Near Protocol’s NEAR token declined even after the project’s community approved a plan to reduce the pace at which new tokens are issued. The proposal is designed to limit long-term dilution, but it would also lower projected staking returns and still requires several steps before taking effect.
NEAR drops as supply proposal advances
NEAR was trading at $3.82 at 11:06 a.m. UTC on Tuesday, extending its weekly decline to about 13%, according to Cointelegraph, citing CoinMarketCap data. The token’s move came after Monday’s approval of HSP-029, a governance proposal that would gradually reduce the maximum annual issuance rate from 2.5% to 1.6% over a 24-month period.
The vote received support from 99.9% of participating voting power. Around 3.28 million vote-escrowed NEAR, or veNEAR, tokens were cast in favor through the NEAR House of Stake governance platform.
Despite the approval, NEAR fell by roughly 7% on Tuesday. A lower issuance rate can reduce the number of new tokens entering circulation, but the market’s immediate reaction reflected a decline in the token’s price rather than a gain.
What the proposal would change
If implemented, the plan would prevent an estimated 11.8 million NEAR from entering circulation over two years. At the price cited in the report, those tokens were worth about $45 million. The proposal estimates that the reduction in issuance would reach 66.1 million NEAR over six years.
Token issuance is the creation of new tokens, while dilution refers to the potential effect of increasing the overall supply on each existing token’s share of the network. By lowering the maximum annual issuance rate, HSP-029 aims to reduce that long-term supply growth.
The change would also affect staking economics. Projected gross staking yields are expected to decline from 5.2% to 3.3% by the end of the 24-month phase-in period. Staking involves committing tokens to help support a blockchain network and receiving rewards in return; gross yield figures do not account for any costs or other factors.
Approval is not the final step
The proposal remains within a 14-day veto period controlled by the Security Council. If no veto is issued, it will be ratified, but the issuance reduction would not begin immediately. A 90-day grace period would follow ratification.
The implementation also depends on validators adopting the required technical upgrade. Validators are network participants responsible for supporting blockchain operations and, in this case, applying the software changes needed for the new issuance schedule.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar data at 13:09:48 on November 3, 2026, showed NEAR at $3.8788989539, down 5.38% over 24 hours and 14.67% over seven days. Other assets in the supplied data were Loaded Lions at $0.0011166881, down 0.36% in 24 hours and 3.49% over seven days; WOULD at $0.0351412837, up 0.33% over 24 hours and 10.6% over seven days as of September 22, 2026; and Propy at $0.3109558966, up 1.79% over 24 hours and down 4.67% over seven days as of November 2, 2026.
