Something rare just happened in crypto—and if you’ve been around this space long enough, you know how rarely rare actually is.

TAO, the native token of Bittensor, just hit a year high… while the rest of the market sank.

Though it’s come back down a bit, it’s a sign something important is happening.

Because that’s not supposed to happen. Usually, crypto moves as one giant school of fish.

When Bitcoin turns, everything turns.

We’ve been saying this decoupling will happen with certain projects. And lately, Bittensor’s TAO token seems to be swimming on its own.

After my latest podcast with Jonathan Malkin, a long-time contributor and investor in Bittensor, I think I understand why.

Here’s what we talked about.

The Bitcoin of AI

Seventeen years ago, Bitcoin was just a white paper.

One person—maybe a few— said, “Let’s build money that doesn’t need permission.” It sounded crazy. But it worked.

Now, something similar is happening with Bittensor.

Since launch, Bittensor has been proving that you can build companies without permission.

Not through OpenAI, not through Google’s servers, but through a decentralized network where anyone—anywhere—can contribute compute, data, or models… and earn.

The Permission Problem

If I want to start an AI company today, I need permission from Nvidia for chips, permission from VCs for funding, and permission from governments for licenses.

That’s the chokehold.

That’s what makes AI feel like it’s already been captured—before it even matured.

Bittensor flips that dynamic.

You don’t need anyone’s blessing. You don’t need venture capital.

You just spin up a subnet—your own mini-network—and let anyone in the world compete to do the work.

Developers contribute models. Operators run infrastructure. Stakers “vote” by delegating their TAO.

Everyone earns.

No permission. No gatekeepers. No board meetings.

Just incentives—written in code.

The Repricing Event

Nvidia builds the picks and shovels for centralized AI. Bittensor builds them for decentralized AI.

If history repeats—and it usually rhymes—we’re watching the TCP/IP moment of AI.

In the early 1990s, AOL was the centralized network everyone knew.

TCP/IP was the open protocol no one cared about. A decade later, AOL vanished, and the open internet built the modern world.

We’re right back there. Only this time, with AI.

The Subnet Revolution

In the podcast, we went deeper into what’s really driving this latest move: subnet discovery.

Each subnet is like a startup. Some detect deepfakes. Some train LLMs. Some build 3D models. Others trade predictions.

Every subnet has its own token (“alpha tokens”), its own incentives, and its own miners.

Here’s the thing: to buy a subnet token, you need TAO. Every subnet purchase = TAO demand.

That’s why we’re seeing TAO rise while the rest of crypto falls.

As institutional products (like Yuma Asset Management’s subnet index funds) roll out, as exchanges like MEXC and LayerZero bridges integrate subnet liquidity—every transaction, every subnet, every alpha token burns a little more scarcity into TAO.

The Big Picture

TAO isn’t “up” just because of hype.

It’s up because a fundamental repricing is underway—one that reflects a deeper truth:

The world is shifting from permissioned progress to permissionless progress.

Bittensor is one project leading the way.

And as the bridges, funds, and liquidity pools multiply, the network’s reach expands—not linearly, but exponentially.

A global marketplace for machine intelligence is coming online, one subnet at a time.

It’s early. It’s volatile. But the direction is clear.

To learn more about Bittensor… and why I’m so bullish…

Click here to listen to the full podcast.