TAO · a hard-capped AI network still minting on every block.
TAO is the native coin of Bittensor, a decentralized-AI network of subnets — ~9.60M counted as circulating and ~11.10M already issued on-chain toward a fixed 21M cap. Like Bitcoin, new coins arrive on every block on a halving schedule.
Sell pressure. Block emission mints about 324K TAO over 90 days — 3,600 a day paid to miners, validators and stakers since the December 2025 halving.
Buy pressure. Registration fees recycle roughly 56K TAO back into un-issued supply — the only mechanism that removes coins.
Net. About +2.8% to market over 90 days — supply heading up, even though the tradable-float count reads flat.
Bittensor mints new TAO on every block and pays it to subnet miners, validators and stakers. Since the December 2025 halving the reward is 0.5 TAO per block, about 3,600 TAO a day, so roughly 324K new TAO enter over 90 days. The rate is fixed by the halving schedule until 15.75M TAO have been issued.
TAO was a fair launch — no premine, no ICO, no investor or team allocation, and no vesting schedule. There are no time-locked coins that cliff into the market.
The Opentensor Foundation holds TAO from early mining and donations but publishes no release schedule, and no distribution was observed in the window. The roughly 1.5M gap between the 11.10M issued on-chain and the 9.60M counted as circulating is staked and subnet-reserve TAO — a tracked overhang, not a scheduled release.
There is no bankruptcy estate or court-ordered distribution tied to TAO.
Bittensor runs no TAO buyback — no protocol or foundation mechanism buys TAO back on the open market.
The TAO paid for subnet and neuron registrations (plus deregistrations and cold-key swaps) is recycled back into the un-issued supply, which offsets part of the new emission. Over the last 90 days about 56K TAO was recycled this way — gross emission of 324K minus the roughly 268K of net new TAO actually issued on-chain.
The Opentensor Foundation does not buy TAO on the open market.
No new multi-year lock or escrow of TAO was announced in the window. Staking is liquid and can be withdrawn, so it is not counted as a supply-removing lock — monitored.
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