Burn address

Sending tokens to an address with no known private key takes them out of use for good. On Ethereum-compatible chains, the usual choices are the zero address and addresses such as 0x000000000000000000000000000000000000dEaD, which are practically impossible to derive a key for. On Bitcoin, coins can be destroyed with provably unspendable outputs such as OP_RETURN or with vanity addresses whose checksum makes a matching key unfindable.

Projects use burn addresses to run buyback-and-burn programmes, to retire tokens after migrations and to prove that team allocations are gone. Because the address is public, anyone can check its balance in a block explorer. Some tokens implement a burn function that reduces total supply directly instead, which is cleaner for supply data.

A burn address is only as convincing as its key: a project that claims to burn tokens by sending them to an address it controls has burned nothing. Supply trackers do not always subtract tokens held at dead addresses, which can distort market cap figures. Users who accidentally send funds there cannot get them back.