Fetch AI leadership has accused Ocean Protocol of fraud following the massive conversion of OCEAN tokens into FET and subsequent transfer of those tokens to Binance and other OTC providers, causing a significant collapse in FET prices.
In March 2024, Fetch AI, Ocean Protocol, and SingularityNET came together to form the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI), a token merger aimed at uniting the three projects. This was to include one ecosystem token, FET, which was predicted to later become ASI. This partnership was designed to pool resources to become a leader in the field of decentralized artificial intelligence.
As a result, holders of OCEAN and AGIX (SingularityNET’s tokens) were able to easily convert their holdings into FET.
The tokens at the heart of the entire drama come from over 56% OCEAN tokens set aside by Ocean Protocol for community incentives.
On-chain activity and claims
among them X threadon-chain analytics platform BubbleMaps, reported that in July, the Ocean Protocol team’s wallet (0x4D9B76Df13DF257A674AEc7Ec7232741A6E73883) converted approximately 661 million OCEAN to approximately 286 million FET, and 90 million FET to GSR, an over-the-counter (OTC) trading company. He pointed out that he sent the money to Markets.
On August 31st, the remaining 196 million FET was transferred to 30 newly created addresses, and by mid-October, most of the funds were reportedly transferred to Binance or OTC providers.
A total of 160 million FETs were reportedly transferred to Binance and 109 million FETs were transferred to GSR Markets, bringing the total amount to an estimated $120 million.
Ocean Protocol and Fetch AI trading come under public fire
in ×post In an October 15th announcement, Fetch AI CEO Humayun Sheikh detailed the token’s movements, including the July conversion and subsequent transfer to Binance and GSR, claiming they were inconsistent with the spirit of the ASI Alliance.
In his post, he said that any actions Ocean should take as a standalone project would “classify as rug-pulling” and urged Binance, GSR, and other parties to investigate and “do the right thing.”
In a previous post, Shaikh suggested that legal action was being taken after criticizing Ocean Protocol and OceanDAO’s role in converting and transferring FET tokens, and that Fetch AI would pursue remedies to protect the community.
Bruce Pong, CEO of Ocean Protocol, said: answered Sheikh on X dismissed the accusations as “baseless and baseless rumors” and said the foundation was preparing a formal response to address the allegations.
However, no official response has been received to date. Ocean Protocol Announcement On October 9, it announced that it had withdrawn from the ASI alliance. However, the announcement did not mention the transfer.
In response to the bubble map post, Sheikh announced “A $250,000 reward for anyone who can uncover the connections between OceanDAO signatories and the Ocean Foundation.”
The stakes are high for alliance and community trust.
The ASI Alliance was promoted as a blueprint for cross-chain collaboration in artificial intelligence. The original total price was reportedly $7.5 billion. However, recent events between Ocean Protocol and Fetch AI have exposed the vulnerability of such partnerships when governance structures and token ownership are not clearly defined.
The lack of transparent reporting on the token conversion on the part of Ocean Protocol raises eyebrows. However, the company’s CEO called on its partners to “wait confidentiality on the adjudicator’s recent findings and allow the community to examine and decide.” Recent events have left many token holders feeling anxious about the fate of their investments.
Fetch AI plans to jointly file a lawsuit with the users who suffered losses in this incident, and is likely to proceed with the lawsuit.
