A year later, cracks appear in the decentralized AI alliance. What motivated Ocean Protocol to withdraw from the ASI Alliance?

The Ocean Protocol Foundation has officially withdrawn from the ASI Alliance, a decentralized AI coalition formed with Fetch.ai and SingularityNET just over a year ago. This split reveals significant challenges in maintaining long-term unity within such alliances.

Reasons for Ocean's Exit: The primary drivers include Ocean's desire for independent control over its funding and token governance, specifically to implement its own deflationary measures for the OCEAN token. Additionally, the fixed exchange rate from the token merger led to poor price performance for OCEAN, while the merged ASI token (formerly FET) faced inflationary pressure from the large supply issued to absorb OCEAN.
Market Reaction: Following the announcement, the OCEAN token price surged over 30% due to anticipated scarcity from a new buyback-and-burn plan, while the ASI token's price dropped nearly 7%.
Future Implications: Ocean will now focus on its core data asset trading business independently. The ASI Alliance, now comprising Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, and CUDOS, asserts that its mission remains unchanged, but the departure inevitably reduces the alliance's ecosystem scale and data capabilities.

Author: Zen, PANews

The ASI Alliance (Artificial Superintelligence) was jointly initiated by Fetch.ai, SingularityNET and Ocean Protocol. The alliance aims to create a unified decentralized AI ecosystem through token mergers and technical collaboration.

However, with the Ocean Protocol Foundation recently announcing its official withdrawal, cracks have finally appeared in this alliance, which is regarded as the leading decentralized ecosystem, and the alliance's framework has undergone substantial adjustments.

From the outside world's perspective, this move not only prompts people to re-evaluate the feasibility of the "decentralized AI alliance" path, but also brings new variables to the future development of Ocean and ASI.

The ASI Alliance is facing a split a year after its founding, with the departure of the Ocean Foundation.

On October 9, 2025, the Ocean Protocol Foundation announced its immediate withdrawal from the ASI Alliance. The Ocean Foundation withdrew its designated directorship at the ASI Alliance (Singapore), resigned from the alliance, and withdrew from the collaborative framework.

Regarding Ocean's departure, the ASI Alliance, through X, stated that it respects the team's decision, emphasizing that collaboration within the alliance is voluntary and that the transition "occurred naturally." Both the Alliance and Fetch.ai officials stated that Ocean's departure does not affect the Alliance's core technology stack, and that the founding team remains united in their mission to advance open, decentralized AI infrastructure.

Unofficially, the community's response to the breakup was decidedly less respectful and restrained, with a stark contrast between support for Ocean's independent development and concerns about the alliance's future. Many Ocean supporters welcomed the project's renewed independence, a sentiment that contributed to a sharp rise in the price of the OCEAN token. Conversely, some members of the alliance community were critical of the move, some even angrily denouncing Ocean's move as a "Trojan Horse" within the alliance, believing that Ocean's departure dealt a significant blow to the ASI Alliance.

The ASI Alliance was founded in March 2024 and is jointly initiated by three decentralized AI projects: Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, and Ocean Protocol. The alliance aims to integrate resources from all parties to create the largest independent AI R&D collaboration platform, and to form a unified AI ecosystem token through token merger.

According to the plan announced at the time, the three projects decided not to issue new tokens, but instead to merge Ocean Protocol's OCEAN and SingularityNET's AGIX tokens into Fetch.ai's FET token. The FET token thus became the alliance's foundational token and was subsequently given the new name and mission of "ASI." The alliance hoped to leverage the shared economy and technology to make this unified token a universal value carrier supporting decentralized AI infrastructure.

It is reported that since the token merger started in July 2024, approximately 81% of the OCEAN supply has been converted to Fetch.ai's FET token as planned. However, there are still approximately 270 million OCEAN on the chain that have not been converted, distributed among 37,334 addresses, and these unconverted OCEAN account for approximately 19% of the total supply.

Following the initial three-party merger, the ASI Alliance continued to recruit like-minded partners. In September 2024, the blockchain computing project CUDOS announced its membership in the ASI Alliance. Its network and token supply were integrated into the ASI ecosystem, strengthening the alliance's decentralized computing infrastructure. The ASI Alliance now includes four major projects: Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, Ocean Protocol, and CUDOS.

During the alliance's existence, each member maintained its own independent team and governance, but collaborated extensively on technical and community fronts. The alliance officially established a unified website and governance structure, and formed a board of directors to jointly decide on alliance matters. However, the ASI Alliance's transition from a high-profile merger to a member separation took just over a year, ultimately leading to the inevitable "unity must come apart" outcome.

Technical route, token price, what is the reason for Ocean's withdrawal?

Official statements indicate that Ocean Protocol's decision to withdraw from the ASI Alliance at this time is driven by a pursuit of independent funding and governance. The Ocean team wishes to control its own development funding, rather than being constrained by the alliance's unified funding arrangements. They also seek independent decision-making over the economic model of the OCEAN token, including the implementation of deflationary measures.

Furthermore, low token value and inflationary pressures may be significant triggers for the exit. Since the merger, Fetch.ai has issued approximately 600 million FET (ASI) tokens to absorb OCEAN supply. This surge in token issuance, without a corresponding increase in value, has put pressure on FET prices for a long time, a fact that has long been a source of complaint among alliance members and the community.

As one of the merged parties, Ocean's native token has long been pegged to a fixed exchange rate, resulting in poor market performance. The price of Ocean has been declining steadily since the beginning of the year, hovering at a historical low before its exit. This situation may have prompted Ocean management to reconsider the pros and cons of the merger. If it remains in the alliance, Ocean will eventually be completely absorbed into ASI, potentially diluting the Ocean project's brand and influence. Exiting, on the other hand, could revitalize the Ocean brand, reignite community enthusiasm, and free itself from the burden of FET inflation.

Some argue that Ocean's core business, data asset trading and sharing, differs from Fetch.ai's autonomous agent approach and SingularityNET's general AI platform. Over the past year, strategic disagreements within the alliance over technology paths and resource allocation may have arisen. Ocean's decision to withdraw is intended to focus on its areas of strength and avoid being sidelined by the alliance's broader AI vision. These factors, combined, form the key context for Ocean's withdrawal.

However, it should be emphasized that Ocean officials did not publicly accuse the alliance of any problems. The withdrawal statement was restrained and maintained respect for other members, indicating that this decision was more like a proactive adjustment based on business strategy rather than a breakup caused by intensified conflicts.

Although Fetch.ai responded that Ocean's departure had "no impact" on its technology, operations, or shared goals, and reiterated that the ASI Alliance's mission and the foundation of the three-party partnership (Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, and CUDOS) remain solid, it is undeniable that the loss of such a crucial player as Ocean will inevitably shrink the alliance's ecosystem and create a gap in its data capabilities.

In the future, the ASI Alliance may focus its business efforts on areas where Fetch.ai and SingularityNET excel, such as the integration of autonomous intelligent agents and general AI platforms. The Alliance also stated that it will continue to promote the deployment and application of the ASI token on multiple chains to enhance its practical value and appeal. Ben Goertzel, co-founder of the Alliance and head of SingularityNET, recently reiterated his commitment to the vision of decentralized AI on social media, stating that the remaining Alliance members will collaborate more closely moving forward.

What is the future of OCEAN tokens under the deflationary plan?

The buyback and burn mechanism announced by the Ocean Foundation in its announcement was a highly anticipated highlight of this exit. Specifically, Ocean plans to use a portion of profits from its technology-derived projects (such as those generated by application or infrastructure incubation) to repurchase and burn OCEAN tokens on the secondary market, thereby achieving sustained deflation. Officially, this buyback and burn mechanism will serve as a "permanent and continuous supply reduction mechanism."

Considering that approximately 81% of the original Ocean supply has been converted to FET, the actual amount of Ocean in circulation has decreased significantly. Coupled with future buybacks and burns, Ocean's circulating supply is expected to tighten further. As supply decreases and projects refocus on their core businesses, investors expect Ocean's value to re-evaluate.

Stimulated by the news, the OCEAN token surged by over 30% that day. In contrast, the alliance token FET (ASI) experienced downward pressure following Ocean's withdrawal, with its price dropping approximately 6.9% to a new low of $0.51. This shift in price suggests that the two tokens are beginning to reflect their respective fundamental expectations after the unbinding. Specifically, OCEAN's price rose due to its increased scarcity, while FET suffered due to potential over-issuance and selling pressure.

Furthermore, during the token merger, Ocean was previously delisted or renamed on some exchanges, but the news of its withdrawal from the alliance has given it a chance to regain favor with exchanges. Currently, major platforms such as Coinbase, Kraken, Upbit, and Binance US still support spot trading of Ocean.

Binance US retained the OCEAN trading pair during the merger, while Binance Global will delist the OCEAN pair in July 2024, in accordance with the alliance's plan. With Ocean's independence, the market generally expects exchanges, including Binance Global, to reassess the possibility of listing OCEAN. Ocean officials have also clarified that any exchange that previously delisted OCEAN as a result of the merger "can decide whether to relist OCEAN at their own discretion." This suggests that OCEAN is expected to regain broader market liquidity.