NEAR Seeks to Reduce Token Issuance and Dilution with New Governance Proposal

NEAR Protocol is considering a proposal to reduce token issuance from 2.5% to 1.6% over 24 months. The plan, introduced by Sal Ternullo, CEO of SVRN, would lower issuance gradually after each epoch until it reaches the target rate.

The current 90/10 split between stakers and the treasury would remain unchanged. If the proposal passes a House of Stake vote, validators would still need to adopt the change through the normal network upgrade process.

Ternullo said NEAR has reached a point where it may not need to issue as many new tokens as it did during its earlier growth period. The proposed cut would also change how much stakers earn, with staking yield potentially falling from 5.4% to around 3.5% at the target rate.

The planned reduction is expected to prevent about 66 million NEAR from being newly issued over six years, which would be worth roughly $329 million based on the price used in the proposal.