NEAR Protocol is considering a governance proposal that would reduce the network's maximum annual token issuance rate from 2.5% to 1.6%, phased in gradually over 24 months.

Sal Ternullo, CEO of SVRN, submitted the plan, which is now open for discussion on the NEAR Governance Forum. If approved and fully implemented, the reduction would keep approximately 66 million NEAR out of circulation — about $329 million worth of tokens at current prices that would never reach the market.

Rather than cutting issuance in a single change, the proposal steps the rate down in small increments every epoch. Under the current 2.5% cap, the network mints roughly 89,500 new NEAR tokens daily.

The plan preserves the existing split of new supply. Stakers would continue to receive 90% of issuance, with the remaining 10% flowing to the treasury. That structure carries consequences of its own: as total issuance falls, the treasury's income shrinks in proportion to stakers' rewards, a dynamic that could constrain how the ecosystem funds development over time.

Built-in guardrails and a grace period

The design includes a 90-day grace period before the reductions take effect, giving wallets, staking providers and other ecosystem participants time to adjust. It also embeds a one-way ratchet: governance could pause the reduction mid-schedule, but it could not reverse course and push issuance back up. Each epoch's step, once taken, becomes a small permanent commitment — a mechanism that lets governance halt the process if something breaks while locking in whatever reduction has already occurred.

The staking yield trade-off

The cost of tighter monetary policy falls largely on stakers. Because they receive the bulk of new issuance, projected staking yields would decline from about 5.4% to 3.5% once the new target rate is reached. For validators and staking providers, that compression could make NEAR staking less competitive against other networks offering higher nominal returns.

For long-term holders, the appeal is straightforward supply arithmetic: roughly 66 million tokens that are never minted never need to be absorbed by buyers.

A second round of tightening

This is not NEAR's first move toward restrictive monetary policy. The network previously cut its issuance rate from 5% to 2.5%, a change that won approximately 80% support from validators and went live with the nearcore v2.9.0 upgrade in late 2025.

The longer-term destination is a fixed total token supply, though the proposal explicitly leaves decisions about fixed-supply elements outside the scope of this phase.

Timeline to a vote

Community discussion began on September 30, 2026, on the NEAR Governance Forum. Validators and the broader community are being asked for feedback first, after which a full technical proposal is expected to follow.

The final decision rests with the House of Stake, NEAR's governance body for changes of this kind. A vote is tentatively scheduled for mid-October 2026 and anticipated by October 11, 2026 — a window that will determine whether the network takes its next step toward a fixed-supply model.