Grayscale Lists Bittensor Trust Ahead of TAO’s First Halving

Grayscale has opened public trading for its Bittensor investment vehicle, giving U.S. investors a new way to gain exposure to the AI-focused TAO token just days before the network undergoes its first halving.

The product, now listed on the OTCQX under the ticker GTAO, marks the first publicly quoted investment instrument in the U.S. designed specifically around Bittensor’s native asset.

The trust had operated privately since its debut in August 2024, but the move to OTC trading broadens access to a wider pool of investors while keeping participation limited to accredited buyers.

Expanding Grayscale’s Lineup With an AI-Native Asset

GTAO joins Grayscale’s extensive roster of digital asset products, which spans from major crypto ETFs – including vehicles tied to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Chainlink – to single-asset trusts and diversified index offerings for tokens like Avalanche, Zcash, NEAR, and SUI. The launch underscores Grayscale’s strategy of pushing niche assets to regulated markets as demand for specialized exposure grows.

Bittensor Approaches Its First Halving

Interest in TAO comes at a pivotal moment for the network. Bittensor, a decentralized AI ecosystem built on a hub-and-spoke blockchain model, rewards participants with TAO for contributing computational power that fuels its AI subnets. The token’s supply is capped at 21 million, and the emission rate cuts in half roughly every four years – a mechanism similar to Bitcoin.

The upcoming halving on Dec. 14 will reduce rewards for network contributors, decreasing new supply and potentially raising attention around the asset’s scarcity profile.

A Bet on Decentralized Intelligence

Grayscale framed the listing as an entry point into an emerging category of blockchain-driven AI infrastructure. Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary, the firm’s head of product and research, called Bittensor “the Internet of AI,” emphasizing its model for building transparent, permissionless, collaborative intelligence systems.

As a publicly quoted trust, GTAO will now file financials and periodic disclosures with the SEC, bringing a regulated wrapper to one of the crypto sector’s most watched AI tokens.