eTAO Goes Live as Bittensor Subnets Make Their First Moves on Emissions

Bittensor activated eTAO today, giving subnet owners control over how emissions are distributed among miners, validators, and themselves. Within the first 90 minutes, several subnets had already made changes, revealing sharply different priorities.

Previously, emissions followed a fixed allocation of approximately 18% to owners, 41% to validators, and 41% to miners. As The TAO Daily previously explained, eTAO allows owners to adjust these percentages within protocol limits, with a minimum 33% allocation to miners and a maximum 33% to owners.

Some Subnets Are Giving Miners More

Almanac (SN41) was among the early movers, reducing its owner allocation from 18% to 10% and increasing miner rewards to 50%, while validators receive 40%.

SN41 Almanac: New Emissions Split

Owner 10% / Miners 50% / Validators 40%

Miners are the lifeblood of Almanac, as they should be for every subnet. With the eTAO release, we’re putting our money where our mouth is. Literally.

Miners: 41% → 50%
This is a significant increase in… pic.twitter.com/CmwTb9dtay

— Almanac (@almnc_ai) October 19, 2026

The team described miners as the lifeblood of its subnet, arguing that higher rewards could attract stronger participation and competition. Almanac also stated that it has not sold owner emissions since the beginning of 2026 and has no immediate plans to do so.

Vanta (SN8) has taken an even bigger step, reducing its owner allocation to zero and splitting emissions equally between validators and miners at 50% each.

Goodbye owner emissions, and thank you for the support. We've moved to 0% owner, 50% validator, 50% miner splits.

We believe removing owner emissions is part of a subnet’s maturation. Once you’ve built a stable & fair incentive mechanism, you can compete within it yourself.…

— Arrash (@0xarrash) October 20, 2026

Founder Arrash described the decision as part of the subnet’s maturation, arguing that once a subnet develops a stable and fair incentive mechanism, its team should be able to compete within that system.

Vanta plans to sustain development through staking rewards from its existing holdings and revenue generated by competing as an entity miner. The team will continue operating Vanta Trading, where funded traders and participating entities can earn through trading performance.

Arrash also outlined plans to expand the network to thousands of miners, using Bittensor’s new Null Consensus mechanism to accommodate greater participation.

CookingTAO (SN122) made an even larger adjustment in favour of miners. It retained its 18% owner allocation but increased miner rewards from 41% to 64%, reducing the validator share to 18%.

Both decisions put more emissions toward the participants responsible for producing work, although their effects on subnet performance remain to be seen.

Four Subnets Move to the Maximum Owner Share

Other subnets took the opposite approach. Early on-chain reporting identified four subnets that increased their owner allocation to the maximum permitted 33%:

• Consted (SN103)
• Consted 2.0 (SN70)
• Logic (SN35)
• Epago (SN36)

Some of these changes reportedly occurred within minutes of eTAO going live, attracting attention from community observers who questioned the timing and the decision to maximize owner rewards.

Interestingly, three of the subnets taking the maximum owner share are also among the highest-ranked candidates for deregistration.

According to the subnet deregistration rankings, Consted (SN103) ranks second, Consted 2.0 (SN70) ranks third, and Epago (SN36) ranks fifth. All three are outside their immunity periods.

What This Means for Alpha Holders

One important consequence of eTAO is its potential effect on staking rewards.

When subnets reduce validator allocations, fewer emissions remain available for alpha validators and their delegators after protected root payouts. This could reduce staking yields, even when a subnet’s overall emissions remain unchanged.

However, some community members have expressed willingness to accept lower staking rewards if the redirected emissions help improve their preferred subnets. For these holders, stronger subnet performance and long-term growth may be worth sacrificing some immediate yield.

With most subnets still retaining their original emission allocations, these early moves offer the first glimpse of how eTAO could reshape Bittensor’s incentive structures.

The question now is whether increasing miner rewards will translate into stronger subnet performance, and how alpha holders will respond to owners taking larger shares.

For the first time, subnet owners have greater freedom to decide who gets rewarded, and those decisions are now visible on-chain.