NEAR Governance Votes to Reduce Annual Token Issuance to 1.6%

The NEAR Protocol governance body, known as the House of Stake, has officially initiated a vote on proposal HSP-029. This landmark initiative seeks to implement a strategic reduction in the network’s annual maximum issuance rate, moving from the current 2.5% down to 1.6%. The proposed shift aims to refine the economic model of the NEAR ecosystem by slowing the expansion of the circulating supply over the coming years.

Structural Changes to Tokenomics and Supply

The transition outlined in HSP-029 is designed to be gradual to ensure network stability. Following an initial 90-day buffer period, the issuance rate will decrease linearly over a span of 24 months. This programmatic reduction is expected to have a significant impact on the long-term availability of the native utility token.

• Reduction of approximately 11.8 million NEAR tokens in issuance over the next two years.
• Cumulative reduction of 66.1 million tokens over a six-year horizon.
• Estimated 4.36% decrease in total supply compared to existing policy projections.

By adjusting these parameters, the protocol aims to balance the incentives for network participants while addressing potential inflationary pressures within the decentralized ecosystem.

Impact on Staking Yields and Validator Requirements

The shift in issuance policy will directly influence the rewards distributed to those securing the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain. Under the new fiscal framework, the total staking yield is projected to decline from its current level of 5.27% to 3.37%.

To become effective, the proposal requires supermajority support from the House of Stake. Furthermore, the changes must be codified through a formal network upgrade performed by the platform's validators. This process ensures that the transition is supported by the technical entities responsible for the ledger's integrity and consensus.

As the voting period progresses, the community remains focused on how these supply-side constraints will affect the broader Layer-1 landscape. If ratified, the move would represent one of the most significant adjustments to NEAR’s monetary policy since its mainnet inception, aligning it with a more conservative growth trajectory.