Polkadot DAO Sanctions $2.1 Billion Limit on DOT Supply

Polkadot’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) has passed a referendum that establishes a hard cap on the network’s native token for the first time.

The decision sets the maximum supply at 2.1 billion Polkadot (DOT) tokens, marking a significant shift from the previous tokenomics model where new tokens were issued indefinitely each year. Previously, Polkadot minted approximately 120 million DOT tokens annually, with no cap on total supply.

The project noted that, under the previous model, the supply could have exceeded 3.4 billion tokens by 2040. The new framework introduces a gradual reduction in issuance every two years. Currently, Polkadot boasts a total supply of around 1.5 billion tokens.

According to Polkadot, the issuance reduction will take place every two years on Pi Day, March 14. The project also shared a chart illustrating the differences in supply between the old and new models.

Cointelegraph reached out to the Web3 Foundation, the team behind Polkadot, for additional details but had not received a response by the time of publication.

Polkadot launches capital markets division

This change coincides with Polkadot’s efforts to broaden its appeal to institutional investors. On August 19, the project launched the Polkadot Capital Group, a new division aimed at connecting Wall Street firms with its blockchain infrastructure.

This division seeks to bridge traditional finance with Polkadot’s blockchain to enable institutions to explore crypto-related opportunities in domains such as asset management, banking, venture capital, exchanges, and over-the-counter (OTC) trading.

It will also highlight blockchain use cases, including decentralized finance (DeFi), staking, and real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.