JUST Finishes Fourth JST Buyback-and-Burn, Eliminating 1.711 Billion Tokens

JUST, TRON's core DeFi infrastructure, has completed its fourth large-scale JST buyback-and-burn, with the latest execution finalized on July 17. Backed by the steady profitability of its flagship protocol JustLend DAO, the ecosystem has carried out four consecutive burn rounds as scheduled. Across the four rounds, a cumulative 1.711 billion JST has been permanently removed from circulation, representing 17.29% of the original supply. Total capital deployed has exceeded $94.6 million. At a recent JST price of about $0.10, the market value of tokens destroyed across the four rounds is estimated at nearly $170 million. The pace and size of the burns stand out against a broader industry backdrop marked by downturn and consolidation, where many DeFi projects are grappling with shrinking revenues, tighter cash flow and user attrition. JUST has maintained its deflation plan without scaling back or skipping any scheduled round. Funding for the buybacks has primarily come from real operating profits generated by JustLend DAO, which has posted quarterly profits in the tens of millions of dollars over multiple consecutive quarters. New incremental sources are also being introduced: the fourth round included, for the first time, a dedicated burn funded by historical USDJ stability fees. The USDD ecosystem's cumulative profits are also approaching $10 million, positioning it as an additional future contributor once thresholds are met. Breakdown of the four burn rounds - Round 1 (October 22, 2025): About 559 million JST burned (5.66% of total supply), valued at $17.72 million. Funding came from JustLend DAO historical surplus yields. - Round 2 (January 15, 2026): About 525 million JST burned (5.30%), valued at $21 million. Funding came from accumulated yield plus Q4 2025 net yield; the scale exceeded market expectations. - Round 3 (April 15, 2026): About 271 million JST burned (2.74%), valued at $21.3 million. Backed by existing yields and Q1 2026 profits. - Round 4 (July 17, 2026): About 355 million JST burned (3.59%). Standard funding came from DAO reserve earnings and Q2 2026 net revenue, plus an additional dedicated burn from historical USDJ stability fees. Total funding reached $34.59 million, the largest single-round allocation to date. JUST said each round has been executed fully on-chain by the decentralized Grants DAO, without centralized intervention. Users can verify token amounts, funding totals and transaction hashes through the Transparency section on the JustLend DAO website and the Grants DAO page, with burn records permanently stored on-chain. Market impact and token metrics CoinGecko data cited by the project indicates that since the buyback-and-burn mechanism launched in October 2025, JST has moved largely independently of broader market performance. The token price has risen from around $0.03 to about $0.10, while circulating market cap increased from under $300 million to roughly $830 million, a cumulative gain of more than 333%. JST's market-cap ranking has entered the global top 70. Over the same period, Bitcoin fell from around $100,000 to about $65,000, a decline of roughly 40%. JustLend DAO financials and remaining reserves JUST disclosed that more than $94.62 million has been allocated for burns to date, with over $94 million sourced from JustLend DAO net operating profits, including both early accumulated earnings and ongoing quarterly profits. JustLend DAO still holds $10.34 million in accumulated profit reserves earmarked for future scheduled burns. At the mechanism's start in October 2025, the ecosystem allocated $59.08 million USDT from existing JustLend DAO revenues as the initial pool: 30% (about $17.72 million) was used in the first round, while the remaining 70% was distributed evenly across four quarters at about $10.34 million per quarter. From the second round onward, the structure evolved into a dual-driver model combining existing reserves with quarterly net new revenues. The regular portion of the fourth round was about $20.6 million; adding the USDJ stability-fee burn pushed total fourth-round funding above $34 million. On its official financial page, JustLend DAO reports cumulative net earnings exceeding $94.2 million, with $91.04 million withdrawn and $3.17 million remaining. The JST buyback-and-burn pool has received nearly $105 million in total allocations; after deducting the $10.39 million historical stable fee designated for USDJ, close to $94 million is attributed to JustLend DAO. Operational footprint and product revenue base JustLend DAO continues to expand a diversified DeFi product suite, including SBM lending, sTRX liquid staking, Energy Rental and GasFree smart wallets. As of July 21, platform TVL reached $6.664 billion and the protocol serves nearly 486,000 users globally. According to DeFiLlama data cited, JustLend DAO's SBM lending market has $3.29 billion in TVL and ranks among the top four globally in lending. Total supplied assets exceed $3.492 billion, with about $200 million borrowed. In June 2026, JustLend DAO launched SBM V2, adding an isolated-pool mechanism and running SBM V1 and V2 in parallel. For sTRX liquid staking, more than 9.73 billion TRX has been staked via sTRX with over 17,000 unique staking addresses. The Energy Rental product has surpassed 80,000 participating users. The GasFree Smart Wallet has processed more than $11.43 billion in cumulative transaction volume, served over 6.6 million accounts and saved users $7.78 million in fees as of July 21. Ecosystem scale and roadmap Across the broader JUST ecosystem, total TVL is reported at $11 billion, about 41% of TRON's total TVL of $26.7 billion. Alongside JustLend DAO, the ecosystem includes the decentralized stablecoin USDD and cross-chain infrastructure JustCrypto. JST is positioned as a core value token across governance and ecosystem utilities. USDD is expanding, with supply exceeding $1.53 billion, TVL at $2.21 billion and a treasury balance of $21.54 million as of July 21, making it the second-largest stablecoin in the TRON ecosystem. As USDD revenues grow, it is expected to become a secondary funding engine for JST buybacks once profit thresholds are reached. JUST said its burn program will extend beyond the current four rounds. Under plans outlined in the JST Q1 2026 Financial Report, once the initial 1.0 yield-burn plan is completed, the ecosystem intends to move to a "JST deflation 2.0" phase, broadening funding sources to include items such as GasFree business income and additional historical USDJ stability-fee surpluses. In the JST Q2 2026 Financial Report, the project estimated roughly $21.55 million could be allocated for JST buybacks in the next quarter based on historical rules and projected revenue from JustLend DAO and USDD, with the final amount to be adjusted after the quarter ends based on actual earnings. JUST framed its approach as a revenue-backed deflation model that reinforces token scarcity through recurring on-chain buybacks and burns, creating a feedback loop of protocol profitability, reduced supply and continued ecosystem expansion.