NEAR Protocol is considering a proposal to reduce its annual inflation rate from 5% to 2.5%. The proposal, initiated by HOT and LiNEAR Protocols, is currently up for a vote on the NEAR governance forum. If the proposal garners 66.67% support, the inflation rate will be officially lowered. The current 5% inflation rate was initially set to reward PoS staking and maintain network operations, with the expectation that gas fees would offset inflation by burning tokens. However, actual gas fee burns have only reached 0.1% annually, leading to higher inflationary pressure and affecting NEAR's price performance. The proposed reduction aims to decrease annual inflation from 50 million to 25 million NEAR tokens, potentially reducing sell pressure by $50 million. Additionally, NEAR's focus on the AI sector, as the second-largest holding in Grayscale's decentralized AI fund, could increase network usage. A lower inflation rate could encourage more NEAR holders to participate in DeFi, enhancing the ecosystem's growth.