Created for Kathy A. and every new member who's been trying to figure out where to start with TAO. Three short videos, in order. Watch them in sequence — each one assumes you've done the one before it.
There's a reason TAO trips up new members harder than almost any other position we hold.
It isn't one app. It's three.
You need a Bittensor-native wallet, because TAO doesn't live on Ethereum or Solana. You need to fund that wallet from somewhere you already have money — for most members, that's Coinbase. And once the TAO is sitting in the wallet, you need a way to put it to work, which for us means Mentat Minds.
Three pieces. None of them complicated. All of them confusing the first time, because the order matters and the docs don't sit in one place.
So here are three videos. Twelve minutes, total. In order.
Step 1 — Open a Bittensor wallet.
→ Watch: How to Open a Bittensor Wallet
This is the foundation. Until you have a Bittensor-compatible wallet — your own, in your own custody — there is nowhere for TAO to go and nowhere for it to earn from. The wallet you set up here is the "coldkey" everything else hangs off. Watch this one in full before you go any further.
Step 2 — Send TAO from Coinbase to your wallet.
→ Watch: Send TAO to Your Wallet (Coinbase)
This is where most people make their first expensive mistake. The number-one rule when sending TAO — or any crypto — to a wallet for the first time is test small first. Send a tiny amount. Confirm it arrived. Then send the rest. A wrong address on a large transfer is the silent killer; a wrong address on a $5 test costs you $5 and saves you everything else.
Step 3 — Put your TAO to work on Mentat Minds.
→ Watch: How to Invest in Subnets (Mentat)
Mentat is non-custodial — your TAO stays in your wallet, you just authorize Mentat to delegate it to high-performing subnets on your behalf. No lock-up, no transfer to a third party, withdrawable anytime. The video walks you through connecting the wallet you set up in Step 1 and choosing a strategy.
A few notes that didn't make it into the videos:
If you're staking TAO into individual subnets through Mentat, the APY you see displayed is paid in that subnet's alpha token, not in TAO. That's important. The alpha token can rise or fall against TAO, so even a high APY can show a TAO-denominated loss in any short window. Over a multi-year horizon, the bet is that the alpha tokens of revenue-generating subnets re-rate higher faster than emissions dilute them. That's our thesis. It is not a 30-day thesis.
If you'd rather not take that alpha-token volatility, you can stake into the Root subnet instead. Root pays yield in TAO directly — lower yield, no conversion risk to your principal. Different tradeoff, both legitimate.
And before you size up: read Storage and Custody: The Two Ways You Lose Your Crypto. Custody before allocation. Always. The wallet you set up in Step 1 should sit behind a hardware device (Ledger has TAO support baked in) before any meaningful amount of TAO lives in it.
That's the whole flow. Wallet → Funding → Staking. Three videos, twelve minutes, done.
If any step breaks for you, drop a note on the ideas board — we read every one and the most-asked questions become the next library piece.
Again, these are not recommendations. They are the tools we use and the way we use them. Self-custody comes with real responsibility — go slow, test small, and consult professionals before you size up.