$TAO is still very much correlated with the rest of crypto, not AI. And I think that is going to change in 2027. Right now, the price of TAO is still largely driven by the same forces that move the rest of the crypto market. Bitcoin goes up, TAO follows. Bitcoin goes down, TAO follows. Meanwhile, the actual Bittensor ecosystem is developing at a pace that is increasingly disconnected from its market valuation. But something important is happening underneath the surface, and I believe it will fundamentally change how TAO is valued. The ecosystem is starting to generate meaningful revenue from outside of crypto, and more importantly, an increasing number of subnets are using that revenue to buy back and burn their Alpha tokens. This is where Bittensor is different compared to the rest of crypto. Because Alpha tokens are connected to TAO through their liquidity pools, demand for Alpha also creates demand for TAO. Every subnet that builds a successful business and uses (part of) its revenue for buybacks contributes to this mechanism. And the beauty of it is that this doesn't depend on attracting new crypto investors or convincing people to buy TAO because of hype and narrative like 99% of crypto. It depends on businesses and consumers paying for products they need in the real world. This is what I mean when I say Bittensor will start growing from the inside out. The ecosystem increasingly develops its own internal source of demand, funded by real economic activity. And we don't need all subnets to succeed for this to become significant. A handful of breakout subnets generating tens or even hundreds of millions in annual revenue could already make create significant demand. Now imagine what happens when that number keeps growing. That's why I expect 2027 to be the year we see a meaningful repricing of $TAO. Enough thoughts for this morning, enjoy your saturday. Oh and let me know what you think.

Let me try to help you out here. First, to understand this better, it is important to understand that Bittensor is not a regular L1. For a regular L1, if a project built on top does really well, it doesn't necessarily create much value for the L1 itself other than additional transactions and fees. For $TAO that's different. TAO has a symbiotic relationship with Alpha, the subnet token. What that means in practice is that you cannot buy Alpha without going through TAO. They are economically connected through the liquidity pools. So when demand for a subnet's Alpha increases, more TAO gets pulled into that subnet's pool. It becomes even more interesting when the economic activity itself is used for buybacks. Let's say a subnet generates $1M in external revenue and uses $500K of that revenue to buy and burn Alpha. That $500K becomes direct buy pressure on Alpha, which through the TAO/Alpha pool creates demand for TAO and leaves more TAO inside that subnet's pool. So to answer your question directly: $1 of additional economic activity does NOT automatically equal $1 of demand for TAO. The amount that translates into TAO demand depends on how much of that economic activity flows back into Alpha. If 50% of revenue is used for Alpha buybacks, then $1 of revenue creates $0.50 of recurring economic demand flowing through the TAO/Alpha economy, in other words demand for TAO. And this is where breakout subnets become incredibly important. Imagine a subnet eventually doing $500M in annual revenue and using 50% for buybacks. That's $250M of annual buy pressure flowing into its Alpha token and therefore through TAO. Now imagine multiple subnets reaching that scale. In the long run, emissions alone aren't the value proposition. The real endgame is hundreds of independent businesses generating external revenue, with part of that revenue continuously flowing back into their subnet economies. So in short: if a subnet does well, creates real economic value and that value flows back into Alpha, it creates direct economic demand that ultimately flows through $TAO. That's the connection you're looking for. I hope this helps, feel free to ask questions and I'm always willing to jump on a call to figure out if we can work this out together.

If you're reading this, use this info. $TAO subnets are the most undervalued part of the crypto industry. It is the only place in crypto where you find companies creating real world value and bringing in revenue at scale. Asymmetric opportunity. Worth the deep dive.