Fetch.AI CEO Offers Reward To ‘Uncover’ Ocean Protocol’s Alleged $120M FET Dump

The CEO of Fetch.AI (FET) has offered a reward to uncover Ocean Protocol’s move after the project was accused of liquidating millions of tokens, affecting the FET’s price and its holders.

On Tuesday, Humayun Sheikh, CEO of Fetch.AI, offered a bounty $250,000 to anyone who could “uncover the OceanDAO signatories and their connections to Ocean Foundation.” The post followed last week’s allegations that Ocean Protocol had dumped hundreds of millions of FET tokens into crypto exchanges earlier this year.

For context, crypto AI projects Fetch.AI, Ocean Protocol (OCEAN), and SingularityNET (AGIX) merged into the Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) Alliance in mid-2024, combining their tokens under a shared FET framework.

Over a year later, Ocean Protocol Foundation announced its departure from the alliance, sharing on October 9 that it had resigned as a member of the ASI Alliance, “effective immediately.”

Last week, Fetch.AI’s CEO affirmed that the Ocean Protocol Foundation had swapped 661.2 million OCEAN tokens minted in 2023 for 286.4 million FET this July, suggesting that the protocol had been moving and liquidating them for the past three months.

Sheikh noted that “Ocean as stand alone project did this it would be classed as a rug pull,” later vowing to personally fund three or more class action lawsuits in different jurisdictions. “If you are or were a holder of $fet and have lost money during this Ocean action be ready with your evidence. (…) I will be setting up a channel for all to submit your claims,” he wrote.

Ocean Protocol called the accusations “unfounded claims and harmful rumors,” affirming that their team was “preparing responses to the various unfounded claims and allegations while respecting the ambits of the law.” At the time of writing, the protocol’s official X account has not published a response.

Data analytics platform Bubblemaps shared a timeline of the Ocean Protocol moves, highlighting that despite the merger, the protocol kept a large amount of OCEAN tokens in its wallets for alleged “community incentives” and “data farming.”

According to Bubblemaps’ analysis, Ocean Protocol’s team wallet (0x4D9B) converted 661 million OCEAN into 286 million FET, worth $191 million on July 1, and later sent 90 million FET to an OTC provider, GSR Markets.

On August 31, the team wallet split the remaining 196 million FET across 30 new addresses. By October 14, most of these addresses had sent the funds to Binance or the OTC provider.

Bubblemaps estimated that around 160 million tokens were sent to Binance, while 109 million FET were transferred to GSR Markets. In total, approximately 270 million tokens, valued at around $120 million, were reportedly transferred and potentially liquidated.

“We can’t confirm whether the $FET tokens were sold by Ocean Protocol, although such transfers are typically associated with liquidation,” the platform noted, adding that on-chain activity only shows a multisig wallet linked to the protocol swapped millions of OCEAN tokens for FET, and sent them to Binance and GSR.

Analyst Cryptor pointed out that the feud has triggered uncertainty surrounding the projects. He noted that the FET’s Top PnL Leaderboard doesn’t look good, as “almost everyone over the past 30 days has fully exited their positions.” Additionally, Smart Money Flows have been declining for nearly a year, alongside the price, which has retraced over 92.6% from its $3.45 all-time high (ATH).

The analyst asserted that “you want segments like Top PnL traders, Smart Money, and funds to stay onboard because they set the tone for market behavior. (…) The data shows hesitation and capital leaving, which is to me a clear sign that confidence hasn’t returned. Price might hold temporarily, but without their participation, volatility rises quickly.”

As of this writing, FET trades at $0.25, an 8.3% decline in the daily timeframe.