NEAR governance approves proposal to cut token issuance ceiling to 1.6%
NEAR Protocol's House of Stake governance body has approved a proposal to lower the network's maximum annual issuance rate from 2.5% to 1.6% over 24 months.HSP-029, which passed the ballot on Monday with overwhelming support, retains the existing 90/10 split of newly issued tokens between staking participants and the protocol treasury, and changes only that single protocol parameter. This would not alter the emissions mechanism.Once implemented, the issuance ceiling declines each epoch linearly at roughly 3.75 basis points per month, reaching the 1.6% target at the 24th month. This is essentially to slow dilution and reduce long-term sell pressure of the NEAR token (NEAR), as the network said its bootstrapping phase is largely over.The proposal noted that the active validator set is oversubscribed, and continued issuance at the prior rate transfers value from the roughly 57% of supply that is not staked to those who stake, while adding sell pressure."This is how NEAR's economics evolve transparently and programmatically: token holders put a core parameter to a public vote, and the new rate rolls out epoch by epoch on a published schedule," NEAR said in an X post. "For NEAR's tokenomics, that means lower long-term issuance and a supply schedule anyone can verify."The proposal estimates the ramp would avoid roughly 11.8 million NEAR of issuance over the first two years and 66.1 million over six years, leaving the supply about 4.36% smaller than under the existing 2.5% ceiling. Daily issuance would fall from approximately 89,500 NEAR to 57,300 NEAR at full implementation, while gross staking yield is projected to decline from 5.268% to 3.372% over the same period, assuming the staking participation rate measured in September remains unchanged.For the proposal to go into full effect, the House of Stake Security Council will need to review the result before ratification. A 90-day grace period follows, after which validators must adopt a protocol upgrade for the change to become binding. NEAR previously cut the maximum issuance from 5% to 2.5% in October 2025.