Bittensor news

TaoWeave, formerly Oblong, sold 3,959.23 TAO during the first half of 2026, raising $1.172 million to fund operations, per its Aug. 7 filing. The sale, which produced a $114,000 net loss, reduced its treasury by 5.4% to 23,335.18 TAO, worth $4.709 million at June 30, despite buying 1,900 TAO and earning 728.97 TAO from staking. The company, which holds no other digital assets and lacks a credit facility, flagged potential future sales contingent on cash needs and market prices. A sensitivity analysis suggests sustaining current spending could require selling about 8,298 more TAO within a year, underscoring tension between its accumulation strategy and liquidity demands.

Quasar, operating as Subnet 24 on the Bittensor network, has launched a decentralized AI training marketplace. Developed by SILX AI, the platform uses a competitive system where miners refine AI models and are rewarded for improvements, aiming to cut pre-training costs by 99.5% compared to centralized methods. The project focuses on long-context foundation models with context lengths of up to 2 million tokens, utilizing its Quasar Attention methodology and hybrid architecture. The Quasar-3B model was released in April 2026, following the Quasar-Preview checkpoint on Hugging Face. The initiative plans a 10-trillion-token training run in two phases of 5 trillion tokens each, a scale comparable to the largest AI training efforts. Quasar has also partnered with Subnet 56 (Gradients) and Subnet 3 for integrated long-context training, signaling increased collaboration across Bittensor subnets. Observers are monitoring whether the Quasar-3B model's benchmarks and the ambitious training schedule will validate the decentralized approach and potentially boost the value of the TAO token.

Cryptocurrency exchange MEXC has launched staking support for Bittensor's native TAO token, enabling its reported 40 million users to earn rewards by helping secure the decentralized AI network. The integration leverages Bittensor validator Yuma's infrastructure. TAO holders can stake tokens to validators like Yuma, which allocate stake across Bittensor's 128 subnets specializing in AI tasks. The move aims to broaden access to the Bittensor ecosystem as interest in decentralized AI grows amid concerns over government restrictions on proprietary models. TAO was trading at approximately $199, with a market cap of roughly $1.916 billion at the time of reporting.

Yuma, a Digital Currency Group-backed investment firm, launched the Yuma Total Market Fund to provide institutional investors diversified exposure to the Bittensor ecosystem, including the native TAO token and AI-focused subnets. The fund started with seed capital from an undisclosed anchor investor. The Bittensor network supports decentralized AI development across 128 subnets, which Yuma values at over $900 million combined, though Taostats data suggests about $300 million. TAO has a market cap of nearly $2.4 billion. Institutional interest is growing: Grayscale increased TAO's weighting in its Decentralized AI Fund to 43% in April, later reduced to 20%. Bitwise filed for a TAO Strategy ETF, and Grayscale submitted a registration to convert its Bittensor Trust into a spot ETF.

Wormhole Labs, in collaboration with the Solana Foundation, has launched a canonical bridged version of Bittensor's TAO token on Solana, enabling native trading on major DeFi platforms like Jupiter, Meteora, and wallets Phantom and Solflare. The announcement was made at Solana's Accelerate USA conference. The bridging is powered by Wormhole's Sunrise platform, which uses Native Token Transfers to lock or burn tokens on the source chain and mint them on Solana, preserving metadata and ensuring canonical status. This move adds TAO to Solana's growing list of native tokens, including XRP, MEGA, HYPE, AVAX, and MON. Bittensor is a decentralized AI protocol that incentivizes network participation with TAO tokens. Digital Currency Group is a major backer, and Grayscale has filed to convert its TAO trust into an ETF, despite some criticism of Bittensor's decentralization practices.

BitTensor's TAO token plunged over 18% after Covenant AI, a major subnet operator, announced its departure from the decentralized AI network. Covenant AI founder Sam Dare accused BitTensor founder Jacob Steeves of centralized control, including suspending subnet emissions and overriding community spaces. Steeves denied the allegations, but the public dispute has raised concerns about BitTensor's decentralization claims. TAO has fallen to around $272, erasing most gains from a recent surge linked to Covenant AI's model training being highlighted on a popular podcast.

Bittensor's market value dropped by $900 million after Covenant AI, a key developer, exited the network amid governance disputes. The departure caused TAO's price to fall 27% and triggered $11 million in liquidations. Covenant AI accused co-founder Jacob Steeves of centralized control, while Steeves denied the allegations. The conflict escalated from a Discord spat, leading to a sell-off that impacted retail investors. Despite the turmoil, Bittensor plans structural reforms like lock-based subnet ownership to enhance stability. Institutional interest remains strong, with network expansion and a potential ETF approval on the horizon.

Bittensor co-founder Jacob Steeves denied allegations from Covenant AI founder Sam Dare that he abused his position to force the project off the platform. Steeves refuted claims he could suspend subnet emissions, saying he only sold tokens like any other holder and lacked special privileges. Dare accused Steeves of maintaining effective control over Bittensor's governance, calling it 'decentralization theatre.' Steeves responded to each specific allegation, including about Discord moderation and token sales, which he said were small and within his rights. The dispute followed Covenant AI's exit announcement, which caused Bittensor's TAO token to drop 15% on Thursday, adding to its decline from April's all-time high.

Covenant AI, a Bittensor subnet developer, announced it is leaving the decentralized AI network, accusing founder Jacob Steeves of maintaining excessive control and undermining decentralization claims. The dispute centers on governance concentration, with Covenant alleging Steeves unilaterally suspended emissions and applied economic pressure, which he denied. Bittensor's TAO token dropped 18% amid the conflict, with sell volume spiking before the announcement. The incident raises broader concerns about cosmetic decentralization in crypto projects, as highlighted by industry commentators.

Bittensor's TAO token dropped over 9% in 24 hours, making it the worst-performing top-100 cryptocurrency, as Covenant AI announced its departure from the network. Covenant AI, which operated three key subnets, cited concerns about centralization, accusing Bittensor co-founder Jacob Steeves of exercising control over the supposedly decentralized network. The exit marks a dramatic shift from earlier positive sentiment, as Covenant AI's model had previously helped trigger a TAO rally. The company said it will retain its research and models, with new projects expected soon, while the departure may spark further governance debates within the Bittensor community.