- Bittensor’s token plunged 16% within 24 hours, hitting a low of $389.
- The losses among top AI tokens came as traders took profits after a recent surge.
- Fed hawkishness, the Balancer exploit, and rotation of AI capital fueled risk-off sentiment.
Bittensor’s native token TAO fell about 16% over the past 24 hours, dipping to a low of $389 and underperforming the broader AI sector, which lost roughly 9%.
The decline in Bittensor coincided with Bitcoin slipping toward the $100,000 area and total crypto market capitalization falling below $3.4 trillion.
Although analysts remain generally bullish on BTC and the broader market, investors are wrestling with combined macroeconomic pressures.
Industry-specific headwinds also played a role and likely intensified selling driven by panic and rapid profit-taking.
Bittensor’s TAO collapses amid profit-taking
Bittensor is a decentralized machine learning protocol that incentivizes collaborative AI model training via its blockchain.
The native token TAO had recently performed strongly, benefiting from gains in AI-related equities such as Nvidia.
Still, the token’s price fell to $3.89 (intraday), representing a 16% drop.
Bulls tried to stage a recovery, but prices hovered around $400, well below a prior high of $488.
Trading volume surged about 17% to $712 million, a sign that panic selling contributed to the downturn.
Like the rest of the market, this move occurred as retail and institutional holders trimmed positions after momentum from AI-driven rallies weakened.
Profit-taking following Safello’s launch of Europe’s first staked TAO exchange-traded product (ETP) appeared to intensify the sell-off. The ETP initially helped spark a sharp rebound, but bulls failed to sustain momentum thereafter.
Wider crypto market sell-off
The broader crypto ecosystem suffered heavy losses, with more than $25 billion wiped out in 24 hours as total market capitalization slid about 5.8% to roughly $3.4 trillion.
Bittensor underperformed Bitcoin and major altcoins, while BTC fell near the $100,000 mark—illustrating TAO’s vulnerability in risk-off conditions.
#BTC is at a critical level.
Multiple closes below the 50W would confirm the top being in as it always has each cycle.
Regardless of whether the top is in, or if we go slightly higher, I still think 2026 will be a bear market, just like all prior midterm years. pic.twitter.com/4T9fAsQchs
— Benjamin Cowen (@intocryptoverse) November 4, 2025
Sentiment is squarely in the fear zone.
Ethereum, for example, dropped about 8% to $3,340, breaking a key support at $3,550 and falling roughly 18% for the week.
Solana and XRP also posted significant losses, and derivatives market liquidations exceeded $113 million.
Much of the pessimism follows comments from Fed officials that diminished expectations for a December rate cut.
Meanwhile, Wall Street jitters led to four consecutive days of outflows from U.S. spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.
The Balancer crypto hack also undermined market confidence. The exploit, which highlighted a multi-million-dollar breach, reminded market participants of smart contract risk and fragile DeFi foundations.
“The recent $1.28 billion Balancer breach reminds people of something basic: most smart contracts today depend on audit-based hope. Developers write complex code, auditors review it, and everyone hopes there are no hidden logic flaws. Hope is not a guarantee,” Bitcoin services firm Blockstream noted on X.
Overall, the mix of macro tightening, sector-specific incidents, and profit-taking has produced a volatile environment that continues to challenge market participants and weigh on tokens tied to AI and decentralized finance innovations.