The Ocean Protocol Foundation has announced its exit from ASI, which was created together with Fetch.ai and SingularityNET. The decision was made to preserve an independent tokenomics model and management flexibility.
OCEAN returns to independent trading
On Thursday, Ocean Protocol announced the immediate cessation of its participation in the ASI alliance and the withdrawal of its representatives from the board of directors. Now, the OCEAN token can be decoupled from FET and relisted on exchanges as a separate asset.
The alliance was formed in March 2024 to unite the ecosystems of projects working in the field of artificial intelligence. At that time, the AGIX and OCEAN tokens were merged with the Fetch.ai (FET) token, which became the base asset and later received a new name — ASI.
Users could voluntarily exchange their AGIX and OCEAN for FET at fixed rates, but unexchanged tokens continued to exist in the original contracts.
In practice, ASI turned out to be a rebranding of Fetch.ai — without the creation of a new smart contract. Exchanges and analytics platforms still account under the FET ticker, and the alliance serves more as a unified economic model than a full technical merger.
Why Ocean decided to leave
In its statement, Ocean Protocol said that cooperation within the alliance brought significant results — from technological integration and joint podcasts to participation in conferences such as the Superintelligence Summit and ETHGlobal NYC. However, further participation began to limit the project’s development.
‘We have decided to focus on our own economy and independent funding to maintain flexibility for holders and to implement a mechanism to reduce the OCEAN supply,’ the foundation’s statement said.
Now, part of the profits from products built on Ocean’s technology will be directed to buybacks and burning of OCEAN, ensuring a constant reduction in emissions. The foundation also stated that funding for future project developments is fully secured.
According to Ocean, by July 2024, about 81% of OCEAN tokens had already been converted to FET. About 270 million OCEAN remain in circulation among 37,334 addresses. The bridge for exchanging between networks continues to operate at a rate of 0.433226 FET per 1 OCEAN, and the token continues to be traded on major platforms, including Coinbase, Kraken, Upbit, Binance US, Uniswap, and SushiSwap.
ASI: ‘Transitions are natural, and goal alignment is key’
In response to Ocean Protocol’s decision, ASI alliance representatives stated that the departure of one participant would not affect its operations.
‘Goal alignment is vital for any partnership, and transitions are natural. Development continues, and the alliance’s mission remains the same,’ the official statement said.
Fetch.ai representatives emphasized that the alliance was originally built on voluntary cooperation and joint efforts to create an open, decentralized AI infrastructure.
‘The shared goal of Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, Ocean Protocol, and CUDOS has always been to promote open artificial intelligence technologies. This direction has not changed,’ the project’s response said.
What’s next?
The exit of Ocean Protocol is unlikely to have technical consequences for the ASI alliance, but it highlights growing differences in the participants’ strategies. Ocean is betting on its own economic model and emission reduction, while Fetch.ai and SingularityNET continue to build a unified AI project ecosystem.
Following the news, the ASI (FET) token fell by about 3.8%, according to The Block, but alliance representatives assure that its development and technology stack remain stable.
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