Gate News report: April 10, according to Gate market data, as of the time of writing, TAO (Bittensor) is trading at $269.80. It is down 16.28% over the past 24 hours, with a high of $341.10 and a low of $248.60. Trading volume over the past 24 hours reached $14.71 million. The current market cap is approximately $2.59B.
Bittensor is an open-source protocol that supports a decentralized, blockchain-based machine learning network. Machine learning models are collaboratively trained, and they earn rewards in TAO based on the information value they provide to the collective. TAO also allows external access, enabling users to extract information from the network and adjust network activity according to their needs.
Key recent developments for TAO:
1️⃣ Major subnet developer Covenant AI announces its exit, triggering an ecosystem governance trust crisis Covenant AI, the main subnet developer on Bittensor, has officially announced that it is exiting the network. Founder Sam Dare accused co-founder Jacob Steeves of effectively controlling network governance, claiming that its “three-person multisig governance” structure is essentially a “decentralized theater,” with effective control held by a single entity. Covenant AI previously developed Covenant-72B, which became one of the largest decentralized LLM pretraining cases on Bittensor. Dare also accused Steeves of taking suppressive actions, such as pausing subnet token emissions, stripping community management permissions, and unilaterally deprecating infrastructure. These events directly impacted market sentiment.
2️⃣ Founder makes large-scale selloff, releasing a negative market signal Around the period before and after Covenant AI founder Sam Dare’s exit announcement, he sold 37k TAO within 6 hours, worth approximately $10 million. This large selloff further intensified downside pressure on the market, indicating the founder’s pessimism about the project’s prospects.
3️⃣ Grayscale submits an S-1 amendment for the trust, signaling institutional involvement Grayscale has filed an S-1 amendment for its Bittensor (TAO) trust. This passive product will allow investors to gain TAO exposure by holding shares. This move suggests that institutional-level investment products continue to be in ongoing preparation. However, amid the governance turmoil, whether institutional entry can hedge ecosystem risks remains to be observed.
This information does not constitute investment advice. Be sure to consider risks from market volatility when investing.