How to stake on Bittensor subnets
- Staking means putting your TAO behind a validator to earn a share of the network's rewards, without running any machine.
- Two options: "root" (you stay in TAO, more cautious) or a specific subnet (you buy its token, riskier, more upside).
- Your TAO stays yours: you can exit whenever you want, at the current price.
Staking is a bit like backing a project you believe in. You lend your "weight" to a validator (one of the network's judges), and in return it passes on part of what it earns. Your TAO never leaves your wallet: the validator cannot spend it.
Two ways to stake
Your stake stays in TAO. You earn a small share of the rewards of every subnet. More cautious, no exposure to a single project.
Your TAO is swapped for the subnet's token (its "alpha"). You follow that project's success: more upside, more risk.
Staking in 5 steps
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01A wallet and some TAO
Create a Bittensor wallet (called a "coldkey"), buy TAO on an exchange and send it to your wallet. The wallet guide helps you pick one.
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02Pick a subnet
Compare projects in the list of subnets: price trend, size, share of rewards, token buybacks, alpha locked by the team. Prefer deep pools: your purchase moves the price less.
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03Pick a validator
The validator keeps a commission (its "take", 18% by default) before paying you. Look for a low take, a long track record and steady rewards.
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04Stake while watching the price
Staking into a subnet means buying its token: a large amount pushes the price up during the purchase (that's "slippage"). Always check the quote before confirming; recent wallets protect you by default.
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05Follow it, exit whenever you want
Rewards land about every 72 minutes. To exit, you "unstake": your token is sold back for TAO at the current price, minus slippage.
How much your purchase moves the price
The more TAO a subnet has in its pool, the less your purchase weighs. Roughly, staking x TAO into a pool holding T TAO moves the price by about x ÷ T. Estimated impact of a 100 TAO stake on the largest subnets right now:
| Subnet | TAO in pool | Token price | Impact of 100 τ |
|---|---|---|---|
| τ176K | τ0.1069 | 0.06% | |
| τ202K | τ0.06899 | 0.05% | |
| τ40.8K | τ0.03868 | 0.25% | |
| τ134K | τ0.05159 | 0.07% | |
| τ26.4K | τ0.02825 | 0.38% | |
| τ65.1K | τ0.03427 | 0.15% | |
| τ75.5K | τ0.04393 | 0.13% | |
| τ24.7K | τ0.03450 | 0.41% |
Approximation from the pools' on-chain reserves, excluding fees. Always check the exact quote before confirming.
Going further: the technical details
With the official command line btcli: get a quote, dry-run, then stake.
btcli query quote-stake --netuid 64 --amount-tao 100
btcli tx add-stake --hotkey <validator_ss58> --netuid 64 --amount-tao 100 --dry-run
btcli tx add-stake --hotkey <validator_ss58> --netuid 64 --amount-tao 100 -w my_coldkeyTo exit: btcli query quote-unstake for the quote, then btcli tx remove-stake (partial) or unstake-all.
Rewards are paid every tempo (360 blocks, about 72 minutes). A validator can lower its take at any time; raising it is rate-limited (about once a month). Root staking earns the "root" share of each subnet's dividends.
Risks to keep in mind
- A subnet's token price can fall: staking into a subnet is a bet on a single project.
- A small pool moves the price a lot, both on the way in and on the way out.
- A validator can raise its commission (with notice) or perform worse.
- This guide is educational and is not investment advice.