TensorUSD is Bittensor subnet 113 (SN113), a project in the Other (DeFi / Stablecoin Infrastructure) lane. TAO-backed dollar for a non-EVM world
Bittensor has its first native stablecoin: lock TAO as collateral, mint a dollar-pegged token called TUSDT, and let subnet miners handle the liquidations and price feeds that keep it honest.
It is an educational deep dive, not a recommendation to stake. For live price, pool depth, and performance, always open the live subnet page.
What is TensorUSD (SN113)?
TensorUSD (TUSDT) is a stablecoin designed to hold a 1:1 peg to the US dollar, built natively for the Bittensor network. Users deposit TAO as collateral to mint TUSDT. The subnet's miners keep the system solvent by bidding on undercollateralized vaults and feeding live price data on-chain.
In plain English: It's like MakerDAO's DAI, but for Bittensor. Lock TAO, get a stable dollar token. When collateral ratios slip, miners compete in auctions to liquidate the position.
Centralized reference points: No direct equivalent; comparable to MakerDAO or Liquity on Ethereum
How miners and validators work
Like every Bittensor subnet, SN113 is a two-sided market: miners produce work, validators score it, and emissions follow those weights under the network’s dTAO economics.
- Miners participate in two mechanisms: bidding on liquidation auctions for undercollateralized vaults (Mechanism 0), or submitting live TAO/USD price feeds from CoinMarketCap every five minutes (Mechanism 1)
- Validators monitor on-chain auction events and oracle rounds, score miner performance against results and median price, and distribute rewards based on accuracy and participation
Mechanism and design
According to the subnet's GitHub README and on-chain contract references, the subnet runs two concurrent mechanisms. Mechanism 0 handles liquidation auctions: when a vault's collateral value falls below the required threshold (the system is described as 1.5x overcollateralized in available documentation), the vault becomes liquidatable. Miners monitor the auction contract, calculate expected profit as the difference between collateral value and bid plus outstanding debt, and submit competitive bids. Validators listen for AuctionFinalized events, extract the winning miner's hotkey from bid metadata, and calculate rewards. Bids above the debt balance earn a bonus up to a cap of 20% overpay, incentivizing miners to compete aggressively for profitable auctions.
Mechanism 1 handles the price oracle: miners fetch TAO/USD data from CoinMarketCap every five minutes, encode it as a u128 ratio, and submit to the oracle contract. Validators pull completed oracle rounds and score each submission against the consensus median. Submissions within 0.1% of median earn full reward; submissions beyond 5% deviation earn nothing. The subnet splits emissions 20% to liquidation (Mechanism 0) and 80% to the oracle (Mechanism 1), reflecting the oracle's centrality to system integrity.
The pool currently holds 2,243 TAO. Net 7-day inflows of 228.9 TAO show growing staker interest. Root proportion sits at 41.8%, meaning more than half the pool depth comes from organic alpha staking rather than protocol subsidy. The alpha token 60-day ATH is 0.00805 TAO; the ATL is 0.00433 TAO.…
Why the project exists
- The problem it solves: Bittensor has no native stable unit of account. Every service, contract, and payment is priced in volatile TAO. A 30% weekly swing makes it hard to price AI compute, write multi-month agreements, or build lending products inside the ecosystem.
- The opportunity: A native stablecoin opens the door to within-ecosystem lending, predictable AI service pricing, and cross-subnet accounting without needing to bridge to Ethereum or route through a centralized exchange.
- The Bittensor advantage: By running liquidation and price oracle logic through subnet miners, TensorUSD avoids dependence on centralized oracle providers or off-chain keeper bots. Bittensor's incentive layer economically aligns miners with keeping the system solvent: accurate oracles earn more, successful liquidations earn more.
- Traction signals: TUSDT is listed on CoinGecko and Bybit. The alpha token (SN113) gained 24.7% in seven days and 43.9% over the past 30 days. A public interview with the team aired on X in late April 2026, generating visible community discussion. The subnet is still early: 3 contributors, 28 total commits, and TaoSwap's most recent snapshot reports zero active miners.
What stakers should check before buying alpha
Subnet storytelling is cheap. On-chain and product checks are not. Use the same framework as our subnet metrics guide:
| Check | Why |
|---|---|
| Real product / docs / repo | Separates shipping teams from narrative-only slots |
| Pool depth (TAO) | Your exit door: thin pools amplify slippage |
| Net flows (7d / 30d) | Under flow-based emissions, capital votes with its feet |
| Emission share | Whether the market is funding this subnet right now |
| Ownership concentration | Large holders can move a small alpha market |
| Immunity / deregistration | Post-immunity weak slots can lose the race (see immunity guide) |
Pull the live numbers on TensorUSD · SN113 rather than trusting any static screenshot in a blog post.
Risk factors
- Active miner gap: TaoSwap reports 0 active miners. If confirmed, neither the liquidation auctions nor the price oracle are being maintained. This directly threatens peg stability and is the most critical open question for this subnet.
- Execution: An overcollateralized stablecoin on a non-EVM chain is technically ambitious. The codebase has 28 total commits from 3 contributors. Complex financial logic at this stage carries elevated smart-contract risk.
- Development concentration: Three contributors on a live financial protocol is a small team. Any single departure creates meaningful key-person risk.
- Liquidity: The AMM pool holds 2,243 TAO. Large stake entries or exits carry slippage at this pool depth.
- Competition: As the ecosystem matures, other stablecoin approaches may emerge on Bittensor. First-mover advantage matters, but execution quality matters more.
How this fits a TAO portfolio
Many holders keep a root vs subnet split: root for calmer TAO exposure, subnets like TensorUSD for thematic upside (and higher variance). If you use TaoScale, you can size SN113 from your wallet without handing over custody. See non-custodial staking.
- Live market: SN113 on TaoScale
- Browse and stake: /invest
- More subnet explainers: /blog/subnets
FAQ
What does TensorUSD do on Bittensor?
It's like MakerDAO's DAI, but for Bittensor. Lock TAO, get a stable dollar token. When collateral ratios slip, miners compete in auctions to liquidate the position.
What is the SN113 alpha token?
When you stake TAO into subnet 113, you receive that subnet’s alpha. Its price versus TAO moves with the subnet’s pool (see what is dTAO).
How do I research TensorUSD before staking?
Read the mechanism above, open the official repo/docs when available, then verify pool depth, flows, and activity on SN113. Cross-check with the metrics checklist.
Is this financial advice?
No. TaoScale publishes educational explainers and live tools. Decisions to stake are yours alone.
Not financial advice. Educational overview of TensorUSD (SN113) compiled from public project materials and ecosystem documentation. Mechanisms and market structure change, so verify live data and official sources before acting.
