Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol agree on return of $120M in FET tokens to avoid legal battle

14 hours ago 5

The feud between Fetch.ai and Ocean Protocol Foundation may be drawing to a close as the two sides look to reach a middle ground without escalating into a full-blown legal battle.

On Thursday, Fetch.ai said it would cancel all pending legal claims against the Ocean Protocol Foundation if the latter returned the 286 million Fetch.ai (FET) tokens that were allegedly sold during their merger.

“They are expecting a legal proposal from us for the return of the tokens,” said Fetch.ai CEO Humayun Sheikh, during a Thursday X Spaces show, adding:

“You can have my letter tomorrow. The offer is simple: give my community back the tokens. I will drop every legal claim.”

Sheikh also offered to cover the legal costs of the pending contract, which would lead to the recovery of the tokens.

Ocean Protocol will agree to return the tokens if the offer is officially put on paper, said FET-based validator node GeoStaking, the protocol that helped broker the deal.

The formal offer could be put on paper as soon as Friday, said Sheikh during the X Spaces show.

The agreement would enable the two parties to resolve the misunderstandings without the need for a lengthy lawsuit, which could be detrimental to the reputation and finances of both parties.

The latest proposal came days after Sheikh offered a $250,000 reward for more information on the signatories of OceanDAO’s multisignature wallet and their connection to the Ocean Protocol Foundation.

A multisignature or multisig wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet that requires multiple signatures to execute and process a transaction.

Ocean Protocol faces $120 million token dump allegations

Despite Ocean Protocol denying the misappropriation allegations, blockchain data indicates that an Ocean Protocol-linked multisignature wallet converted about 661 million Ocean tokens into 286 million FET coins, worth around $120 million at the time, according to blockchain data platform Bubblemaps.

This included 160 million FET tokens transferred to Binance and 109 million transferred to GSR Markets.

Ocean Protocol withdrew from the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance on Oct. 9, with no mention of the token transfers.

Since the announcement of the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI) in March 2024, the FET token has fallen by over 93%, from a peak of $3.22 to about $0.26 at the time of writing.

Still, the price drop was not catalyzed by Ocean Protocol leaving the ASI, according to Bruce Pon, the founder of Ocean Protocol. He wrote in a Thursday blog response:

“[The 93% drop] was due to the broader market sentiment and volatility, SingularityNet and Fetch’s draining of liquidity from the entire community by dumping upwards of $500 million worth of $FET tokens, a reckless TRNR deal that failed to anticipate crypto dropping more than 45% [...]”

“Ocean decided that it could not in good conscience remain a part of the ASI Alliance,” added the founder, promising to publish a “claim-by-claim rebuttal” to all the recent allegations.