Bittensor Crashes 20% After Covenant AI Exit: Will TAO Continue Tanking?

Key Insights

• TAO crashes 20% as Covenant AI exits over centralization claims. Centralization claims pushed TAO from $337 to $262 in 24 hours, a big hit for decentralized AI.
• Covenant’s statement said revenue, governance, and infrastructure changes were implemented top-down and controlled by a few actors, rather than being decentralized.
• TAO subnets’ price performances continue to tank too amid fears the weakness could extend to the broader AI market.

Cryptocurrency has been embraced by many following its decentralized nature. However, when this structure is disrupted, things tend to fall apart, affecting prices and network activity of the associated assets. Bittensor (TAO) has fallen into this trap, and its price action over the past 24 hours told the story.

While most of the large-cap altcoins were recording gains, even those with an AI narrative, TAO was trading in the opposite direction. The AI market extended its weekly lead in terms of gains, but the largest AI crypto was having a rough day.

Why Bittensor Price Crashed 20% In 24 Hours

Bittensor fell out with Covenant AI which is one of the major contributors, which led to TAO price falling more than 20%. The company had contributed immensely to development, including Covenant-72B, which was the largest decentralized LLM acknowledged by Nvidia’s CEO and Anthropic’s co-founder.

Bittensor’s price declined from around $340 to $262 at the time of writing. Its market cap also broke below the $3 billion mark to trade at $2.84 billion, a capital of more than 600 million lost in hours. About $9 million in TAO longs were wiped out during this drop.

Shortly after the fallout, Covenant AI released a statement addressing what led to their decision. They sold about 37K TAO, valued at around $10 million, amplifying the decline.

Through a post on X, the founder of Covenant AI, Sam Dare accused the founder of TAO of centralizing the blockchain. He cited that they were halted from revenue and governance with changes implemented, which meant control by a few actors. The Bittensor team is yet to respond to these allegations.

Still, some analysts believed that TAO would make a comeback, as the move was overstretched. For instance, Michael van de Poppe noted that the short-term negative impact would fade away.

TAO Price Prediction: Will Price Tank More?

Looking at the daily chart, Bittensor price was depicting the massive crash that happened recently. The altcoin broke below the higher low at $265 with the price starting to reject after tapping into the buy-side liquidity around these levels. This decline had corrected the bullish move that happened since mid-March by about 50%, which is a healthy pullback.

In case the bearish sentiment gains pace, TAO price may crash further, even reaching $200. This level was just below the previous zone where market structure was broken to the upside at around $190-$210.

Conversely, bulls could curtail this anticipated drop, according to Michael van de Poppe. That would mean TAO would stop tanking at either $265 or around $200. In that case, Bittensor price would bounce toward the levels around $400 or higher.

TAO Subnets Dump and Impact on AI Market

Meanwhile, the impact was extended to TAO’s subnets, which dumped even harder than the mainnet blockchain. These decentralized AI marketplaces were seeing drawdowns that exceeded 20%, with grail (SN81) leading at 67%. Other subnets in this mix were Ridges AI, Chutes, Synth, Score, and Vidaio.

Such impacts on TAO’s AI economy suggested the spoils could extend to the broader AI market. The market cap of this sector traded at around $17.36 billion, a 2.24% decrease. This lost capital would be more were it not for the AI crypto coins that held strong. All in all, TAO’s price may recover if short-term sell pressure reduces. Otherwise, the crash may continue.

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