Leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase will not participate in the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI) token merger, which is scheduled for July 1, according to Coinbase’s recent post on X. The exchange has not explained the reason behind its decision.
Set to take place Monday, the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI) token merger will get support from several exchanges, except for Coinbase.
“Ocean (OCEAN) and (FET) have announced a merger to form the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI). Coinbase will not execute the migration of these assets on behalf of users,” said Coinbase.
Coinbase Not Playing Along
As a result of the latest decision, Coinbase users will not benefit from automated token transfers. Instead, Coinbase will maintain trading support for OCEAN and FET until further notice.
In addition, while Coinbase does not directly support the merger, the exchange will let users use its Coinbase Wallet as a compatible option for users to manage the process, the exchange noted.
The ASI token merger, hosted by SingularityNET, Fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol, will merge AGIX, OCEAN, and FET, into one token called ASI. Previously the ASI alliance planned to facilitate the merger mid-June, but postponed it to July.
The merger is part of the alliance’s goal to accelerate the development of decentralized Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and to challenge the dominance of Big Tech in the sector.
According to the ASI, rescheduling the merger gives the alliance more time to prepare for the complex process, which involves collaborations with third-party entities like centralized exchanges. So far, Coinbase is the only exchange to opt out of the upcoming migration.
Other major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, KuCoin, Bitfinex, HTX, Bitget, and Crypto.com, said they will support the merger.
Binance said in an announcement earlier this month that it will suspend all deposits and withdrawals of OCEAN and AGIX upon the merger next Monday in support of the process.
Binance also guaranteed it would handle all technical requirements for users who are involved in the merger. Further updates will come after the event completion, according to the exchange.
Coinbase’s announcement has sparked controversies and created confusion among users. The move is seen as a last-minute decision with lack of transparency, causing inconvenience for users. The announcement is believed to have caused panic selling, leading to a drop in token prices compared to other exchanges that are supporting the migration.
AGIX, OCEAN, and FET have all been on a downward trend since Coinbase’s update. According to data from CoinGecko, FET is currently trading around $1.54, a decrease of 9% in the last 24 hours. OCEAN’s price is also down, currently sitting at $0.64, reflecting a 7% decline. AGIX has experienced a similar drop, falling 7% to $0.64.
The crypto market has been trading flat to down, so any specific token prices may be picking up on the wider weakness in the market.
ASI Merger Details
In late March, SingularityNET, Fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol, announced that the three projects would unite to establish the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance. The initiative aims to boost research and development of decentralized AI, with the combined expertise of each project.
The ASI merger will be split into two phases, starting from July 1. Phase 1 will focus on the temporarily merging AGIX and OCEAN tokens into FET. FET will continue trading under the same ticker while ASI rebranding will begin on various platforms.
Phase 2 is set to start mid-July, with the ASI deployment across multiple blockchain platforms. The team also expects to introduce new migration contracts during this phase.
As noted, the ASI token has a market cap of $2.6 billion. Details of conversion rates for each token are: 1 FET will convert to 1 ASI, 1 AGIX will convert to 0.433350 ASI, and 1 OCEAN will convert to 0.433226 ASI.
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