Bittensor (TAO) has entered 2026 with growing attention from both institutions and long-term investors. Grayscale has filed to convert its Bittensor Trust into a spot ETF, which could make TAO easier to access for traditional market participants.
This comes shortly after TAO December 2025 halving, which cut daily emissions in half. At the same time, analysts are increasingly framing TAO as a long-term AI infrastructure play, especially after a deep correction from its all-time highs.
With a fixed 21 million supply and an expanding network roadmap, Bittensor’s next phase looks more structural than speculative.
What you'll learn 👉
Why the Bittensor network is changing
Bittensor (TAO) is not standing still. One of the biggest changes being discussed for 2026 is the expansion of its subnet cap. Right now, the network allows up to 128 specialized AI subnets.
Community discussions suggest that limit could be doubled, opening the door to more niche AI services like quantitative trading models, medical diagnostics, and privacy-focused systems.
If done carefully, this could bring in new developers and real-world use cases, increasing the network’s overall utility. The risk is scaling too fast. If subnet quality slips or underperforming models are not filtered out effectively, it could weaken trust in the network.
For now, performance-based challenges and replacement rules remain in place, which helps reduce that risk.
How incentives could shift in 2026 For TAO
Another major focus for the year is improving how rewards are distributed across the network. After the Dynamic TAO upgrade in early 2025, the next step is refining incentives so that subnets delivering real value receive more rewards.
This means factors like user demand, API usage, and real adoption could matter more than raw activity. Subnets like privacy-focused AI models or serverless compute platforms could benefit if they prove their usefulness. If this works as intended, TAO becomes more closely tied to actual AI services rather than speculation.
The downside is that favoring established subnets too heavily could make it harder for new ideas to compete. How this balance is handled will be important for long-term innovation.
In addition, the halving schedule of Bittensor has the same scarcity mechanism as Bitcoin’s model. Following the halving in December 2025 that lowered the total number of TAO to 3,600 per day, the next halving will take place in the end of 2029 with the total number of TAO to
Over time, the reward system will change from rewards based on inflation to a fee system. More than that, the miners will find themselves depending on the demand for the artificial intelligence services.This only works if subnet adoption continues to grow, but if it does, TAO’s scarcity narrative strengthens.
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TAO price outlook and key levels
With TAO trading around $281.84, the market appears to be in a rebuilding phase after the large correction from previous highs. In the near term, the $300 level stands out as an important psychological area. A sustained move above it would signal improving confidence.
Beyond that, $350 and $420 are key resistance zones where sellers previously stepped in. Reclaiming those levels would suggest that the market is starting to price in network growth and institutional interest again.
On the downside, $250 acts as an important support level. Holding above it keeps the broader recovery structure intact. A deeper pullback below $220 would likely delay any upside momentum and keep the TAO price range-bound for longer.
Looking further out, a combination of ETF approval, subnet expansion, and improving fee-based economics could push the TAO price back toward the $500–$600 range over time. Reaching previous all-time highs would require not just speculation, but clear evidence that Bittensor’s AI economy is scaling in the real world.
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