FET, OCEAN, And AGIX Drop 8% After ASI Token Merger Delay

The Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI) announced its token merger would be postponed to next month after presenting logistical and technical issues. The alliance was set to merge Fetch.AI (FET), SingularityNET (AGIX), and Ocean Protocol (OCEAN) into the ASI token on Thursday. As a result, the three AI tokens faced a 4% drop in the last 24 hours.

In March, Fetch.AI, SingularityNET, and Ocean Protocol, three leading AI blockchain projects, revealed their plan to merge into the ASI token. This move aims to develop a decentralized AI platform to foster technology advancements accessible to a wider audience.

On Tuesday, the ASI alliance announced the delay of the token merger from June 13 to July 15, 2024. Per the announcement, the primary reasons for the rescheduling are “logistical requirements” and “technical independencies.”

It was further explained that the ASI token merger involves managing complex integrations and attention to numerous moving parts. As a result, the delay was a “strategic decision” to ensure a smooth execution during the process and ensure all “stakeholders’ needs are adequately met.”

Humayun Sheikh, Fetch.AI’s CEO, and ASI’s Chairman, reassured the community that the alliance’s vision remained unchanged despite the delay.

This temporary delay does not impact the substantial progress we have made towards creating a decentralized superintelligence network. Our teams are actively working with centralized exchanges to finalize the remaining steps. We appreciate the continued support and patience of our community and stakeholders as we work through these final logistical steps.

SingularityNET Foundation’s CEO, Ben Goertzel, explained that they are working on integrating the three companies’ AI and blockchain technology. Additionally, he stated his excitement for the upcoming milestone:

The finalization of the 3-way tokenomic merger on July 15 will be a major milestone, and we anticipate a series of progressively more exciting milestones after that as we leverage our $ASI token-based network to move toward increasingly capable AI systems and in time actual superintelligence.

After the announcement, the three AI tokens saw a negative price impact in the following hours. SingularutyNET’s AGIX token saw an 8.9% decline, from trading at $0.7035 to $0.6404 throughout Tuesday. In the early hours of Wednesday, the token recovered some ground from the retrace. AGIX traded at $0.6819, a 3.8% decrease from the day before.

Similarly, Ocean Protocol’s OCEAN had an 8% drop after the news. The token’s price went from trading at $0.7156 to $0.6576 before recovering the $0.68 support level on Wednesday morning. At the time, AGIX faced a 4.4% decline in its price before the announcement of the delay.

Meanwhile, FET saw the largest retrace of the three, with a 10.8% drop. The token fell from the $1.66 price range to $1.48. Later, the token recovered above the $1.62 level, a 3.1% decrease from Tuesday morning.

Crypto analyst Altcoin Sherpa commented on FET’s performance. The price drop was a good reminder that “everything comes back down eventually; you just have to be patient.”  Moreover, Sherpa said the price range may be a good buy, but it was yet “TBD if it’s ‘the bottom.’”

However, the tokens have now recovered from the drop. As of this writing, FET is trading above the $1.7 price range. The surge represents a 6.7% increase in the last hour and a 4.4% recovery from its price 24 hours ago.

Similarly, AGIX and OCEAN have seen a 5.7% and 5.5% surge in the last hour. This represents a 3.4% and 3% increase since the ASI token merger delay announcement.