Staking, governance, & supply

Proof-of-stake on Celestia

Celestia is a proof-of-stake blockchain based on CometBFT and the Cosmos SDK. Celestia supports in-protocol delegation and will start with an initial validator set of 100.

Staking TIA as a validator or delegator enables you to earn staking rewards from the network. Validators charge a fee to delegators which gives them a percentage of staking rewards.

Learn how proof of stake works on Cosmos SDK chains like Celestia.

Consensus mechanism	Proof-of-stake
Blockchain framework	Cosmos SDK
Validator set size	100
Delegation support	Yes

Learn how to stake on your own at the community dashboards.

Inflation

TIA inflation started at 8% annually.

1. Initially, it was set to decrease by 10% every year until reaching a long-term issuance rate of 1.5%.

2. With the v4 Lotus upgrade (CIP-29) in July 2025, the inflation rate dropped from ~7.2% to ~5.0% and was set to continue decreasing by 6.7% every year until it stabilized at 1.5%.

3. With the v6 (CIP-41) upgrade in November 2025, the inflation rate again dropped to ~2.5% and will continue to decrease by 6.7% every year until it stabilizes at 1.5%.

The diagram below illustrates both the initial inflation rates and those after the v6 upgrade.

For an in-depth understanding, refer to ADR019.

Decentralised governance

Network parameters

TIA holders (not just stakers) can propose and vote on governance proposals to change a subset of network parameters. To learn more, see a complete list of both the changeable and non-changeable parameters and their values. Additionally, learn how to submit and vote on governance proposals.

Community pool

Starting at genesis, Celestia’s community pool receives 2% of all Celestia block rewards. TIA stakers may vote to fund ecosystem initiatives as in many other Cosmos SDK chains.

Learn how to submit a governance proposal to spend community pool funds.

TIA allocation at genesis

Celestia will have a total supply of 1,000,000,000 TIA at genesis, split across five categories described in the chart and table below.

Category	Description	%
Public Allocation	Genesis Drop and Incentivized Testnet: 7.41% Future initiatives: 12.59%	20.00%
R&D & Ecosystem	Tokens allocated to the Celestia Foundation and core devs for research, development, and ecosystem initiatives including: - Protocol maintenance and development - Programs for rollup developers, infrastructure, and node operators	26.79%
Early Backers: Series A&B	Early supporters of Celestia	19.67%
Early Backers: Seed	Early supporters of Celestia	15.90%
Initial Core Contributors	Members of Celestia Labs, the first core contributor to Celestia	17.64%

Unlocks

Celestia’s 1 billion TIA supply at genesis will be subject to several different unlock schedules. All tokens, locked or unlocked, may be staked, but staking rewards are unlocked upon receipt and will add to the circulating supply.

Circulating supply is defined as the amount of TIA tokens in general circulation without onchain transfer restrictions.

Available supply is defined as the amount of TIA tokens that are either part of the circulating supply or are unlocked but subject to some form of governance to determine when the tokens are allocated. This includes the unlocked portion of the R&D & Ecosystem tokens and the tokens set aside for future initiatives.

The definitions for circulating and available supply were adapted from Optimism’s definitions.

Unlock schedule by category is described in the table below.

Note: Due to 2024 being a leap year, the yearly unlock intervals will occur on October 30th of each year. For example, unlocks at year 1 will occur on October 30, 2024.

Category	Unlock Schedule
Public Allocation	Fully unlocked at launch.
R&D & Ecosystem	25.00% unlocked at launch. Remaining 75.00% unlocks continuously from year 1 to year 4.
Initial Core Contributors	33.33% unlocked at year 1. Remaining 66.67% unlocks continuously from year 1 to year 3.
Early Backers: Seed	33.33% unlocked at year 1. Remaining 66.67% unlocks continuously from year 1 to year 2.
Early Backers: Series A&B	33.33% unlocked at year 1. Remaining 66.67% unlocks continuously from year 1 to year 2.