Aurora (AURORA)

Tokenomics & Utility

Supply and distribution

AURORA has a fixed supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens created at genesis (October 7, 2021) and deployed on Ethereum before being bridged to NEAR and Aurora. The DAO-approved allocation includes, among other buckets, the Community Treasury (20%), the AuroraDAO Council treasury (35.2%), long‑term incentives for Aurora Labs (16%), private round investors (9%), validator delegator incentives (3%), early contributors (2%), advisors (1%), ecosystem bootstrap (1%), a growth round (3%), ongoing grants (3.1%), bug bounties (0.8%), and staking rewards (5.9%). Unlocks occur over a long horizon, with the plan extending to roughly 132 months after the November 18, 2021 TGE. (doc.aurora.dev)

What the token does

• Governance: AURORA holders participate in protocol governance through the AuroraDAO, which oversees upgrades, treasury programs, and strategic initiatives. The DAO page lists council participants and related entities involved in stewardship. (aurora.dev)
• Staking: Community programs enable staking of AURORA through audited smart contracts, distributing rewards from designated allocation buckets and DAO programs. (github.com)
• Indirect fee value: Because Aurora runs on NEAR, the NEAR token is consumed at the base layer. Under NEAR’s economics, 30% of NEAR spent on a contract call is paid to the invoked contract. Over time, Aurora contracts (Engine, Bridge, and Aurora Cloud instances) accrue NEAR, and the DAO has established a mechanism to buy back AURORA with those NEAR proceeds and burn the purchased tokens. (doc.aurora.dev)

What the token is not

Aurora’s native gas token is ETH (not AURORA), so users pay transaction fees in ETH when using apps on Aurora. This separation helps developers maintain an Ethereum‑like user experience while the AURORA token focuses on governance, incentives, and community funding. (doc.aurora.dev)