Key Highlights
- TAO token experienced a near 100% price increase throughout March, reaching around $317 with a market capitalization exceeding $3 billion
- Subnet 3 on the Bittensor network unveiled Covenant-72B, a massive 72-billion-parameter AI model developed across 70+ decentralized nodes
- Covenant-72B achieved a 67.1 score on the MMLU evaluation, comparable to Meta’s Llama 2 70B performance
- Grayscale submitted an amended S-1 registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a passive Bittensor (TAO) Trust product
- More than 68% of the total 10.7 million TAO tokens in circulation are presently staked on the network
The Bittensor network’s native TAO token experienced remarkable growth throughout March 2026, with prices nearly doubling to reach approximately $317. This impressive surge propelled the protocol’s total market capitalization beyond the $3 billion threshold.
This significant price appreciation occurred alongside a groundbreaking technological achievement within the Bittensor network. The development team behind Subnet 3 unveiled Covenant-72B, an advanced language model containing 72 billion parameters that was trained using more than 70 globally distributed computing nodes.
Covenant-72B demonstrated impressive capabilities by achieving a 67.1 score on the MMLU (Massive Multitask Language Understanding) benchmark, an industry-standard evaluation framework for assessing large language model performance. This result positions the model competitively alongside Meta’s Llama 2 70B.
Many observers viewed this achievement as the first substantial evidence that decentralized, permissionless artificial intelligence training can deliver results matching those of traditional centralized approaches. Previously, distributed training methodologies faced skepticism due to concerns about processing speed and coordination challenges.
The primary subnet token associated with this breakthrough, τemplar (SN3), experienced explosive growth with a rally exceeding 400% over the preceding month, achieving a market capitalization of approximately $130 million.
Expanding Activity Across the Bittensor Network
Developments extended beyond Covenant-72B throughout the wider Bittensor subnet landscape. Targon (SN4), operating as a decentralized GPU computing marketplace managed by Manifold Labs, finalized a substantial six-figure partnership to provide infrastructure support for Dippy AI’s operations, which currently serves 8.6 million active users.
The GMCI AI Index, a benchmark tracking prominent cryptocurrency tokens in the artificial intelligence sector, climbed 48% from early February levels. Bittensor represents the largest component with a 24.89% weighting and served as the primary contributor to the index’s performance.
Additional index constituents include Render (RNDR) and Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI), with these three assets collectively comprising more than 71% of the total index composition. However, despite recent momentum, the index continues trading 84% below its peak levels recorded during the first quarter of 2024.
Grayscale Advances SEC Registration for TAO Investment Product
On April 3, 2026, Grayscale Investments filed an amended S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for its Bittensor (TAO) Trust offering. This investment vehicle functions as a passive holding structure designed to maintain TAO tokens and provide investors with exposure to TAO price movements through tradeable trust shares.
Presently, the Bittensor network has 10.7 million TAO tokens in active circulation. Notably, more than 68% of this available supply is currently locked in staking arrangements.
The introduction of Covenant-72B and Grayscale’s regulatory filing constitute the two most significant recent developments impacting the TAO token as of April 3, 2026.
