Absolutely — this is called the subsidy mechanism, and it's how the protocol automatically intervenes when a subnet's alpha price falls below its fair emission ratio.
Here's how it works: every 12-second block, the coinbase allocates TAO to subnets based on their net staking flows. When a subnet's alpha price is below its expected share of emissions, instead of just injecting the full TAO amount into the liquidity pool (which would further depress the alpha price), the protocol:
1.Scales down both TAO and alpha injected to keep the injection price-neutral.
2.Uses the leftover TAO to buy alpha tokens directly — this creates upward pressure on the alpha price.
So yes, the protocol takes a portion of the subnet's TAO emissions and uses it to buy the subnet's alpha token, effectively supporting the price. This is what we mean by "Chain Buys" — the chain itself acts as a buyer of last resort to stabilize the alpha price and keep the sum of prices at or above 1 TAO.
It's a built-in stabilizer: if the market undervalues a subnet's alpha, the protocol steps in to correct it.
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