Staking

Staking tao/alpha is how investors earn yield.

Staking plays a principal role in the functioning of the Bittensor network. In February 2025, the dTao release gave stakeholders additional power: staking into a subnet increases the emissions of the subnet.

Staking Options

in dTao, there are two options for staking:

Staking to root
Staking to a Subnet

Staking to root

Staking to root uses only tao. Your tao is staked on a root validator, and you receive returns based on the validator’s performance in the subnets.

Staking to root is a safe staking option - there is no way to lose tao value. However, root staking decreases over time by design, as the root proportion decreases on all subnets.

Root Staking Options (Root Reborn)

With Root Reborn live on mainnet, the way root rewards are handled has changed. The old “keep vs. swap” root-claim options — automatically swapping your rewards to TAO, keeping them as alpha, or a keep-selected hybrid — no longer exist. Auto-claim has been removed entirely.

Instead:

Your root rewards accrue into a validator basket: the root dividends your validator earns are re-bought into a basket of subnets it curates, and held as compounding subnet-alpha exposure on your behalf.
Nothing lands in your stake automatically. To realise your rewards you make a single manual claim_root call, which converts your basket share back to TAO and stakes it onto root. You choose when to claim.
There is no “keep as alpha” toggle — every claim redeems to TAO. If you want subnet-alpha exposure on your own coldkey, claim to root, unstake, then stake into the subnet yourself.

Because claiming is manual, each claim costs a transaction fee that scales with how many subnets your validator’s basket holds. Claim infrequently and prefer a validator with a concentrated basket. See Root Validator Baskets for the full mechanics.

Staking to alpha

This is the new feature and primary goal of dTao - to enable stakeholders to vote and determine the emissions for every subnet.

To stake in alpha, tao is exchanged via the Subnet Pools into alpha. This will incur Slippage. The received alpha is then staked to the validator selected. Your returns will be in alpha, and autocompounded to the validator hotkey.

Staking to alpha does incur risk: a drop in alpha token price will result in a lower amount of tao when unstaking.

Emission is awarded every 360 blocks (approx 72 minutes).

Moving stake

The move stake command can be used to switch validators in a subnet. Under the hood, this is an unstake, and then staking. However, only one fee is charged.