After weeks of escalating tension, Fetch.ai and Ocean Protocol Foundation appear to be nearing a truce in their dispute over the handling of $120 million worth of FET tokens, potentially avoiding what could have become one of the crypto industry’s most high-profile legal battles.
On Thursday, Fetch.ai CEO Humayun Sheikh announced that the company would withdraw all pending legal claims against the Ocean Protocol Foundation if it agrees to return 286 million FET tokens allegedly sold during their merger under the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI).
“They are expecting a legal proposal from us for the return of the tokens,” Sheikh said during a live X Spaces session. “You can have my letter tomorrow. The offer is simple: give my community back the tokens, and I will
drop every legal claim.”
Source: Fetch.ai
Sheikh also offered to cover the legal costs associated with finalizing the agreement, adding that the resolution would allow both sides to move forward without lengthy litigation.
According to GeoStaking, a validator node on the Fetch network that helped mediate discussions, Ocean Protocol has indicated it will agree to return the tokens once the written proposal is submitted — expected as early as Friday.
If finalized, the deal would conclude months of accusations that have damaged the reputation of both projects, which had once collaborated under the ASI alliance to advance decentralized AI development.
Source: Humayun Sheikh
The dispute centers on claims that Ocean Protocol misused funds by converting large sums of tokens without the consent of its partners. Sheikh had even offered a $250,000 bounty for information on the signatories of OceanDAO’s multisignature wallet, which allegedly held and distributed the disputed tokens.
Ocean Protocol Accused of $120M Token Dump
According to blockchain analytics platform Bubblemaps, a multisignature wallet linked to Ocean Protocol reportedly swapped around 661 million OCEAN tokens for 286 million FET coins, valued at roughly $120 million at the time.
The data further shows that 160 million FET tokens were sent to Binance and another 109 million to GSR Markets, raising concerns among investors about large-scale token offloading.
Ocean Protocol denied the allegations, asserting that the transactions were legitimate and unrelated to any misconduct. The foundation officially withdrew from the ASI Alliance on October 9, citing internal disagreements and governance concerns — though it made no mention of the token transfers.
Source: Bubblemaps
The FET token has seen a dramatic collapse since the ASI merger announcement in March 2024, plunging over 93% from its $3.22 peak to around $0.26. However, Ocean Protocol’s founder Bruce Pon insists the price crash was driven not by Ocean’s actions but by broader market volatility and large-scale token sales from partner projects.
In a detailed blog post published Thursday, Pon wrote:
“The 93% drop was due to broader market sentiment and volatility — not Ocean’s withdrawal. Fetch and SingularityNet drained liquidity by dumping over $500 million worth of FET tokens. Ocean couldn’t in good conscience remain part of ASI under those conditions.”
Pon added that the foundation plans to issue a “claim-by-claim rebuttal” to address what he called “mischaracterizations and misinformation” circulating in the community.