Updated October 24, 4:56 PM UTC: This article has been updated with comment from an Ocean Protocol Foundation spokesperson.
The feud between Fetch.ai and the Ocean Protocol Foundation may be nearing an end, as both sides aim to reach a compromise without escalating into a full-blown legal battle.
Fetch.ai announced Thursday that it will cancel all pending legal claims against Ocean Protocol Foundation if it returns the 286 million Fetch.ai (FET) tokens it allegedly sold during the merger.
Fetch.ai CEO Humayun Sheikh said on Thursday’s X Spaces show, “They are looking forward to a legal proposal from us regarding the return of the tokens,” adding:
“You can receive my letter tomorrow. My proposal is simple: return the tokens to my community and I will drop all legal claims.”
Sheikh also offered to cover the legal costs of the pending contract leading to the recovery of the tokens.
According to FET-based validator node GeoStaining, which helped broker the deal, Ocean Protocol agrees to return the tokens once the offer is formally documented.
However, as of this writing, the Ocean Protocol Foundation was still awaiting a formal written proposal from Fetch.ai.
A spokesperson for the Ocean Protocol Foundation told Cointelegraph: “We have repeatedly requested written proposals from our lawyers, which are then properly vetted and digested, but we have not received any. Until then, we cannot take verbal proposals seriously or at face value.”
Related: $19 billion market crash paves the way for Bitcoin’s rise to $200,000: Standard Chartered
The agreement allows the parties to resolve misunderstandings without the need for lengthy litigation that could negatively impact both parties’ reputations and finances.
The latest offer comes just days after Sheikh offered a $250,000 reward for more information about the signatories of OceanDAO’s multi-signature wallet and their relationship with the Ocean Protocol Foundation.
A multi-signature or multisig wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet that requires multiple signatures to perform and process transactions.
Related: SpaceX moves $257 million in Bitcoin, reigniting questions about cryptocurrency efforts
Ocean Protocol faces $120 million token dumping allegations
Despite Ocean Protocol denying the embezzlement allegations, blockchain data shows multi-signature wallets linked to Ocean Protocol converted approximately 661 million Ocean tokens into 286 million FET coins, worth approximately $120 million at the time, according to blockchain data platform Bubblemap.
This includes 160 million FET tokens transferred to Binance and 109 million FET tokens transferred to GSR Markets.
Ocean Protocol withdrew from the Alliance for Artificial Superintelligence on October 9th without mentioning any token transfer.
Since the announcement of the Alliance for Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) in March 2024, the FET token has fallen over 93%, falling from a peak of $3.22 to around $0.26 at the time of writing.
Still, according to Ocean Protocol founder Bruce Pong, the price drop was not caused by Ocean Protocol’s departure from ASI. He wrote in a response to Thursday’s blog:
“[The 93% drop] The culprits were widespread market sentiment and volatility, SingularityNet and Fetch draining liquidity from the entire community by dumping over $500 million worth of $FET tokens, and a reckless TRNR trade that failed to predict the cryptocurrency’s over 45% decline. […]”
“Ocean’s has determined that it cannot in good conscience continue to be a member of the ASI Alliance,” the founders added, pledging to release “claim-by-claim rebuttals” to all recent allegations.
magazine: Connection between “accidental jailbreak”, ChatGPT and murder and suicide: AI Eye