Bittensor (TAO) Price
Source mode: Binance public market data
Reference price
+1.52% in 24h
Market capitalization
$3.82B
24h trading volume
$11.77M
24h range
24h price trend
Hourly closes over the last 24 hours
About this asset
What is Bittensor?
Bittensor is a blockchain network that pays participants in TAO for producing and evaluating machine learning work, with a 21 million token cap and a halving schedule inspired by Bitcoin.
As of 5 November 2026 at 12:01 UTC, Bittensor (TAO) was priced at $234, up 1.52% over 24 hours, according to Binance public market data. Prices differ between exchanges; confirm on your chosen venue.
- Launched
- 2021
- Co-founders
- Jacob Steeves and Ala Shaabana
- Max supply
- 21 million TAO
- First halving
- December 2025
- Structure
- Subnets with miners and validators
A marketplace for machine intelligence
Bittensor was founded by Jacob Steeves and Ala Shaabana and is supported by the Opentensor Foundation. Its premise is that AI development could be organised as an open market: people who contribute useful models, data or computing power are rewarded directly by the network rather than by a single company.
The network launched in 2021 with no pre-mine or investor allocation; TAO has been issued only through emissions to network participants. In 2023 it was relaunched as the Finney network on a Substrate-based blockchain.
Subnets, validators and Yuma Consensus
Work on Bittensor happens in subnets, each focused on a particular task, such as text generation, data scraping or prediction. Within a subnet, miners produce outputs and validators score them. A mechanism called Yuma Consensus combines those scores into rankings that determine how new TAO emissions are shared.
An upgrade called Dynamic TAO, introduced in February 2025, gave each subnet its own token and let the market, through TAO staked into subnet pools, influence how emissions are split between subnets. Before that, a small group of top validators largely made that decision.
Supply follows a Bitcoin-like path towards 21 million TAO. Halvings are triggered by issued supply rather than a fixed block count, and the first, in December 2025, cut the block reward from 1 TAO to 0.5 TAO. Blocks are produced roughly every 12 seconds, and emissions are shared between subnet owners, miners and validators, with a portion passing to holders who stake through validators.
What drives TAO
TAO is often treated as a proxy for interest in decentralised AI, so announcements from the wider AI sector can affect it alongside crypto market moves. The quality and adoption of subnet outputs is harder to measure than usage on payment or DeFi chains.
Staking is widespread, which reduces readily tradeable supply. Halvings lower new issuance, although timing can shift because some TAO is recycled out of circulation.
Frequently asked questions
What is TAO used for?
TAO rewards miners and validators for useful machine learning work, is staked to validators and subnets, and is used to register on the network.
Does Bittensor have a halving?
Yes. Block rewards halve as issued supply crosses set thresholds. The first halving took place in December 2025.
What is a subnet?
A subnet is a specialised market within Bittensor where miners compete on a specific task and validators score their work.