Grayscale Investments filed an S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on December 31 to register Bittensor ETP, an Exchange-Traded Product, which aims to introduce the first U.S.-listed product that tracks TAO, a decentralized AI token, on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) Arca.
Pioneering Regulated Access to Decentralized AI
Grayscale is pioneering a regulated way for investors to access decentralized artificial intelligence (AI). The filing with the SEC is an important step for Grayscale to create the space for crypto investment products and bring new financial instruments into the crypto ecosystem.
The newly created Grayscale Bittensor Trust (symbol: GTAO) plans to hold TAO tokens directly and provide an institutional and accredited investor of Grayscale with a regulated platform where they can invest and gain exposure to Bittensor’s decentralised machine learning network.
Barry Silbert, the chairman of Grayscale, stated that the filing for Bittensor was made in response to the rapid growth of decentralised AI. Grayscale is seeking to be a leader in this new field of crypto and to bring this new area of crypto investment into traditional financial markets.
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Strategic Investment in a New Digital Asset
At this stage, Grayscale’s decision is credited by its conviction that niche crypto and blockchain technologies are going to have an increasingly important role in the coming months/years in the financial industry as they gain institutional support. It’s already happening, though.
To this point, and despite the TAO token’s wild price fluctuations in 2025 (falling from above $560 to about $220), the firm continues to move forward with its strategy and plans for a Bittensor ETP listing rather than focusing on short term price fluctuations.
This filing follows Grayscale’s previous efforts to register its private Bittensor Trust with the SEC, establishing it as a publicly traded company as part of an overall plan/scheme to make the asset more accessible to a wider sector and transparent to the traditional banking system.
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Pushing the Limits of Crypto ETPs
The approval of a Bittensor ETP represents a major expansion of the crypto ETP space beyond the current leaders (Bitcoin and Ethereum). It also demonstrates that asset managers are increasingly interested in packaging specialized blockchain products (from AI to decentralized physical infrastructures) into regulated vehicles.
The SEC’s review will determine whether or not they are comfortable approving products that contain tokens with increasingly complex utility and governance structures. A positive ruling would create a precedent for a whole new category of crypto products.
FAQs
What is Bittensor?
Bittensor is a decentralized, blockchain-based protocol that creates a peer-to-peer marketplace for machine learning models. AI developers and contributors are incentivized with its native TAO token for providing useful models and computational resources.
What is a Bittensor ETP?
An Exchange-Traded Product (ETP) is a regulated security that trades on a traditional stock exchange. It would track the price of TAO, permitting investors to gain exposure without having to buy, store, or manage the crypto directly.
When will the GTAO ETP start trading?
There is no set timeline. The S-1 filing is the first step, but the product cannot launch until the SEC declares the registration statement “effective.” This review process can take several months, and approval is not guaranteed.
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