‘The biggest Bittensor FUD event of all time.’ 

That’s the line that stuck with me last night, following Covenant’s explosive departure from Bittensor - three subnets, 37,000T worth of alpha, one X article, and a hell of a firestorm.

For Bittensor, the sudden departure of three top-20 subnets would be bad enough, even without the unjustified accusations against its founder.

But it’s the timing that really hurts. 

Covenant’s 72B had just achieved every subnet’s dream: a major technical breakthrough, followed by mainstream acclaim and respect. SN3’s total diluted value leapt from $20m to $100m. Crypto X took notice. Retail flooded in. 

And rather than seizing the opportunity, Covenant’s founder Sam Dare @DistStateAndMe decided he’d had enough. 

Yet rather than trigger a civil war, or even a mass exodus, Covenant’s behaviour brought the protocol together. Jacob’s response - measured, thoughtful, constructive - immediately turned minds away from blame and towards building better.

Shoutout to Subnet Summer for hosting an X space at an ungodly hour and giving @const_reborn a platform to step up for the community. 

From distributed ownership to token unlocking protocols, the desire to strengthen the network is strong. 

But whatever happens next, let’s recognise the most important fact: the ecosystem has held. We didn’t divide. 

And if we can survive the network’s breakthrough subnet leaving at the peak of its fame? We can survive anything. 

@macrozack

Machine learning on Bittensor isn’t going anywhere. Affine published miner results across every major benchmark - and showed that  Independent miners now beat base models across every major benchmark. Const puts it best when he describes Affine: ‘it’s an AI lab but you get paid for contributing to the run by taking the current top model and training it further.’

Jesus Martinez is calling it the first profitable subnet in Bittensor. I’ve not seen the numbers, but Bitcast is undoubtedly on a roll. ‘From here, the focus is on scaling revenue,’ the team says, not only by increasing volume but also through an ‘agentic sales outreach funnel.’

I love it when experienced teams help new subnets succeed. Having worked with the Minos team before they secured SN107, I was impressed by their commitment and ability. The partnership will provide Minos with compute credits, infrastructure support, and more.