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How to Check Bittensor Subnet Activity and TAO Balance After an Upgrade

Confirm your Bittensor network, then use btcli to inspect free TAO, subnet stake, hotkey registrations, and neuron details without submitting a transaction.
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After a Bittensor upgrade, first confirm the CLI version and selected network, then check the coldkey balance, subnet holdings, hotkey registrations, and—if needed—the metagraph for a specific subnet. These are read-only checks; they do not submit a transaction. The commands below follow the v11 documentation, where the unified bittensor package includes btcli.

Before checking: confirm your CLI version and network

The commands can show different results if your CLI is connected to a different network than the one you intend to inspect. Bittensor documents finney for mainnet, test for testnet, and local for a development node. Set a default network with:

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btcli config set network finney

Replace finney with the network you actually use. A network flag can override the configured default for a single command, so check the command’s network option if the output seems inconsistent. See Bittensor’s documentation and quickstart.

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Check which package generation is installed

In v11, the bittensor package contains both the Python SDK and the btcli command. If you are upgrading an existing v9 or v10 environment, the migration guide says to remove the legacy bittensor-cli and bittensor-wallet packages before installing or upgrading bittensor. The guide warns that uninstalling the old CLI after upgrading can remove the btcli script; its recovery command is:

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pip install --force-reinstall --no-deps bittensor

Follow the CLI and SDK migration guide for the full package migration sequence.

Check the coldkey balance

Run this command, replacing <coldkey> with the wallet name or coldkey identifier accepted by your CLI:

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btcli wallet balance <coldkey>

The balance view reports free TAO and stake represented in TAO. A coldkey is the relevant wallet identity for funds and financial actions; it is different from a hotkey, which is used as a subnet operational identity. The wallets and keys documentation explains the distinction.

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Inspect holdings and subnet participation

Choose the command that matches the question you are trying to answer. A balance, a subnet holding, a registration, and a metagraph are different views of network state.

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What you want to check Command What it shows
Free TAO and stake valued in TAO btcli wallet balance <coldkey> Wallet balance view, including free TAO and stake represented in TAO.
Holdings grouped by subnet btcli wallet overview Free TAO and stake per subnet.
Subnets where local hotkeys are registered btcli wallet registrations Local hotkey registration information.
Neuron details for one subnet btcli query metagraph --netuid <N> Metagraph records for neurons on the specified netuid.

See stake by subnet

Use btcli wallet overview to see free TAO and stake broken out by subnet. Read each amount in its displayed unit: TAO and subnet alpha are distinct units and should not be added together or compared as though they were the same currency. The v11 balance model treats them separately. See the official Bittensor documentation.

Check registrations and a specific subnet

Run btcli wallet registrations to see where local hotkeys are registered. For more detail about a particular subnet, query its metagraph and substitute its netuid for <N>:

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btcli query metagraph --netuid <N>

The v11 metagraph output is a typed record for each neuron. Documented fields include UID, hotkey, coldkey, incentive, dividends, rank, trust, consensus, emission, alpha stake, TAO stake, and total stake. Confirm the netuid is the subnet you intended to inspect; a metagraph query is specific to that subnet.

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Keep post-upgrade checks read-only

Bittensor’s quickstart describes chain reads as free and unsigned, so the balance, overview, registrations, and metagraph commands above do not require signing a transaction. If you move from inspection to a transaction, the V431 release notes document --dry-run for previewing fees and predicted effects without submitting the operation. A dry run is a preview, not a completed transaction.

What a network upgrade can—and cannot—explain

Bittensor’s V431 release page, dated July 2026, describes chain spec version 431 and the v11 package. It also describes changes relevant to subnet participants: under specified chain conditions, ownership can become contestable through conviction, and cross-subnet emissions are allocated based on subnet moving-average price with a miner-burn penalty. Those release-level changes do not establish what happened to any particular wallet’s balance or registration. Check the intended network and the wallet’s current state rather than assuming an upgrade caused a specific change. See the V431 release notes.

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