Covenant AI Exits Bittensor Network Amid Governance Concerns

Bittensor (TAO) suffered a significant setback after Covenant AI, a key research group on its network, left over governance concerns. The entity had been building the decentralized AI model Covenant-72B before accusing co-founder Jacob Steeves of exerting too much control.

Covenant AI claimed that emissions to its subnet were suspended, permissions were revoked, and protocol changes were made without its input. This led them to describe the situation as evidence of centralized governance.

The departure triggered a sharp decline in TAO's price, which briefly dropped to $253, its lowest since mid-March, before recovering slightly to around $263. The token's market capitalization fell to approximately $2.5 billion.