As you may recall, in the first days of October, the Ocean Protocol (OCEAN) Foundation announced its withdrawal from the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI), which it formed together with Fetch.ai (FET) and SingularityNET (AGIX).
Following this news of the split, the price of ASI dropped by double digits. Following the collapse of the trilateral alliance, a dispute arose between Fetch.ai and the Ocean Protocol Foundation.
However, the duo decided to resolve their ongoing token disputes without going to court and reached an agreement.
Accordingly, the agreement in question includes the return of 286 million Fetch.ai (FET) tokens worth approximately $120 million.
What happened?
Fetch.ai CEO Humayun Sheikh said on Thursday that his team would cease all legal action if Ocean Protocol returned the 286 million FET tokens allegedly sold during the merger.
“They are waiting for a legal offer from us to return the tokens. You can receive my letter tomorrow.
The offer is simple: Give the tokens back to my community. I will waive any legal claims.
GeoStaking, a validator node affiliated with Fetch.ai, reportedly mediated the talks, and Ocean Protocol agreed to the rollback after a formal proposal was submitted.
The agreement will allow both parties to resolve their disputes without the need for lengthy litigation that could damage their reputations and finances.
Additionally, the agreement will enable both projects to focus on collaboration and innovation in the field of decentralized artificial intelligence and Web3.
How Did the Dispute Begin?
Founded in March 2024, ASI aimed to unify the Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, and Ocean Protocol ecosystems under a single, unified AI token. This process involved converting AGIX and OCEAN tokens into Fetch.ai’s FET token at fixed rates, after which FET was rebranded as ASI. Because no new smart contract was created, most exchanges and data platforms still list the token with the ticker symbol FET.
However, Ocean Protocol announced its withdrawal from the trilateral alliance. The dispute between Fetch.ai and Ocean Protocol began after Fetch.ai accused Ocean Protocol of converting 661 million OCEAN tokens into 286 million FET tokens through a multi-signature wallet affiliated with the project. Ocean Protocol founder Bruce Pon denied the allegations, stating that the recent drop in the FET price had nothing to do with Ocean’s exit from the ASI Alliance, which was formed by the merger of Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol, and SingularityNET.