Grayscale, the largest digital asset manager in the United States, filed registration documents for a Bittensor (TAO) spot ETF with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on December 30th. This marks the first attempt at an ETF in the United States to directly invest in Bittensor spot.
This application came shortly after the BitTensor Network completed its first halving on December 14th. The halving halved the daily token issuance from 7,200 to 3,600, increasing its scarcity. The price of TAO briefly declined following the halving but is currently stable at around $221.
The ETF will trade on the New York Stock Exchange's AKA exchange under the ticker "GTAO," with Coinbase Custody and BitGo handling custody. Grayscale listed its privately held BitTensor Trust on the public market this month, after operating it privately since August 2024.
On the same day, Bitwise also included the Bittensor Strategy ETF in its package of 11 cryptocurrency ETF applications. The simultaneous applications from both operators demonstrate the real institutional demand for AI tokens.
TAO is the core token of the decentralized AI network, Vitensor. The network rewards participants who provide the computing resources necessary for AI model training with TAO. Its current market capitalization is approximately $2.3 billion.
Grayscale already operates ETFs for major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Chainlink, and recently applied for an Avalanche ETF. While SEC approval is expected to take several months, this marks the beginning of a full-scale entry into traditional financial markets for AI and blockchain-integrated projects.
