In the early days of October, the Ocean Protocol (OCEAN) Foundation announced its withdrawal from the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI), an alliance it had formed with Fetch.ai (FET) and SingularityNET (AGIX). This announcement led to a significant drop in the price of ASI, with double-digit declines following the news of the split. Subsequently, a dispute arose between Fetch.ai and the Ocean Protocol Foundation.
However, the two entities have decided to resolve their ongoing token disputes without resorting to legal action and have reached an agreement. This agreement includes the return of 286 million Fetch.ai (FET) tokens, valued at approximately $120 million.
Resolution of the Dispute
Fetch.ai CEO Humayun Sheikh stated on Thursday that his team would halt all legal proceedings if Ocean Protocol returned the 286 million FET tokens that were allegedly sold during the merger process. He indicated that Ocean Protocol was awaiting a formal legal offer to return the tokens, which would be presented the following day. The proposal is straightforward: return the tokens to his community, and Fetch.ai will waive all legal claims.
GeoStaking, a validator node associated with Fetch.ai, reportedly played a role in mediating the discussions. Following the submission of a formal proposal, Ocean Protocol agreed to the rollback of the tokens.
This agreement allows both parties to settle their differences without the burden of protracted litigation, which could have had detrimental effects on their reputations and financial stability. Furthermore, the resolution will enable both projects to concentrate on advancing collaboration and innovation within the decentralized artificial intelligence and Web3 sectors.
Background of the Dispute
The ASI alliance was established in March 2024 with the objective of consolidating the Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, and Ocean Protocol ecosystems under a single, unified AI token. This integration involved converting AGIX and OCEAN tokens into Fetch.ai's FET token at predetermined rates, after which FET was to be rebranded as ASI. Due to the absence of a new smart contract, most exchanges and data platforms continued to list the token under its original ticker symbol, FET.
Ocean Protocol subsequently announced its departure from the trilateral alliance. The conflict between Fetch.ai and Ocean Protocol escalated when Fetch.ai accused Ocean Protocol of converting 661 million OCEAN tokens into 286 million FET tokens via a multi-signature wallet linked to the project. Ocean Protocol founder Bruce Pon refuted these claims, asserting that the recent decline in FET's price was unrelated to Ocean's withdrawal from the ASI Alliance, which was formed through the merger of Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol, and SingularityNET.