Key notes
- Validators vote directly against their financial interests as a halving of inflation reduces their annual rewards by 50%.
- The controversial governance mechanism has been NEAR’s standard process since the mainnet’s launch five years ago.
- DWF Labs has pledged to purchase 10 million NEAR tokens if the 2.5% inflation reduction is successful in a community vote.
The Near Foundation suggests cutting inflation in half for the NEAR
close
$2.25
24-hour fluctuations:
3.4%
Market value:
$2.88 billion
Vol. 24 hours:
$193.66 million
effectively reducing the token’s annual tail emission from 5% to 2.5%. Voting began on October 28, with node-level governance, and 68.41% of all block production validators have already indicated a preference for reduction – with less than 12% of the staking weight lost to approval.
As Coinspeaker reported last week, on October 21, Nearby v2.9.0 proposed one major change to the Nearby protocol: reducing emissions from 5% to 2.5%. Validators who favor this change can upgrade to version 81 of the backward-compatible protocol, while those who oppose it need to stay on version 80 of the protocol, and not upgrade. Stakeholder delegates can redelegate to new validators accordingly, directly influencing the voting outcome.
Voting will end in 23 days from October 23, with a “no” result, keeping NEAR inflation the same, or when the 80% staking threshold is met, and is triggered in the next period. An epoch is a unit of time equal to 43,200 blocks, lasting between seven and eight hours with a block time of 600 milliseconds.
Data collected from Coinspeaker from NearSpace At the time of this writing, it appears that 67 block producers have already upgraded to version 81 of the protocol, tentatively indicating a “yes” to the NEAR inflation halving. Together, they add up to 68.41% of the 80% quota required to approve the proposal.
Meanwhile, 33 validators were not upgraded, remaining at version 80 of the protocol, temporarily marked as “no.” This scenario could change over the next 23 days as validators can upgrade or downgrade their contracts and NEAR investors can redelegate to new validators according to their choices.
NEAR: Stake distribution by protocol version, as of October 28 | Source: NearSpace.info
Controversy over the governance mechanism to halve inflation
Interestingly, validators vote directly against their short-term interest, which raises controversy around the process. If the network agrees to this proposal, validators should expect to receive half the annual rewards they receive now for the same percentage of the token pool.
This has sparked some public debate from industry-wide staking providers such as ChorusOne, who have demonstrated against the reduction, and especially against the governance mechanism used in this proposal. However, Ilya Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR, explained that this same mechanism has been used to manage Near Protocol since the launch of its mainnet five years ago, which is standard procedure.
The NEAR Protocol upgrade rules have remained the same since MainNet 5 years ago: 80% of the block production quota must adopt a new version of the protocol to upgrade.
See protocol specifications: https://t.co/ZazMZniJkO
As an auditor, you expect to evaluate changes in the protocol and…
– Elijah (root.near) (
, ⋈) (@ilblackdragon) October 24, 2025
On the other hand, institutional cryptocurrency investors like Andrei Gachev of DWF Labs promised on June 11 that he would “buy another 10 (million) NEAR on the secondary market” if NEAR reduces inflation to 2.5%, as is being voted on now. This would add to DWF Labs’ disclosed position of N5 million in reserved liquids and N6 million accumulated with auditors.
Hey @buenwang18 @ilblackdragon @NEARProtocol We already hold 5M NEAR and have 6M NEAR, but we want you to reduce inflation to 2.5% to boost long-term token value and ecosystem growth.
If I can manage it, we’ll buy another 10 million near the secondary market
Let us know!-Andrey Grachev
$i (@AG_DWF) June 11, 2025
With NEAR currently trading at $2.30 per token, the next few days will play an important role in determining the future of the project from an economic perspective, and initiating discussions on potential improvements to its token economies, which should be discussed, proposed and voted on independently, according to an official communication about this ongoing proposal.
All of this is happening when MultiversX – another sharded blockchain similar to NEAR – voted favorably to remove the previously promised cap and add a theoretical 8.75% tail emission cap to EGLD.
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$9.63
24-hour fluctuations:
1.2%
Market value:
$276.95 million
Vol. 24 hours:
$13.60 million
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Economic development MultiversX | source: Governance.multiversx.co
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Disclaimer: Coinspeaker is committed to providing unbiased and transparent reporting. This article aims to provide accurate and timely information but should not be considered financial or investment advice. Since market conditions can change rapidly, we encourage you to verify the information yourself and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content.
Vini Barbosa has been covering the cryptocurrency industry professionally since 2020, summarizing over 10,000 hours of research, writing, and editing relevant content for media outlets and key industry players. Vinny is an active commentator and big user of technology, and truly believes in its revolutionary potential. Topics of interest include blockchain, open source software, decentralized finance, and real-world utilities.
The post NEAR Inflation Halving Voting Starts, 12% Missing for Approval first appeared on Investorempires.com.
