NEAR Governance passes proposal to reduce annual issuance cap to 1.6%

NEAR governance has approved proposal HSP-029 through its House of Stake body, setting out a plan to reduce the protocol's maximum annual issuance rate from 2.5% to 1.6% over a 24-month adjustment period, per a Nov. 3 announcement on the NEAR governance forum. The proposal preserves the existing split of newly issued tokens, with 90% going to staking participants and 10% to the treasury, and includes a one-quarter grace period. Lower issuance would reduce NEAR's token inflation, a variable that affects staking yields and sell-side supply pressure. The governance vote alone does not enact the change: the issuance cap is a protocol parameter, so the reduction still requires adoption by validators through the standard upgrade process. Watch for validator uptake of the upgrade and any follow-up governance activity around implementation timing.