Decentralized AI project Bittensor has seen its native token, TAO, gain 13% in the past day, seemingly driven by an unconfirmed rumor that digital asset manager Grayscale plans to register a new trust tracking the token.
At the time of writing, Bittensor’s price has climbed 13% to $483.10, marking a 21% gain compared to this time last week, according to CoinMarkeCap data.
TAO 24-hour price chart | Source: CoinMarketCap
The latest feat makes TAO the best-performing asset in the top 100 on CoinGecko, surpassing ETH meme coin darling PepeCoin.
PEPE, along with other meme tokens like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, have all experienced notable gains as investors await the Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision on a spot Ethereum ETF.
A pseudonymous Crypto Twitter user, CEYEBER, who founded the official Bittensor Community Channel on Telegram, claims the Grayscale rumor has been “confirmed by close sources.” However, there is no evidence of this in SEC filings.
The grayscale trust $TAO has been confirmed by close sources. Bittensor is huge, $TAO is the asset.
— CEYEBER ττ , ϙ (@EyeofCyber) May 22, 2024
If the TAO offering were to be a close-end fund available over-the-counter to wealthy investors, like the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, before its conversion to a spot ETF, there would likely be a Regulation D filing. In March, Grayscale filed to establish a Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust with an S-1 registration as a new spot BTC offering.
At present, neither type of filing has been submitted. In fact, “Bittensor” does not appear in any SEC filings dating back to 2001.
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The latest rumor is not the only positive news for the decentralized AI project.
The Taobot, a component of the Bittensor ecosystem, has had a successful week. On Tuesday, the team announced it had been accepted as one of the first projects to join Akash Network’s Llama 3 API beta.
We’re thrilled to announce that $TAOBOT is among the first projects accepted into the @akashnet_ LlaMa 3 API beta!Akash is now live on our Interact platform, offering direct access to LlaMa 3 8B and serving as the fallback for Subnet 18, @Corcel_X.Akash is the world’s… pic.twitter.com/cQEV4hoX2z
— tao.bot (τ, τ) (@taodotbot) May 21, 2024
Akash Network recently announced that its chat supports Llama 3, the latest open-source model from Meta AI, allowing users to test the model without creating an account.
“Test the newest model from Meta AI for yourself without creating an account,” the project wrote on Twitter at the time. “Completely free and permissionless.”
Furthermore, the Taobot team has started collaborating with the Bittensor Subnet 15 project, Blockchain Insights, to enable users to analyze blockchain data using simple language. The subnet aims to organize blockchain data across multiple networks to make complex data queries more efficient.
“Our integration will empower users to perform diverse blockchain queries, from simple transactions to DeFi protocol analytics and NFT exchanges,” the Taobot team wrote on X.
As the situation develops, it remains to be seen if Grayscale will indeed file for a TAO trust, but the speculation has already provided a significant boost to Bittensor’s market performance.
Read more: Wells Fargo invests in Grayscale spot Bitcoin ETF