Key Highlights
- The TAO token price experienced a near 100% increase throughout March, reaching around $317 with a market valuation exceeding $3 billion
- Subnet 3 on Bittensor unveiled Covenant-72B, a large language model featuring 72 billion parameters trained on a network of over 70 decentralized nodes
- Covenant-72B achieved a 67.1 score on MMLU benchmarks, performing competitively alongside Meta’s Llama 2 70B model
- Grayscale submitted an amended S-1 filing to the SEC for establishing a passive investment trust focused on Bittensor (TAO)
- More than 68% of the total 10.7 million TAO token supply remains locked in staking contracts
Throughout March 2026, Bittensor’s native TAO token experienced remarkable growth, with its value nearly doubling to reach approximately $317. This impressive price action elevated the network’s total market capitalization beyond the $3 billion threshold.
This significant upward momentum aligned with a groundbreaking technological achievement within the Bittensor network. The development team behind Subnet 3 unveiled Covenant-72B, an advanced language model containing 72 billion parameters that was trained using more than 70 geographically dispersed nodes.
Covenant-72B demonstrated impressive capabilities by achieving a 67.1 score on the MMLU (Massive Multitask Language Understanding) benchmark, a widely recognized evaluation framework for assessing large language model performance. This performance positioned the model as a legitimate competitor to Meta’s established Llama 2 70B.
This achievement marked a watershed moment for decentralized AI development, providing tangible evidence that distributed, permissionless training infrastructure can deliver competitive performance compared to traditional centralized approaches. Previously, skeptics had dismissed distributed training methodologies as inefficient and impractical due to coordination challenges.
The subnet’s associated token, τemplar (SN3), experienced explosive growth exceeding 400% over the same period, with its market capitalization climbing to approximately $130 million.
Expanding Activity Across the Bittensor Network
Beyond the Covenant-72B breakthrough, additional Bittensor subnets demonstrated significant progress. Targon (SN4), which operates as a decentralized GPU computing marketplace managed by Manifold Labs, announced a substantial six-figure partnership to provide computational infrastructure for Dippy AI’s operations, supporting its 8.6 million user base.
The GMCI AI Index, a composite benchmark tracking leading AI-focused cryptocurrency tokens, posted a 48% increase since early February. Bittensor represents a substantial 24.89% allocation within this index and served as the primary contributor to these gains.
Additional index components include Render (RNDR) and Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI), with these three projects collectively representing over 71% of the total index weight. However, despite recent positive momentum, the index continues trading 84% below its peak valuation recorded during the first quarter of 2024.
Grayscale Advances SEC Registration for TAO Investment Trust
On April 3, 2026, Grayscale filed an amended S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a Bittensor (TAO) Trust product. This investment vehicle is designed as a passive holding structure that maintains custody of TAO tokens, enabling institutional and retail investors to gain exposure to TAO price movements through tradeable trust shares.
The current circulating supply stands at 10.7 million TAO tokens. Notably, over 68% of this available supply is currently committed to staking mechanisms.
The launch of Covenant-72B alongside Grayscale’s regulatory filing constitute the most significant recent catalysts driving TAO token performance as of April 3, 2026.
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