Crypto News Today (April 10): Bittensor Drama Erupts as Covenant AI Exits, Brian Armstrong Pushes Clarity Act

A major Bittensor subnet developer, Covenant AI, is leaving the network. The team built Covenant‑72B – 72 billion parameters, 70+ nodes, no data center, no $100 million – and matched Llama 2 70B. Jensen Huang endorsed it back in March when the TAO price rallied over 100% .

However, today, Bittensor's token crashed 20% and is now trading below $270.

Now Covenant AI accuses the Bittensor founder of suspending their emissions, stripping moderation rights, deprecating their infrastructure, and timing token dumps as pressure. They call the governance "decentralization theatre." The team behind TAO's biggest moment just called the whole thing a lie. No rebuttal from Bittensor yet.

Founder Sam Dare publicly accused Bittensor co‑founder Jacob Steeves of systematically betraying decentralization. The specific allegations include suspending Covenant’s subnet token emissions, stripping its community moderation rights, unilaterally deprecating its infrastructure, and dumping TAO tokens to apply financial pressure during the conflict.

Dare called Bittensor’s touted “three‑person multisig governance” a “decentralization theatre,” with Steeves effectively controlling the structure and others serving as legal shields. Bittensor co‑founder Jacob Steeves fired back, calling Dare’s actions driven by “malice and greed” and calling for a restart of community voting on subnet governance.

Read also: The Real Talk on Why Cardano (ADA) Price Is Stuck at $0.26

Other top crypto news today

SEC Chair Paul Atkins called on Congress to pass comprehensive crypto market structure legislation. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong urged Congress: "It's time to pass the Clarity Act." Senator Cynthia Lummis is also pushing lawmakers to advance the same bill.

Three U.S. senators are probing whether Donald Trump is promoting access to himself via a memecoin‑themed event to boost $TRUMP token demand. The White House has advised staff to avoid betting on prediction markets during the Iran conflict, per WSJ.

On the technology side, TON blockchain achieved a major upgrade – 10× faster speeds, 6× higher block rate, and sub‑second transactions as part of its MTONGA roadmap. OKX Ventures and HashKey backed VPBank‑linked exchange CAEX for Vietnam's crypto pilot program.

Overall, the biggest story today (April 10, 2026) is Bittensor's crisis of trust. A flagship builder walked out and called the network's decentralization a lie. Until a rebuttal comes, TAO trades on fear.

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