Summary Bullets:

• As telemetry arrives, Observe adds structure that reflects each customer’s business, creating a context graph, which gives an AI agent a roadmap for querying data.

• Querying a structured database is quicker and burns far fewer tokens, which helps address the AI cost concerns that are top of mind among enterprises.

The need to manage costs and recognize a positive ROI are top concerns among organizations rolling out generative and agentic AI. Even the largest enterprises are taking a more careful look at token economics as they seek to scale the use of AI tools throughout their organizations. As employees, developers and agents all gain access to generative AI and use an ever-growing number of tokens, spending is skyrocketing. During the Snowflake World Tour 2026 in New York City in October, Jeremy Burton, former CEO of Observe and currently General Manager of Snowflake’s Observability business, notes that companies let chaos reign while they experimented with AI and now need to rein in token usage. One often-overlooked lever is context. The context graph helps agents investigate operational telemetry more efficiently, which can improve answers and reduce token usage in those workflows. For this reason, the impact of Snowflake’s acquisition of Observe, which helps organizations better structure and understand how data is being used, has the potential to manage overall enterprise AI spending as well.

Snowflake’s acquisition of Observe expands its observability portfolio. As telemetry arrives, Observe adds structure that reflects each customer’s business, creating a context graph that maps semantics and relationships across logs and metrics, which gives an AI agent a roadmap for querying data. An agent could dig through raw data, but querying a structured database is quicker and burns far fewer tokens. As Observe puts it, the company does not have better AI; it has better data. Observe ingests data based on OpenTelemetry open standards and can store it in Apache Iceberg formats, providing greater flexibility and control. It uses object storage, elastic compute, and interoperable standards to meet customers’ requests for flexibility and cost sensitive solutions.

Observe complements Snowflake Cortex AI Gateway, announced in July 2026. The gateway governs how Snowflake and third-party agents access tools, models and data. It routes requests to approved models based on cost, quality, and latency; allocates spend to teams and workloads; sets limits; and records agent actions. Observe Agent Observability goes deeper, tracking which tools agents access and correlating agent activity with backend telemetry. It adds more detail directly from the agents themselves, such as connections to underlying application and infrastructure behavior. Observe stores the telemetry in Snowflake on low-cost object storage. At the scale of telemetry data, scan-based queries using Observe’s architecture are cheaper and faster than using index-based tools. Together, Cortex AI Gateway and Observe provide an end-to-end picture of an agent, from chat client to gateway to back end. Plenty of tools observe the agent itself; Observe provides deeper insight into the surrounding telemetry.

Improved context sits at the center of several trends related to how data is accessed. Software is going headless, as users prefer prompts and APIs to complicated interfaces when interacting with information. Walled gardens are crumbling as APIs, CLIs, and MCP streamline access to information and enable AI agents to drive actions. Evaluations, which interrogate how an agent reached its answer in testing and production, depend on rich telemetry. The next opportunity lies in context graphs. Enterprises that structure their data first can make more efficient use of tokens. With AI bills climbing, vendors that offer solutions that reduce token usage offer a compelling value proposition.

The post Snowflake’s Observe Helps Businesses Rein in Token Usage by Improving Context appeared first on IT Connection.

TL;DR: Aptos reports roughly 174,570 APT burned in the past 30 days, but gross staking issuance is about 1.5 million APT a month. Fee burns reduce issuance; they have not made the token deflationary.

Burning tokens sounds attractive to investors until the other side of the supply equation comes into view. Aptos provides a useful example.

The network’s own supply dashboard shows about 174,570 APT destroyed through transaction fees over a 30-day period. Unlike fees paid out to validators, these tokens are permanently removed from circulation. It is an increasingly visible feature of Aptos’s token economics as the chain handles more activity.

But the amount being created is larger. The same dashboard puts gross monthly staking emissions at approximately 1.5 million APT, leaving net new supply of roughly 1.4 million tokens a month after accounting for burns. That is why a rising burn figure should not be described as proof that APT has become deflationary.

The dashboard also reports an average transaction fee of around $0.0006 in its network comparison. Such low fees can be attractive for application users, but they mean substantial transaction activity is required to burn a meaningful amount of the token supply.

Burn mechanics matter because they influence how network activity is reflected in token issuance. Still, a token’s market price depends on far more than fee destruction: circulating supply, unlocks, demand, staking and broader market conditions also contribute.

Aptos has a measurable burn rate and an issuance schedule that remains larger. The useful story for token holders is the relationship between those two numbers, not the headline burn figure in isolation.

TL;DR

• The Streamflow Foundation has burned 699.99 million STREAM tokens in a single onchain transaction.
• Total supply fell from roughly 1 billion STREAM to 300 million.
• The foundation says its product operations, vesting schedules, staking and airdrop services are unchanged by the supply reduction.

Streamflow has made one of the more dramatic token-supply changes of the week, destroying almost 700 million STREAM in a single transaction.

The Streamflow Foundation burned 699.99 million tokens on September 23, cutting total supply from roughly 1 billion to 300 million.

Unlike A Lockup, These Tokens Are Gone

Token projects use several different methods to reduce the amount of supply that can reach the market.

Tokens can be locked, vested over time or held inside a treasury.

A burn is different.

The tokens are destroyed through the blockchain’s token program and removed from the recorded supply.

In STREAM’s case, the foundation says the transaction eliminated the tokens it controlled, representing approximately 70% of total supply.

Onchain data following the transaction showed supply around 300 million, and the token does not have an active mint authority that could simply recreate the burned amount later.

That permanence is the important part.

A treasury promise depends on whoever controls the wallet continuing to honor it.

A completed burn cannot be reversed through an ordinary transfer.

Streamflow Says The Product Has Not Changed

Streamflow provides token-management infrastructure for vesting, staking, locks, airdrops and distributions on Solana.

The foundation says those services continue operating as before.

Existing user vesting schedules were not accelerated or cancelled simply because the foundation destroyed its own token allocation.

That means this is primarily a tokenomics change rather than a new version of the Streamflow product.

Supply reductions often attract traders because a smaller token base can change assumptions about future dilution.

But a burn by itself does not create demand.

STREAM’s long-term value still depends on how much the underlying platform is used, how revenue flows through the ecosystem and whether holders see enough reason to stake or participate in governance.

What the September 23 transaction does change is the supply side.

Nearly 700 million tokens that previously existed no longer do.

For a token that started with roughly one billion in total supply, removing 70% in one move substantially rewrites the distribution picture — whether or not the market ultimately decides that scarcity is valuable.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.

TL;DR

• Travala has launched a permanent strategic reserve for its AVA token.
• The company says it will match AVA Foundation monthly open-market buybacks, effectively doubling the amount purchased each cycle.
• Travala says tokens placed into its reserve will not be sold or transferred.

Crypto travel platform Travala is putting a new balance-sheet commitment behind its AVA token.

The company has launched what it calls a permanent AVA Strategic Reserve and will match the AVA Foundation’s existing monthly open-market buyback program.

That means each Foundation purchase will now be accompanied by a corresponding Travala-funded purchase.

The First Reserve Purchase Was Nearly 740,000 AVA

For the inaugural cycle, the AVA Foundation bought 369,881.04 AVA from the open market.

Travala matched that with another 369,881.04 AVA, bringing the combined purchase to 739,762.08 tokens.

The Foundation says it has historically repurchased more than 4.8 million AVA through its existing program.

The new structure effectively doubles future monthly open-market buying if Travala continues matching each Foundation purchase as announced.

What happens to the tokens is also different.

Travala says AVA purchased for the company reserve will be held permanently and that it has committed not to sell or transfer those tokens.

That removes them from the company’s active operating inventory under the stated policy.

A Corporate Commitment Is Different From An Onchain Burn

There is an important distinction.

Travala is not destroying the tokens.

AVA held in the strategic reserve continues to exist onchain.

The commitment is a company policy that the reserve will not be sold or transferred, whereas a token burn permanently reduces supply at the protocol level.

That makes the credibility of the reserve dependent on Travala maintaining the commitment over time.

Still, the program changes the economics around AVA.

Regular open-market buying creates recurring demand, while holding the company’s matching allocation out of circulation reduces the amount Travala itself could later return to the market.

The travel company has long integrated AVA into discounts, rewards and its Smart loyalty program.

The reserve takes that relationship further by putting corporate capital behind the token.

For holders, the important thing to watch will be consistency.

One large purchase makes a headline.

A monthly program that continues through different market conditions would say much more about how seriously Travala intends to treat AVA as a long-term treasury asset.

This article was written by the News Desk and edited by Samuel Rae.