Bittensor nears first halving as TAO emissions fall by half

The halving is hard-coded into Bittensor’s tokenomics and, unlike Bitcoin’s block-height-based schedule, is triggered when cumulative issuance crosses specific supply thresholds. In this first instance, the network halves rewards when 10.5 million TAO have been created, at which point the block reward drops by 50% and new supply enters the market at a slower rate.

At present, the network mints roughly 1 TAO every 12 seconds, translating into around 7,200 new tokens a day. After the halving, each block will create 0.5 TAO, reducing daily issuance to about 3,600 tokens and cutting annual inflation by roughly half. Countdown trackers and research notes place the event in the window of December 14, 2025, around 3:30 a.m. London time, though the exact moment can shift slightly because issuance depends on network activity and a recycling mechanism that occasionally returns TAO from subnet registration fees back into the emission pool.

According to the project’s technical documentation, the halving applies to the global block reward and the TAO flowing into subnet pools across the network. When the threshold is hit, TAO emissions to those pools are reduced by 50%, which directly affects miners and subnet operators who rely on those rewards to cover hardware and operating costs. Network participants expect some consolidation as less efficient “zombie” subnets find it harder to justify running costs under the lower reward regime.

The halving also interacts with Bittensor’s Alpha token incentives. The share of Alpha that is injected into subnet pools alongside TAO will halve in line with TAO emissions, but Alpha rewards distributed directly to miners, validators and subnet owners are designed to remain unchanged, according to the documentation. This means the total pool of incentives shrinks on the TAO side while Alpha payouts to active contributors stay constant, a structure intended to preserve incentives for work on the network even as base issuance slows.

TAO has become one of the best-known AI-linked cryptocurrencies in 2025, attracting both retail and institutional interest. Recent data puts circulating supply at around 10.48 million TAO with a market capitalization of just over $3.1 billion and a spot price near $300.

In the months leading up to the halving, Bittensor has seen a series of milestones, including the launch of Europe’s first staked TAO exchange-traded product and growing coverage from specialist research houses that describe rising network adoption and institutional participation. Analysts have highlighted the combination of a halving-driven slowdown in new supply and continued demand from AI and crypto investors as a key factor in how the asset trades after the event, while also noting that broader market and macro conditions remain an important counterweight.

Bittensor replicates Bitcoin-style scarcity: a fixed maximum of 21 million TAO, scheduled halvings roughly every four years and no pre-mine, with issuance distributed to participants who contribute to the network. That places TAO in a small group of assets – alongside Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Zcash – that share the 21 million hard cap model. In Bittensor’s case, the design is tied not just to payments, but to rewarding machine-learning work and securing a decentralized marketplace for AI models.

Once the first halving takes effect, new TAO supply will grow more slowly as the network progresses toward its cap, a change that affects how miners plan their operations and how long-term holders think about dilution from inflation. Project documentation and outside analyses present the halving as a key maturity milestone, comparable in structure – though not identical in mechanics – to Bitcoin’s earlier cycles.

Launched in stages beginning in 2021 and now running on its main “Finney” iteration, Bittensor is an open-source protocol that uses blockchain to coordinate a decentralized network of machine-learning models. Contributors who supply useful models or validation work earn TAO, while users spend TAO to query and fine-tune those models, turning the token into both a reward mechanism and an access currency for AI services.

With the halving now imminent and circulating supply approaching the 10.5 million-coin threshold, the network is about to run its first real-world test of how Bitcoin-style, supply-based tokenomics behave in an AI-oriented blockchain. For miners, subnet operators and holders alike, the coming days will reveal how Bittensor’s economics adjust to a world where new TAO enters the market at only half the previous pace.