TAO suddenly plummeted today, at one point dropping about 15% during the session, hitting a low of around 266 dollars, and there is currently a trend of further weakening 📉. Many people's first reaction is a normal correction, but the real trigger might be a public letter.
The letter is from Sam Dare, the founder of Covenant AI, and his team is one of the most critical subnets in the #bittensor ecosystem.
🚀 Once a highlight: a model igniting the entire market
Just a month ago, #CovenantAI was at its 'moment of glory'. They trained the 72B parameter model Covenant-72B using civilian hardware from over 70 contributors, directly labeling it as 'the largest training of decentralized AI'.
This operation directly brought #TAO into mainstream view:
Jensen Huang publicly liked it, Silicon Valley investor Chamath Palihapitiya mentioned it on a podcast, and market sentiment was directly ignited. TAO even rose nearly 90% within a month, becoming the brightest line in the bear market🔥.
💣Plot twist: core team announces exit
But today the plot took a sharp turn.
Sam Dare publicly announced leaving Bittensor and directly 'fired' in the letter, with the core target being only one: the so-called decentralized network is actually highly controlled by Jacob Steeves.
The key points of his accusations include:
Subnet emissions have been directly suspended, Covenant's income has been cut off
Applying pressure during the conflict with token sell-off
Network governance resembles 'single-point control', rather than a true DAO
In summary: 👉 'Decentralization is just a facade.'
🔍On-chain data strikes back: governance structure is questioned
The investigation website Tao Papers, launched simultaneously, also released on-chain data:
41 network upgrades from 2023 to 2026
Among them, 38 times from proposal to execution were almost driven by the same core address
The other two 'governance members' basically just signed quickly, with no public discussion records
If the data is true, then the so-called 'three-person governance' is more like:
👉 One decision-maker + two stamp machines
📉Market reaction: the narrative collapses faster than the price
The more dramatic part is that the timeline is almost synchronous:
After Sam Dare announced his departure, on-chain data showed he liquidated about 37,000 TAO, further exacerbating market panic (FUD).
However, the project's response was very restrained, implying that: 👉 Covenant's departure is actually beneficial for the independent evolution of subnets
But there has been no direct response to specific accusations.
🔄A reality: rises and falls are driven by 'the same force'
Looking back at this round of market, the structure is actually very clear:
Covenant-72B released → TAO up 50% in two weeks
Subnet tokens soared by up to 400%
TAO was strongly driven up
But the problem is also obvious: in a network that claims to have 125+ subnets, the few star subnets are always the ones that can really influence the price.
🧠The most critical contradiction
The core of this incident is actually not about 'who is right and who is wrong', but a more realistic question:
👉 Is decentralized narrative about structure or story?
The market has already provided half of the answer:
Narrative in → capital concentrated influx
Narrative cracks → liquidity quickly retreats
What's more brutal is: those who create narratives can be the pumpers or possibly the crash triggers.
⚠️Ending
TAO's 15% drop today appears to be price volatility but is more like a narrative reassessment.
In the crypto market, a repeatedly validated rule is:
Prices do not follow technology but follow 'who is telling the story.'
As long as people are here, the story continues. Once people leave, the market starts recalculating💥
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