Polkadot Locks DOT Supply at 2.1B — Ending Inflationary Model for Good

Polkadot Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) has approved a hard cap of 2.1 billion for its native token, DOT, following the passage of Referendum 1710, moving away from an inflationary model with no ￰0￱ supply → capped at 2.1 Billion The Polkadot DAO has signaled support for a hard cap, by passing Referendum 1710 on the “Wish For Change” track, with 81% in ￰1￱ → 1.6 Billion DOT exist → 120M DOT/year minted each year → No supply cap What Ref. 1710… ￰2￱ — Polkadot (@Polkadot) September 14, 2025 The measure was introduced on Polkadot’s “Wish for Change” track, a governance process designed to capture community sentiment on proposed ￰3￱ received 81% approval, signaling broad consensus among ￰4￱ founder Gavin Wood earlier proposed shifting from the Nominated Proof-of-Stake system to a Proof-of-Personhood ￰5￱ the notable changes in the approach was moving Polkadot toward store-of-value properties with a proposed 3.14 billion DOT supply cap.

Notably, this approval came on the backdrop of Polkadot broadening its institutional focus with the launch of Polkadot Capital Group on Aug. 19, a division created to link Wall Street firms with its blockchain ￰6￱ initiative seeks to help traditional finance players explore opportunities in asset management, banking, venture capital, exchanges, and OTC trading while highlighting use cases such as DeFi, staking, and real-world asset tokenization. Polkadot’s Current Cap at 1.6B DOT as it Shifts from Inflationary Model to Scarcity Framework Currently, the total circulating supply of DOT stands at 1.6 ￰7￱ now, Polkadot minted 120 million DOT each year, with no maximum supply ￰8￱ meant that if the issuance model continued, supply would have grown to around 3.4 billion tokens by 2040 and over 5 billion by ￰9￱ inflationary framework raised long-term concerns for holders and developers, as predictable scarcity is a key feature for many blockchain ￰10￱ newly adopted model introduces a strict limit of 2.1 billion ￰11￱ will decline in fixed steps every two years on March 14, also known as Pi Day.

A chart released by Polkadot shows that annual issuance will drop from 120 million in 2025 to below 20 million by the early ￰12￱ 2040, issuance will be minimal, and the total supply is projected to stabilize near 1.91 billion tokens.