AI agents

Bittensor

Blockchain network where subnets produce AI commodities such as inference and compute and are paid in TAO.

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Facts checked Sep 26, 2026

Bittensor key facts

CategoryAI agents
ChainsBittensor
PlatformsWeb, SDK, CLI
TokenTAO
Open sourceYes, chain code in the RaoFoundation/subtensor repository
Official site ↗

TAO token

Price
$213 -4.1% 24h
Market cap
$2.5B
Fully diluted value
$2.5B
30-day change
-24.4%
TAO price, last 30 days

Market data: CoinGecko, updated Nov 9, 2026. Educational content, not financial advice.

About

What is Bittensor?

Bittensor is an open network where independent subnets produce digital commodities such as compute, inference, storage and prediction, and the chain pays participants in TAO. Miners produce, validators score miners, and stakers back validators. The Python SDK and btcli tool cover every user-facing chain operation.

How Bittensor works

The subtensor chain produces one block every 12 seconds and records who takes part in each subnet, while the actual work runs off-chain.

Each subnet has an integer netuid, an owner coldkey that sets the incentive mechanism, miners that produce the output, and validators that score miners by setting weights. A subnet holds at most 256 neurons by default. Registering on a full subnet evicts the lowest-ranked neuron past its immunity period, and validator permits go to the top 128 neurons by stake weight, recalculated every epoch.

Emission started at 1 TAO per block under a 21 million cap, and halvings trigger on total-issuance thresholds rather than block counts. The first halving came in December 2025, so emission is now 0.5 TAO per block, about 3,600 TAO a day. Each subnet has its own alpha token paired with TAO in a pool, and staking into a subnet swaps TAO for alpha at the pool price. Alpha paid out each tempo is split 18% to the subnet owner, 41% to miners and 41% to validators and their stakers.

Block production is not stake-based yet. The docs state that subtensor runs Proof of Authority: a permissioned set of authorities produces blocks with Aura and finalizes them with GRANDPA once more than two-thirds of authority weight agrees. Yuma Consensus is a separate layer that only turns validator weights into rewards. The roadmap targets a move to Nominated Proof of Stake within roughly a year, with no fixed activation date.

How to start with Bittensor

  1. The official route is the command line.
  2. Install the bittensor package on Python 3.10 to 3.14 (the docs use uv), which gives you both the Python library and btcli.
  3. Set the network with btcli config set network finney for mainnet, or test for the public testnet, then run btcli wallet create to generate a coldkey and a hotkey.
  4. The coldkey holds funds and signs transfers and staking.
  5. The hotkey signs subnet operations such as weights.
  6. Reads like wallet balance and subnets list are free and unsigned.
  7. To stake, list delegates with btcli query delegates, check a validator's take (the chain default is 18%), and quote the swap with quote-stake before you add stake.
  8. Every transaction supports --dry-run, which prints the fee and predicted effects without submitting anything.
  9. Partial stake moves must be at least 0.002 TAO.
  10. There is no unbonding period: unstaked TAO is spendable at once.

Bittensor fees and limits

Transactions pay a weight fee based on the call's dispatch weight plus a length fee of 1 rao per byte, withdrawn in TAO before the call runs, and a failed call still pays. Fees are recycled by reducing total issuance instead of going to the block author. Setting, committing or revealing weights, serving an axon and changing take cost nothing. Staking, unstaking and stake moves also pay a pool swap fee on the amount, and large stakes take slippage, which is why the docs tell you to quote first. Creating a subnet requires a lock cost that doubles each time anyone registers a subnet, then decays back over 100,800 blocks, about two weeks. Neuron registration is a burn clamped between 0.0005 and 100 TAO under the default hyperparameters. Check the live subnet figure with btcli query subnet-registration-cost before you try.

Risks to know before using Bittensor

  • Staked value is not fixed in TAO.
  • When you stake into a subnet, your position is held in that subnet's alpha and follows its pool price and the validator's performance; only root network (netuid 0) stake stays TAO-denominated.
  • A validator can raise its take, though only once per roughly 30 days.
  • Subnet emission shares follow each subnet's moving average price, and an emission gate reduces payouts to subnets whose share is well below the 32nd-highest.
  • Key security is your job, and the software supply chain has failed before.
  • In July 2024 a compromised PyPI release of the legacy bittensor package (6.12.2) exfiltrated coldkey material, and the chain ran in safe mode from July 2 to July 12, 2024.
  • The docs recommend pinning exact versions and installing from a signed git tag on high-value machines.
  • Under the current Proof of Authority setup, the authority set can be changed through privileged on-chain administration.

Bittensor usage

Total value locked$401.7M-5.6% in 7 days
Chains1

From DefiLlama (TVL), updated Nov 9, 2026.

AI agentsWebSDKCLI

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Where Bittensor ranks on DappAtlas

Best Decentralized Computing Tools#5 of 5

Bittensor pros and cons

Pros
  • One Python package installs both the SDK and the btcli command line
  • Chain code (subtensor) is public on GitHub
  • Stakers can back validators without running hardware
Cons
  • SDK v11 changed the API, so v9 and v10 code needs migration
  • Official tools require Python 3.10 to 3.14
  • Rewards depend on each subnet's incentive design

Bittensor FAQ

What is Bittensor?

Bittensor is an open network where independent subnets produce digital commodities such as compute, inference, storage and prediction, and the chain pays participants in TAO. Miners produce, validators score miners, and stakers back validators. The Python SDK and btcli tool cover every user-facing chain operation.

How much value is locked in Bittensor?

$401.7M according to DefiLlama on Nov 9, 2026. It is deployed on 1 chain: Bittensor.

Does Bittensor have a token?

Yes, TAO. Its market cap was $2.5B on CoinGecko on Nov 9, 2026. Educational content, not financial advice.

Sources

  1. Bittensor: official site
  2. Bittensor: Docs
  3. Bittensor: GitHub subtensor
  4. Bittensor Docs: The network
  5. Bittensor Docs: Emissions
  6. Bittensor Docs: Chain consensus
  7. Bittensor Docs: Quickstart
  8. Bittensor Docs: Staking
  9. Bittensor Docs: Transactions and fees
  10. Bittensor Docs: Wallets and keys
  11. Bittensor Docs: Subnets guide
  12. CoinGecko
  13. DefiLlama

How this page works

Sources: Bittensor: official site, Bittensor: Docs, Bittensor: GitHub subtensor. Data as of Sep 26, 2026.

How we review

Not affiliated with any project listed. Educational content, not financial advice.