Fetch.ai CEO Humayun Sheikh has announced a $250,000 bounty for information linking OceanDAO’s multisignature wallet signers to the Ocean Protocol Foundation. This action intensified a long-running dispute over claims of funds being misused prior to the ASI Alliance merger involving Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol, and SingularityNet.
The dispute arises from Ocean Protocol changing 661 million OCEAN tokens into 286 million FET before the ASI merger in 2024. Bubblemaps, an on-chain analytics firm, highlighted that the 270 million FETs were then transferred to centralized exchanges. Among these, 160 million went to Binance and 109 million to GSR Markets.
Sheikh claimed the conversions violated the alliance’s founding principles, which were intended to support community development. “Funds intended for the community were diverted,” he wrote on X, calling on Binance and GSR to investigate. The conversions allegedly occurred without public disclosure, raising governance concerns within the decentralized AI collaboration.
According to Sheikh, the affected tokens, valued at approximately $80 million at the time, represented resources meant for the community under the alliance’s joint framework. He argued that the unauthorized transfers undermined transparency and trust within the ASI merger.
The feud escalated as Sheikh announced plans to fund class-action lawsuits in three or more jurisdictions. His stated goal is to hold Ocean Protocol accountable for what he called misappropriation of alliance-linked assets. The legal strategy could establish new precedents for governance and token management within multi-organization blockchain alliances.
Meanwhile, Ocean Protocol officially withdrew from the ASI Alliance on October 9 but has not publicly addressed the disputed token conversions. Despite repeated inquiries, the Ocean team offered no clarification regarding the transfers flagged by Bubblemaps.
Blockchain data continues to show wallet activity linking Ocean Protocol to large token movements. Bubblemaps reported that Ocean’s multisig wallet transferred 270 million FET, an amount valued near $120 million, to Binance and GSR.
The dispute deepened when Binance quietly ended deposit support for OCEAN tokens shortly after Sheikh’s allegations. Although Binance did not refer to the conflict, the coincidence fueled speculation in the crypto community about its relationship with the conflict.
Industry experts have suggested that this ongoing fight is likely to erode investor confidence in AI-token partnerships. With an initial valuation of $7 billion, the ASI merger was designed to unite decentralized AI-related partnerships and provide an efficient format for sharing resources. Facing this issue has now raised serious questions about the mechanisms for accountability and transparency that are possible under a tokenized alliance.
Will this clash provide evidence enough to reshape the future relationship between partnerships that share assets under an AI-based consortium? The response could indicate how future investors will assess governance in developing digital ecosystems.
As examination increases, Sheikh's bounty will likely entice whistleblowers and data analysts who specialize in pairing wallets and payments to their respective identities. The outcome will likely confirm how multisignature wallets will be managed in a consortium of future cryptocurrencies, as well as any regulations needed for token conversions.
Fetch.ai's CEO has offered a $250,000 bounty, representing the beginning of a new chapter in the ongoing Ocean Protocol controversy. Allegations of mismanagement of funds and tokens now serve to erode the credibility of the ASI Alliance, which functioned under its own governance of AI and crypto partnerships and protocol, relying on tokenized-updated governance.
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