$UNIVAULT overview
$UNIVAULT is the protocol token. It is tied to the vaults by the buyback: fee revenue is spent buying it on the open market, and what is bought is burned.
What backs it
The link between the token and the protocol is the buyback. Fee revenue is spent buying $UNIVAULT on the open market, and the contract burns what it buys. More assets under management means more fees, which means more buying pressure that did not come from a narrative.
That is a description of a mechanism, not a promise about price. A buyback funded by fees is only as large as the fees.
Burned means burned: the module calls burn on the token, so totalSupply falls by exactly the amount bought rather than a transfer to a dead address dressed up as a burn. It also keeps its own totalRetired counter, and the two should move together.