everstake does not conduct any independent diligence on or substantive review of any blockchain asset, digital currency, cryptocurrency or associated funds. Everstake’s provision of technology services allowing a user to stake digital assets is not an endorsement or a recommendation of any digital assets by it. Users are fully and solely responsible for evaluating whether to stake digital assets.