NEAR Community Discusses Tokenomics Overhaul with Issuance Reduction

The NEAR community is discussing a new tokenomics model for the protocol. The proposal, submitted by Sal Ternullo of SVRN, calls for reducing annual issuance from 2.5% to 1.6% over two years.

The initiative aims to reduce dilution for NEAR holders and change the network security funding model. Under the plan, the maximum annual issuance would be lowered gradually every epoch over 24 months, while keeping the 90/10 split between stakers and the treasury unchanged.

Ternullo notes that the network no longer needs high issuance to bootstrap the ecosystem. He estimates that the current 2.5% adds about 89,500 NEAR to supply each day, while 58.7% of tokens are not staked and get diluted without earning staking yield.

The author also points to a previous issuance cut in October 2025, when NEAR reduced it from 5% to 2.5%. After the House of Stake vote, the changes must be separately adopted by validators through the standard network upgrade process, with a proposed 90-day transition period.

Ternullo also proposes moving to a fixed total supply of NEAR in the long term, but acknowledges that this requires separate research and data collection. He notes that there is currently no 'time-tested successful example' of a blockchain that has fully transitioned to such a model.