DOT's 2.1B supply cap takes effect and yearly issuance falls by about half

Parity Technologies / Web3 Foundation

A hard cap of 2.1 billion DOT, approved by on-chain governance, began cutting new token issuance on March 14, 2026. Until then Polkadot had no maximum supply, and new tokens paid for staking rewards.

• Approved through referenda 1710 and 1828.
• Issuance drops from about 120M to about 57M DOT a year, then steps down every two years.