CoinDesk
18 September 2025
5 0

Asia Morning Briefing: Bittensor’s dTAO Offers Retail Investors AI Exposure

Market Overview

  • Robinhood's Tokenized Shares: Robinhood attracted attention by offering tokenized shares of OpenAI through a special purpose vehicle. However, OpenAI's counsel warned these tokens do not constitute equity and are unauthorized, presenting potential risks for investors.
  • Bittensor's dTAO Upgrade: Bittensor launched its Dynamic TAO (dTAO) upgrade in February 2024, turning staking into a venture capital-like model. TAO holders allocate directly to subnets with on-chain AI startups, receiving "alpha" tokens reflecting performance and demand.
  • Subnet Innovations: Bridges, a subnet, outperformed Anthropic’s Claude 4 in code generation using minimal resources. Chutes acts as a decentralized AWS, significantly reducing costs for AI workloads.
  • Investment Opportunities: For retail investors, subnet staking offers a permissionless, verifiable alternative to traditional structured products like SPVs, potentially democratizing access to AI growth.
  • General Sentiment: Bittensor's approach provides investment access from day one, contrasting with the restricted investment models of other AI firms like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Market Movement

  • BTC: Stable at $116,851 after Fed's rate cut.
  • ETH: Increased by 6% weekly, reaching $4,603.60.
  • Gold: Deutsche Bank forecasts $4,000/oz. for 2026 amid strong central bank demand and political uncertainty.
  • S&P 500: Decreased by 0.1% to 6,600.35 following Fed’s rate cut announcement.

Elsewhere in Crypto

  • xStocks Issuer chose Switzerland to avoid whitelisting tokenized Tesla shares (Decrypt).
  • Senior executives depart from Crypto Exchange Kraken (CoinDesk).
  • DeFi Development acquired nearly $15 million in SOL, increasing Solana holdings beyond 2 million tokens (The Block).