Grayscale's Bittensor Trust hits public markets days before first halving event

Grayscale's TAO token investment vehicle has hit the public market, just days before the token's native Bittensor network is set for its first halving event. 

The Grayscale Bittensor Trust began trading under the ticker symbol GTAO on OTCQX, a secondary market operated by OTC Markets Group Inc., according to an announcement on Thursday. GTAO is now the "first publicly quoted investment product in the U.S. designed to provide exposure to TAO," Grayscale said in a statement on Thursday. 

The trust has been private since launching in August 2024, meaning it will now be accessible to a broader set of investors via public quotation. 

Grayscale, a Digital Currency Group subsidiary, is one of the leading providers of digital asset investment products. The firm operates some of the largest exchange-traded funds tracking major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and has also converted some of its single-asset altcoin trusts into exchange-traded products — like the recent launch of the Grayscale LINK fund, the first Chainlink ETF to market.

It also offers a range of private market funds tracking assets like Avalanche and Zcash tokens, and a wider range of publicly traded trusts tracking assets like the Basic Attention Token, NEAR, and SUI. In all, Grayscale offers dozens of investment vehicles, including its single-asset trusts, diversified index products, and ETFs.

Half Tao?

TAO is the native token of the decentralized, AI-focused network Bittensor, essentially a hub-and-spoke blockchain that supports application-specific subnets. The system pays users TAO tokens for contributing computing power to improve and support these AI-powered chains.

Bittensor is set for halving on Dec. 14, which is poised to increase the scarcity of TAO by reducing the token emissions distributed among network participants. The network capped the supply to 21 million TAO and halves its emission rate approximately every four years, like Bitcoin.

“With Grayscale Bittensor Trust now available on public markets, investors can access what we believe is a fundamental shift in how intelligence is created and shared,” Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, head of product and research at Grayscale, said in a statement. “Bittensor is emerging as the Internet of AI, an open ecosystem where collective intelligence can grow in a way that is transparent, decentralized, and fair."

The GTAO trust will now file reports and financial statements with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Editor's note: A previous version of this story said GTAO was only limited to accredited investors for now.