What is $NAT?
$NAT is a token credited to the address that mined each Bitcoin block. It pays miners alongside the subsidy and fees, and has done so since block 885,588 (February 2025). Its emission is about 5.2% of its own market capitalisation a year.
How it works
Issuance is computed from the block header and credited to the coinbase address of whoever won the block. No consensus change is involved and Bitcoin itself is unaware of it: from Bitcoin’s point of view nothing has happened. Miners who do nothing still receive it.
What it pays, per dollar
| Asset | Paid to miners per $1 of market cap, per year |
|---|---|
| Bitcoin | $0.0082 |
| $NAT | $0.052 |
The ratio between those two is ×6.3. It is a ratio of two payout shares and says nothing about price or return — it says that a dollar of $NAT market cap is currently configured to pay more to miners per year than a dollar of Bitcoin market cap, because Bitcoin’s issuance is nearly exhausted and $NAT’s is not.
What it is not
It is not a Bitcoin protocol change, not a fork, not a layer, and not a claim on Bitcoin. It does not make Bitcoin more secure by existing; it pays miners, and whether that matters depends entirely on what the token is worth. It is one implementation of a second subsidy, a category older than it is.
The risks, stated plainly
The value is market-determined and can go to zero. Miner adoption is not automatic and not universal. The emission rate falls as supply grows, so today’s 5.2% is a snapshot rather than a constant. And the circularity below is not resolved by anything on this page.