Bittensor Price Plummets 20% Amid Governance Dispute with Key Research Group

Bittensor (TAO) experienced a significant price drop of 20% in a single day, following the departure of Covenant AI, a key research group that accused co-founder Jacob Steeves of holding too much control over the project's governance.

Covenant AI had been operating on the Bittensor network and built the decentralized AI model known as Covenant-72B. However, they publicly alleged that Steeves held excessive power over critical decisions, leading to their departure.

The group claimed that emissions to its subnet were suspended, permissions were revoked, and protocol changes were made without their input. This led to a governance dispute, with some analysts pointing out that the situation was evidence of centralized control.