Ocean Protocol withdraws from AI token alliance with Fetch.ai and SingularityNET

In a blog post on Thursday, the Ocean Protocol Foundation said it has withdrawn its designated directors and resigned as a member of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, “effective immediately.”

The Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI) was formed in March 2024 by Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, and Ocean Protocol to unify their AI-focused ecosystems under a single token. Instead of launching a new asset, the merger consolidated the AGIX and OCEAN tokens into Fetch.ai’s FET, which became the base token and was later rebranded as ASI. Holders of AGIX and OCEAN could voluntarily convert their tokens into FET at fixed rates, while unconverted tokens remained valid on their original contracts.

Although the unified token was branded as ASI, no new smart contract was created — FET simply adopted the new name. As a result, most exchanges and data platforms continue to list and trade the token under the FET ticker, making ASI primarily a rebranding and tokenomics consolidation rather than a full technical migration.

The goal was to pool resources, align token economics, and build a shared infrastructure for decentralized AI development — though participation remained optional and each foundation retained governance independence. In September 2024, the Alliance was further expanded through the integration of CUDOS, whose network and token supply were absorbed into the ASI ecosystem to contribute to decentralized compute infrastructure.

Over the past year, Ocean said it had worked closely with other Alliance members on technology integration, joint podcasts, and community events, including the Superintelligence Summit and ETHGlobal NYC. However, the collaboration has now seemingly fractured, with Ocean’s rationale centered around securing independent funding and tokenomics, maintaining flexibility for holders, and enabling a supply-reducing mechanism for OCEAN.

“Moving forward, funding for future Ocean development efforts is fully secured,” the project said. “A portion of profits from spin-outs of Ocean-derived technologies will be used to buy back and burn OCEAN, offering a permanent and continual supply reduction of the OCEAN supply.”

Since July 2024, about 81% of the OCEAN supply has been converted into FET, leaving roughly 270 million OCEAN held by 37,334 addresses, according to the blog post. The Fetch.ai-managed bridge remains open for conversions at a rate of 0.433226 FET per OCEAN, while unconverted tokens continue to trade on major exchanges, including Coinbase, Kraken, Upbit, Binance US, Uniswap, and SushiSwap.

‘Alignment is vital, transitions are natural’

Responding to the Ocean Protocol Foundation’s decision on X, the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance said, “Alignment is vital in any evolving partnership. Transitions are natural.”

ASI added that Ocean Protocol’s departure would not affect its core technology stack, that development momentum remains strong, and the founding teams remain fully aligned in their mission.

Fetch.ai echoed that sentiment. “The ASI Alliance — founded on collaboration between Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, Ocean Protocol and CUDOS — was always built on voluntary cooperation and aligned purpose,” it said. “That purpose remains unchanged: to advance an open, decentralized AI infrastructure.”

The Artificial Superintelligence Alliance token is down around 3.8% following the news, according to The Block’s FET price page.