Grayscale’s Bold Move: Files Form S-1 for a Bittensor Trust ETP

Grayscale just dropped a regulatory bombshell—filing paperwork for a Bittensor Trust Exchange-Traded Product. This isn't just another crypto fund. It's a direct play on the AI-powered blockchain narrative that's been setting markets alight.

The Institutional Gateway Cracks Open

Think of this filing as a crowbar prying open a new door for Wall Street money. Grayscale's move signals a maturing appetite. No longer just Bitcoin and Ethereum—institutions now want exposure to the specialized, high-conviction thesis behind decentralized artificial intelligence. The Form S-1 is the first, crucial step in a long SEC dance, but Grayscale's track record gives it weight.

Why Bittensor? Why Now?

The timing is no accident. As AI dominates tech headlines and investment theses, Bittensor's model—a decentralized network where machine intelligence models compete and collaborate—resonates with a specific breed of investor. It's a pure-play bet on the convergence of blockchain and AI, bypassing the traditional tech giants. Grayscale is effectively packaging a complex, niche protocol into a familiar wrapper for the finance crowd.

The Ripple Effect

This filing pressures competitors. Other asset managers watching this space now face a choice: follow Grayscale's lead into thematic, next-generation crypto assets or risk ceding ground. It also validates Bittensor's positioning within the broader digital asset ecosystem, potentially attracting more developer and capital flow to its underlying network.

A cynical take? It's another elegant fee-generating vehicle for the finance industry, repackaging a decentralized, permissionless protocol into a centrally managed product—because why own the technology directly when you can pay someone to hold it for you?

Bottom line: Grayscale isn't just adding another product. It's placing a strategic bet on the future narrative of crypto, forcing the institutional world to look beyond digital gold and toward decentralized intelligence. The race to tokenize every asset class just found its next track.

TAO records a negative 52% YTD and 70% drop from its ATH

TAO, the native token of Bittensor Trust, has a market capitalization of $2.3 billion, with an average 24-hour trading volume of $72 million, according to CoinMarketCap data. The TAO token has recorded its worst performance this year, losing more than half of its value from a high of $555 in January to roughly $220. The token saw a massive surge at its launch, marking 174437% from its all-time low of $30. The token has since lost 70% of its all-time high of $767, reached in April 2024. At the time of publication, the token was up 0.33% trading at $220.33.

Today we filed the initial S-1 for Grayscale Bittensor Trust (ticker: $GTAO) with the @SECGov

This milestone is the next step in converting $GTAO to an ETP, which WOULD make it the first $TAO ETP in the U.S. and another first for Grayscale.

Read the S-1:… pic.twitter.com/2qg6AgqYOg

— Grayscale (@Grayscale) December 30, 2025

Meanwhile, Grayscale’s initiative to list Bittensor Trust as an ETP marks the first in the U.S., after Deutsche Digital Assets, a Germany-regulated provider of exchange-traded products (ETPs), confirmed that it would list a Bittensor ETP. For the German entity, Bittensor ETP would be listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange under the ticker symbol STAO.  The Gearman Deutsche Digital Assets announced at the end of October that it will list STAO with the assistance of Safello, a Nasdaq Nordic-listed broker. 

Bittensor operates as an open-source blockchain protocol that is unique in its own right, connecting AI through a marketplace where models collaborate, compete, and are rewarded in TAO. According to a report by 21shares, Bittensor is rewarding developers for advancing AI models, serving three main goals: staking, governance, and utility. 

Barry Silbert, chairman of Grayscale, wrote on X today that the MOVE to file for an S-1 form with the SEC underscores the rapid growth of decentralized AI, and his firm is pioneering initial access.

Grayscale bets on regulation to fuel the next wave of crypto adoption

Today’s filing follows Grayscale’s October FORM 10 filing for Bittensor Trust, a step toward making it an SEC Reporting Company. The filing increased TAO’s accessibility, transparency, and regulatory status. Grayscale outlined five key steps, including seeking to quote GTAO shares on the OTC Markets, registering the Trust, filing Form 10-Ks and 10-Qs, and auditing financial reports with the SEC. The asset manager also promised to reduce the holding period from 12 months to six months for its private placement, moving the Trust one step closer to becoming an ETP. 

So far, approval is not yet guaranteed, but the filing reflects how crypto asset managers are moving to package new crypto advancements, including decentralized AI as regulated assets. Recently, Grayscale released its 2026 outlook for the crypto market, and the firm predicts that ETPs will increase tenfold in 2026. 

According to a recent Cryptopolitan report, the crypto asset manager believes clearer crypto regulations could accelerate institutional adoption in 2026 and increase on-chain activity. The asset manager projected that a bipartisan crypto asset bill will be passed in 2026, paving the way for traditional financial rules to be applied to digital asset classes. This means that traditional finance frameworks, such as registration, disclosure requirements, asset classifications, and insider trading protections, will be applied in digital markets, driving crypto adoption led by regulated investors. 

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