Glossary
Rebase Token
An elastic-supply token whose balance in every wallet expands or contracts automatically through periodic supply adjustments rather than price movement.
A rebase token targets a reference value (often a price peg) by programmatically changing the total supply. Instead of each holder's balance staying fixed while the price floats, the protocol periodically "rebases": it mints or burns tokens pro rata across every wallet, so each holder keeps the same percentage of supply while their raw balance goes up or down.
Ampleforth (AMPL) popularized the design, aiming for a unit that trades near one dollar by expanding supply when demand is high and shrinking it when demand falls. Rebasing also appears in staking derivatives such as Lido's stETH, where balances grow to reflect accrued rewards. Because balances shift without a transfer event, rebase tokens can confuse exchanges, bridges, and smart contracts that assume fixed balances.