NEAR cuts issuance to 1.6 percent: gross staking yield shrinks to 3.4 percent

The NEAR blockchain is set to mint significantly fewer new tokens in future. Proposal HSP-029, which lowers maximum annual issuance from 2.5 to 1.6 percent, now carries the status "Succeeded", meaning approved, in the NEAR governance forum. Voting in the House of Stake ran from October 19 to November 2, 2026. For anyone staking NEAR, this means that according to the proposal's model calculations, the gross yield will fall from 5.27 to 3.37 percent over two years once the change takes effect technically. That is at least three months away.

The news has not helped the price so far. NEAR Protocol traded at $3.87, or €3.46, on Tuesday afternoon, November 3, 2026, down 5.1 percent on 24 hours earlier (CoinGecko market data). Over the same period bitcoin slipped just 0.7 percent and ether 0.1 percent. No official link between the vote result and the price decline has been established.

HSP-029 approved: the House of Stake backs the cut to 1.6 percent

The House of Stake is the NEAR community's voting body. Those who lock NEAR and receive voting weight in return decide there on proposals concerning the protocol's economics. HSP-029 ran as a supermajority decision and was submitted on October 7, 2026 by Sal Ternullo, head of the listed company SVRN.

The core of the proposal is a single parameter. Issuance is the quantity of tokens a network mints each year and distributes as rewards. For NEAR, the cap has stood at 2.5 percent of total supply since the halving in 2025. Validators adopted that halving from 5 to 2.5 percent at the time with 68.41 percent approval, as the proposal text notes.

The split remains unchanged: 90 percent of new tokens go to stakers and validators, 10 percent to the protocol treasury. There is no new fund, no redistribution and no mechanism that automatically raises issuance again later. The author explicitly rules out any such way back and requires a new, public decision for it.

In mid-October this was still open. On October 18 we reported that NEAR was staying at 2.5 percent issuance for now, because the draft had not yet been put to a vote. With the result of November 2, the first of two hurdles has been cleared.

A 24-month issuance ramp: 3.75 basis points less per month

The cut will not come all at once. The proposal describes a ramp applied per epoch. On NEAR, an epoch is the period after which the network reassigns validators and books rewards. The cap falls by around 3.75 basis points a month, or 0.0375 percentage points, with no fixed cut-off dates.

After six months the cap thus stands at 2.275 percent, after twelve months at 2.05 percent, after 18 months at 1.825 percent and after 24 months at the target of 1.6 percent. Around 57,291 new NEAR would then be created each day, compared with about 89,517 today.

Over two years, according to the figures in the proposal, the ramp avoids 11.8 million new NEAR, and 66.1 million over six years. After six years, supply would be 4.36 percent smaller than with unchanged issuance. Nothing is burned in the process; fewer new tokens are simply created.

Validator upgrade and grace period: when the new NEAR issuance applies

A result in the House of Stake does not change the network. The issuance cap is a protocol parameter, and only a software upgrade that validators adopt individually can change it. The proposal text says so itself: ratification by the House of Stake is necessary, but the change only becomes binding once validators adopt it.

On top of that comes a grace period of a full quarter, 90 days after ratification. During this time, wallets, exchanges, custodians and staking providers are meant to update their information. Only then does the first basis point fall. Even if everything runs without delay, the ramp therefore starts in early February 2027 at the earliest.

Under the implementation plan, NEAR One develops and tests the upgrade, with the House of Stake's Security Council involved. After launch, quarterly reports are to show how closely actual issuance follows the schedule.

Staking yield from 5.27 to 3.37 percent: the calculation in the proposal

On NEAR, the staking yield depends on two variables: issuance and the staking ratio, the share of supply that is locked. The formula in the proposal is 0.9 times issuance divided by the staking ratio. If issuance falls, the yield falls. If the ratio falls because holders withdraw tokens, the yield rises for everyone who stays.

At the measured staking ratio of 42.71 percent, that gives a gross yield of 5.268 percent at the start. After twelve months it is 4.320 percent, after 24 months 3.372 percent, a decline of a good third. Gross means before the validator's commission. The proposal assumes an average commission of 5 percent, after which around 3.2 percent of the target value remains.

The proposal also puts a figure on what this costs a staker. Anyone staking 1,000 NEAR will own around 20 NEAR fewer after two years than they would at 2.5 percent issuance. For that holder to break even, NEAR has to rise in value by 1.66 to 1.83 percent; the text gives the two figures in different places. By the author's calculation, the smaller supply alone delivers a little over half of that.

Two sets of figures: why the NEAR issuance yield numbers differ

Two series of figures appear in reports on HSP-029. The proposal's summary cites a decline in the gross yield from 4.80 through 3.93 to 3.07 percent. The table in the same text gives 5.268, 4.320 and 3.372 percent. The difference stems from the staking ratio: the first series comes from a measurement with around 47 percent of supply locked, the second from a later one with 42.71 percent.

Between the two measurements, holders withdrew around 54.5 million NEAR from staking while the price rose from $2.31 to $4.30 in two weeks. The active validator set shrank from 424 to 406 over that period. This gives a range of 3.07 to 3.37 percent for the target yield, depending on how much NEAR is locked in two years.

A forum participant also pointed out a typo: for month six the table gives 4.622 percent, but the proposal's own formula yields 4.794 percent, which is also what the chart in the proposal shows. Our chart below uses the corrected value.

Dilution for holders who do not stake: 57.3 percent of NEAR supply benefits

Dilution means that your share of total supply shrinks because new tokens are constantly being created. Anyone not staking NEAR gets nothing from issuance and so loses share year after year. According to the proposal text, this applies to 57.3 percent of supply.

For these holders, the cut is a clear advantage: their share shrinks more slowly without them having to do anything. The author compares today's issuance with a company that permanently sells new shares on the market. Stakers, by contrast, trade a higher yield for a scarcer supply.

Anyone holding NEAR on an exchange without staking should keep this in mind. The difference between 0 and a good 3 percent annual yield remains noticeable even after the cut. Which providers offer NEAR staking, and at what commission, is shown in our comparison of staking platforms.

Validators under pressure: 24 of 405 pools lose their self-sufficiency

A validator is a computer that verifies and produces blocks and earns rewards for doing so. Delegators assign their NEAR to it and pay a commission in return. Small validators with little stake of their own live off that commission and the return on their own balance.

The proposal sets out the consequences. At a price of $4.30, the number of pools that cover their own operating costs falls from 170 to 146. Of 405 pools examined, 24 thus lose their economic self-sufficiency. The assumed costs are $500 a month for block producers and $200 for simple nodes.

Part of the context is the conflict of interest the author names himself. SVRN holds around 55 million NEAR, more than 90 percent of it staked, accounting for over 8 percent of locked supply. By its own calculation, the cut costs SVRN around 855,000 NEAR a year. Solana adopted a comparable step in August 2026: SGP-0002 passed with 67.001 percent of staked supply, with a yield target of 2.25 percent there.

NEAR price at $3.87: down 14 percent in a week

The price record of recent days is weak. Over seven days NEAR lost 14.2 percent, over 30 days 20.6 percent. Over a year, however, it is still up 92 percent. With a market capitalisation of $5.07 billion, NEAR ranks 21st.

The situation has deteriorated since our last price report. On November 2 the topic was the slide below $4.30. That level now sits around 10 percent above the current price, and the round $4 mark has also fallen. On October 18 NEAR still cost $4.69; it is 17.5 percent lower since then.

The issuance cut affects the price, if at all, only over years. It reduces the ongoing selling pressure from newly distributed tokens, which currently stands at around 89,517 NEAR a day. In the short term, the overall market and sentiment set the price.

NEAR Protocol price levels: $3.74 below, $4.08 above

The daily low on November 3 is $3.74, the daily high $4.08. If the price falls below the daily low, the decline is no longer merely a continuation of previous days. Above lie the round $4 mark and $4.30, where NEAR broke down on November 2.

The proposal itself supplies a more distant level: before the rally in September, NEAR stood at $2.31. A fall to that point would give back the entire autumn rally. Anyone trading NEAR with leverage, for example via perpetual contracts, should set the liquidation threshold of their position against these levels. A perpetual is a futures contract with no expiry date; if the price falls to the liquidation threshold, the exchange forcibly closes the position.

NEAR staking in Germany: buying, custody and MiCA authorisation

For investors in Germany, the route to NEAR usually runs through an exchange or a broker. Since the EU's MiCA regulation, providers of crypto services need authorisation as crypto-asset service providers, granted in Germany through BaFin. Whether a provider holds this authorisation can be checked in ESMA's public register. You can find an overview of authorised providers in our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges.

There are two routes to staking. With exchange staking, the provider holds the NEAR and passes on part of the reward, often after its own fee on top of the validator commission. With direct staking from your own wallet, the keys stay with you and you choose the validator yourself. You can then also see where your validator stands on proposals such as HSP-029; delegators explicitly asked about this in the forum.

Important for planning: staked NEAR is not immediately available. After unstaking, several epochs pass on NEAR before the tokens are free again. Anyone wanting to sell quickly in the event of a further slide cannot do so with locked tokens.

Staking income and tax: exemption limit, holding period and the receipt principle

In Germany, staking rewards count as other income under Section 22 No. 3 of the Income Tax Act at the time of receipt, valued at the market price. Such income remains tax-free up to an exemption limit of €256 a year; if it is exceeded, the entire amount becomes taxable. A lower yield therefore also means less taxable income, and smaller holdings stay below the exemption limit for longer.

The one-year holding period applies to a later sale. In the view of the Federal Ministry of Finance, staking does not extend this period to ten years. Each reward does, however, start its own holding period from the day it is received. With daily payouts, this creates many small items, each with its own date. A crypto tax tool keeps these items apart.

NEAR issuance: nothing changes for the yield before February 2027

The decision has been taken; the effect will come slowly. Until validators adopt the upgrade and the grace period ends, issuance stays at 2.5 percent. After that, the gross yield falls gradually to 3.07 to 3.37 percent. Three steps help make use of the time until then:

1. Compare staking providers: as the yield falls, commission and extra fees weigh more heavily on the result. The terms are in our comparison of staking platforms.
2. Check the exchange's authorisation: if your NEAR sits with a provider, its MiCA authorisation is part of the basic check. Our comparison of regulated crypto exchanges helps.
3. Document staking income: every receipt counts, with date and price. A tool from our comparison of tax tools does this automatically.

(As of November 3, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)