Key Highlights
- TAO token has climbed over 15% in the past week, with prices hovering between $289 and $298
- Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, and investor Chamath Palihapitiya endorsed Bittensor’s distributed AI training approach during the All-In Podcast
- Covenant-72B, a 72-billion-parameter language model, represents the largest decentralized pre-training initiative ever documented
- Daily trading volume surged to $677 million while open interest climbed to $361 million, marking multi-month peaks
- Grayscale’s application to transform the Bittensor Trust into a spot ETF signals rising institutional appetite
Bittensor (TAO) is currently changing hands in the $289–$298 range this week, registering gains exceeding 15% across the seven-day period. The price surge followed discussions on the All-In Podcast featuring NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang and prominent venture investor Chamath Palihapitiya, who highlighted a groundbreaking achievement in distributed artificial intelligence.
During the podcast, Palihapitiya outlined how a sophisticated language model was developed using distributed computing power from independent participants worldwide. “They successfully trained a 4 billion parameter LLaMA model through complete distribution, with numerous contributors offering their spare computational resources,” he explained, characterizing it as “an extraordinarily impressive technical feat.”
Subsequent verification revealed the actual model is Covenant-72B, not the 4 billion parameter version mentioned in the discussion. The Opentensor Foundation has since clarified that Covenant-72B is a massive 72-billion-parameter language model that was pre-trained through contributions from over 70 global participants utilizing conventional internet-connected hardware. The model recorded a 67.1 MMLU score and its development is detailed in an arXiv research paper dated March 2026. This represents the most extensive decentralized language model pre-training effort ever recorded.
Huang expressed strong support for the decentralized AI paradigm. “These aren’t mutually exclusive options; they coexist,” Huang stated. “That’s absolutely certain.” He positioned proprietary and open-source approaches as mutually reinforcing rather than adversarial.
TAO experienced an approximately 5% increase in the hours immediately after the podcast aired, accompanied by trading volume that nearly doubled during the overnight session.
Market Activity and Derivatives Interest Spike
Blockchain analytics from Santiment indicate that Bittensor’s trading volume peaked at $677.06 million on Sunday — representing the highest figure recorded since November 7. As of Friday, volume remained substantially elevated at $521.92 million.
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Futures open interest data compiled by CoinGlass showed a climb to $361.15 million on Monday, advancing from $131.94 million recorded on March 4. By week’s end on Friday, open interest stood at $331.95 million, maintaining positions near multi-month highs.
Growing Institutional Engagement
Grayscale has submitted regulatory filings to transition the Bittensor Trust into a spot exchange-traded fund. The trust currently trades above net asset value, which market observers interpret as evidence of strengthening institutional demand.
Bittensor has simultaneously launched Covenant-72B to stimulate usage of its distributed computing infrastructure, while ongoing development of modular subnets continues drawing interest from both retail traders and institutional participants.
From a technical perspective, TAO is positioned above its 50-day, 100-day, and 200-day exponential moving averages. The Relative Strength Index currently registers 77, indicating overbought conditions. Immediate resistance appears around $305.30, with a subsequent upside target at $341.10 should that threshold be breached.
https://twitter.com/ArdiNSC/status/2034879384750862788?s=20
Market analyst Ardi identified a right-angled broadening descending wedge pattern developing since October, noting that a confirmed breakout would require a daily closing price above $302. Under that technical scenario, the next price objective sits in the $360–$370 range.
TAO has appreciated 37% over the trailing seven days and 55.66% across the past month, though it continues trading 61.13% beneath its all-time peak of $767.68 established in April 2024.
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