Questions and answers

TAO is the token of Bittensor (opens in a new tab), an open network that pays TAO to the people running useful AI work on it. You can stake TAO with a validator, whose stake decides how the network's rewards are shared, and earn more TAO in return.

Staking means putting TAO with a validator, an operator that helps run the network, in return for a share of the TAO the network pays out. There's no lock-up. Staked directly, your TAO stays under your own key; through Cascade, its vault stakes the TAO and you hold shares in the vault.

Cascade stakes on Bittensor's root network, which earns from across the subnets instead of betting on one. How root staking works (opens in a new tab).

Cascade gets you TAO staking from the wallet you already use. You deposit USDC on Base; Cascade swaps it to TAO, carries it to Bittensor over Chainlink CCIP (opens in a new tab) and stakes it for you. Unstaking does the reverse and sends USDC back to your wallet.

No. Everything happens from your wallet on Base, such as MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet or Rabby. You only need a little ETH there for network fees and the 0.0001 ETH unstake fee.

TAO. Your USDC becomes TAO, so your balance grows with staking rewards and its dollar value rises and falls with TAO's price. If TAO falls, you can get back less USDC than you put in.

tao.bot (opens in a new tab), a validator on Bittensor's root network. It keeps 0% of rewards for itself. Cascade can move the stake to another validator if that ever changes; the move needs no unstaking and costs you nothing.

Your deposit is recorded as shares in Cascade's vault on Bittensor, shown in the app as your TAO balance. The shares can't be sent or traded; only the wallet that deposited can unstake them.

Bittensor's docs (opens in a new tab) explain the network, and how staking works (opens in a new tab). Taostats (opens in a new tab) shows live network data and validators. Chainlink CCIP (opens in a new tab) is the bridge that carries TAO between Base and Bittensor.

It's what root staking with tao.bot earned over the last 30 days, read straight from the validator's on-chain record on Bittensor, after its own fee and Cascade's 10% cut, assuming rewards are collected and restaked monthly (they may be collected less often).

It's a yield in TAO, before deposit and withdrawal costs, and it changes with the network. Past yield isn't a promise.

Rewards build up at the validator as small amounts of each subnet's token. When Cascade collects them, they're turned into TAO and staked again.

Cascade keeps 10%. The other 90% is added to balances gradually over 7 days, so it goes only to people still staked as it's added. Someone who joins just before a collection still shares in it; someone who leaves before it's added leaves it behind.

Each collection costs about 0.057 TAO in network fees, paid by Cascade, so Cascade waits until it's worth it: when the rewards waiting are worth at least 25 times that, or after 30 days as long as more than that is waiting and a collection costs under $20.

While little is staked, or if TAO rises above about $350 (a collection then costs over $20), collections can be many months apart.

Until they're collected, rewards are held as subnet tokens, so their value in TAO can rise or fall, and if you unstake first you leave them behind. Rewards shows what's waiting for you.

Rewards still waiting, and any still being added over 7 days, stay with the people who remain. With monthly collections that's up to about 5 weeks of yield; while collections are rarer, it can be more.

$0.05 plus 0.15% when you stake, 0.15% when your TAO is sold back to USDC, and 10% of staking rewards when they're collected. To unstake there's also a 0.0001 ETH request fee, which goes toward the bridge fee.

The contracts cap the first three at 0.5% per swap, $0.25 per deposit and 20% of rewards, and the request fee at 0.001 ETH. Whatever the settings, a trade never goes below the minimum you approve: the least TAO shown when you stake, and today's price less 2% when you unstake.

Uniswap's pool fees, about 0.35% each way plus price impact, which grows with the amount, and network fees on Base, usually a cent or two. Cascade pays the bridge fee that carries deposits to Bittensor.

To unstake there's a 0.0001 ETH request fee, and the bridge fee for the trip back, taken from your TAO and shared when several people unstake together. Every amount is shown before you confirm.

A round trip costs about 1%, plus fixed fees of about $0.55 all in: the $0.05 deposit fee, the 0.0001 ETH request fee (about $0.23) and the bridge fee back. That's about 5% of a $10 stake, so a small amount staked briefly can come back as less than you put in, even if TAO's price doesn't move.

The stake form shows how long your amount takes to cover its fees at today's yield.

Deposits travel to Bittensor together in batches, which shares the bridge fee. A batch leaves once the fees it carries cover the trip, and after 24 hours at the latest. It then takes about 20 minutes to cross and is staked straight away.

The stake form shows the expected time, and your receipt follows each step.

Yes. A few minutes after its batch is 1 hour old, Send it now on the Stake page or its receipt can send the batch at once: you pay the whole batch's bridge fee in ETH, usually a dollar or two, and anything extra is refunded. Otherwise it leaves on its own within 24 hours, sooner once its fees cover the bridge fee.

Open Unstake and enter how much USDC you want. Your request travels to Bittensor in the next batch, waits out a 24-hour safety delay, and comes back to Base, where it's sold for USDC and sent to your wallet at today's price less 2% or better. If TAO falls further, it waits for you to claim it instead.

All in, it can take up to about 2 days, usually less. The form shows the expected time.

No. You can unstake whenever you like; it just takes the time above to come back. Only three things hold an unstake back: the daily unstake limit, which leaves anything over it staked for you to unstake again later; an emergency pause, for as long as it lasts; and the guardian switching off Cascade's route, which takes at least 7 days' public notice to undo.

Your minimum price holds for 7 days. If the USDC hasn't arrived an hour after your TAO is back, or the price has fallen below your minimum, your receipt offers Claim as USDC.

That sends the TAO to your wallet and sells it on Uniswap at the current price, which may be below your minimum; your wallet also asks you to let Uniswap spend that amount of TAO. You pay the network fees on Base, and Cascade's 0.15% doesn't apply. You can keep it as TAO instead. TAO already back on Base can be claimed even while Cascade is paused.

Yes, until your batch leaves. A cancelled deposit comes back as TAO, not USDC, and the fees already paid aren't refunded. A cancelled unstake keeps your balance but not the request fee.

The smallest stake is 0.04 TAO (the stake form shows it in dollars), the smallest unstake 0.011 TAO. One batch carries at most 10 TAO, and while Cascade is early, total deposits are capped at 40 TAO. One unstake carries at most 10 TAO, and unstakes through Cascade are limited to 20% of the staked TAO a day, or 10 TAO if that's more, shared by everyone. Anything over a limit stays staked, and you unstake it again later, paying the request fee again. Only deposit what you could afford to lose.

Not yet. Cascade has been reviewed many times, and its contracts are public on GitHub (opens in a new tab), but it hasn't had a professional audit yet. Only deposit what you could afford to lose.

An owner key can change settings: fees up to their caps, the limits, the safety delay and the validator. It can also pause deposits and unstakes in an emergency. A pause can't move anyone's funds, but it holds exits until it's lifted; cancelling a batch that hasn't left and claiming TAO already back on Base keep working.

Cascade's contracts are owned by the founder's hardware wallet (a Ledger) on Base and on Bittensor. A separate emergency key, the guardian, can pause deposits and unstakes, veto a new route, and switch off the current one; turning a route back on takes the same 7 days' public notice as a new one. The guardian can never move anyone's money.

There is no multisig or timelock yet, so a settings change takes effect at once, and the riskiest settings move only within hard limits written into the contracts: every fee has a fixed maximum, the safety delay stays between 1 hour and 7 days, no batch can be set to carry more than 5,000 TAO, and unstakes through Cascade take at most half the staked TAO a day (or 100 TAO, if that's more).

Not instantly, and not quietly. TAO leaves the vault only through the bridge and front door set up at launch, or when a share owner withdraws directly on Bittensor. Adding a new route needs 7 days' public notice, in which the guardian can veto it and you have time to unstake if you disagree. The guardian is a separate key from the owner, but Cascade holds both for now, so that veto isn't independent yet.

Every fee is capped in the code, and you see each one before you confirm. With no timelock yet, the reward cut and the fee on selling back to USDC can still rise to their caps after you stake, but the minimum price you approve still protects each swap. Everything happens on-chain where anyone can check it.

TAO's price: your balance is TAO, so its dollar value can fall.

Smart contracts: a bug could lose funds, and the contracts aren't independently audited yet.

Control: the owner is one hardware wallet, with no multisig or timelock yet, so settings change at once, the riskiest only within the contracts' hard limits. Who controls Cascade.

Bridges: TAO crosses over Chainlink CCIP, and the TAO used on Base is issued by ForeverMoney (opens in a new tab). If either has trouble, batches wait, and in a rare migration a batch already on its way could be lost.

Validator: if the validator moves its stake to a new key, balances read low until Cascade adds that key, and unstaking in that window pays less.

Yield: rewards depend on the network and the validator, and can fall.

Delays: if a bridge or Cascade's systems are down, exits take longer. USDC can also be frozen by its issuer for blocked addresses; you'd then claim TAO instead.

Your funds stay where they are, but exits slow down. Anyone can send a batch or a payout once it's due, with a transaction on Base or Bittensor that pays its bridge fee or gas. Staking and reward collection open to anyone after 7 days, and once your TAO is back on Base you can claim it yourself from your receipt. Only selling it to USDC for you needs Cascade's systems.

Your balance comes with a live on-chain check, and the vault's stake is public on Taostats (opens in a new tab). The code is open source on GitHub (opens in a new tab).

Report security issues privately through GitHub (opens in a new tab); our security policy (opens in a new tab) says what to include.

Base today, from MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Rabby or any browser wallet. More chains are planned. On a phone, open Cascade in your wallet app's browser.

If you cancel a deposit or claim by hand, you receive TAO on Base. It's a bridged version issued by ForeverMoney (opens in a new tab) over Chainlink CCIP and backed by TAO it holds on Bittensor; it was fully backed when we checked in October 2026.