TAO Halving
A reduction in the TAO emission rate that occurs when specific supply thresholds are reached. Each halving cuts the per-block TAO emission in half, slowing the rate at which new TAO enters circulation.
TAO has a fixed supply of 21 million tokens. New TAO is created each block at an emission rate that decreases as more TAO enters circulation. Each time half of the remaining supply has been emitted, the emission rate halves. The thresholds work like this:
- 0 to 10.5M TAO emitted: 1 TAO per block
- 10.5M to 15.75M TAO emitted: 0.5 TAO per block
- 15.75M to 18.375M TAO emitted: 0.25 TAO per block
And so on, each time halving when half the remaining supply is reached.
Unlike Bitcoin, which halves at fixed block intervals (every 210,000 blocks), TAO halves based on its total issuance. This means the timing of each halving depends on how quickly TAO accumulates in circulation, not on a predetermined block schedule.
Registration fees recycle TAO by removing it from the total issuance. This effectively pushes the next halving threshold further away, because the blockchain calculates the emission rate based on total issuance and recycled TAO reduces that number.
The more TAO recycled, the longer it takes to reach the next halving point. This means the actual date of each halving is not fixed and depends on activity.
The TAO Halving only reduces the TAO emission (the amount of TAO being injected into subnet pools each block). ALPHA emissions within subnets are independent and not affected by the TAO halving.
At the current emission rate of 0.5 TAO per block, approximately 3,600 TAO are added to circulation each day. After the second halving, this drops to approximately 1,800 TAO per day. After the third, approximately 900 TAO per day.