As 2025 approaches, Bittensor’s native token TAO is showing exceptional strength in the crypto market—even as selling pressure mounts across the broader altcoin landscape. With a critical infrastructure update on the horizon and institutional involvement growing, TAO is fast becoming a coin to watch. Currently hovering around $425, the token has strung together six straight sessions of gains—raising legitimate hopes of a sustained breakout. Confidence is grounded not only in market structure but also in a pair of upcoming milestones: a new staked Exchange Traded Product (ETP) launch and a halving event expected to tighten token supply significantly.
Institutional Tailwind: STAO ETP Launch on Swiss Exchange
A key catalyst influencing TAO’s recent rally is the upcoming debut of a staked Exchange Traded Product (ETP) on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The ETP, named STAO, was developed through a strategic collaboration between Deutsche Digital Assets and Safello, targeting release in November. This instrument not only offers investors exposure to TAO price movements but also bakes in staking rewards—ventures typically unavailable to institutional investors through traditional vehicles.
With an expense ratio of 1.49%, STAO enters a fairly nascent but rapidly growing niche: regulated crypto yield-generating products. This makes it a potentially attractive addition to institutional balance sheets seeking DeFi-style returns without custody risk. The implications are meaningful for TAO’s market positioning. Institutional onramps like STAO legitimize TAO beyond retail exchanges and signal a deeper, more widespread confidence in Bittensor’s decentralized machine-learning network.
Supporting this narrative is data from CoinGlass, which shows a rising trend in derivatives market activity. Open Interest on TAO futures has edged up from $312 million to $317 million in a single day, indicating increased leveraged exposure fueled by traders betting on directional movement. Even more telling is the shift in funding rates: flipping from a mildly bearish -0.0018% to a clearly bullish 0.0048%. These structural dynamics underscore a market recalibrating to the upside.
Supply Compression Looms as Halving Draws Near
The bullish technicals and growing institutional appetite may soon find reinforcement from a fundamental supply-side catalyst. Within roughly six weeks, the Bittensor blockchain is slated to undergo a scheduled halving event. The reduction will halve TAO’s daily emissions from 7,200 tokens to 3,600—a dramatic contraction for a network still gaining traction in mainstream awareness.
Halvings have a storied history in crypto economics. From Bitcoin to Litecoin, these events consistently precede major upward moves as market participants reprice value amid reduced new supply. TAO may follow this trend, especially if ETP-driven demand inflates concurrent with emission cuts. This confluence of institutional entry and algorithmic tightening embodies one of the rare dual-demand-supply bullish setups in recent memory. Should these catalysts align harmoniously, the TAO price forecast of $678 by year-end suddenly feels less optimistic and more plausible.
Wedge Breakout May Define the Macro Trajectory
Technical commentators are also pointing to a quiet but critical structure in TAO’s chart that may hint at further appreciation. According to analysis from Rekt Capital, the token has been forming a broad wedge pattern—with recent price action showing a breakout retest from a key demand zone. That reclaim helped build toward the structure’s upper boundary near $449.36—now serving as a decisive resistance.
A weekly close above that level could flip it into support and return TAO into a macro range that spans from $449.36 to $678.13. Historically, price action within this zone has been volatile but upward-biased—often resulting in sharp rallies once confirmation occurs. In prior instances, successful weekly closures above trend markers led to moves capturing nearly half of the channel. Should history rhyme, TAO could soon find itself accelerating toward the upper end of its macro range.
Signs of Accumulation Strengthen Bullish Bias
Beyond wedge geometry, traders are noting increasingly shallow pullbacks during intraday consolidations. Each rejection off resistance zones is met with quicker recoveries—indicating strong underlying demand and potential whale accumulation. The behavior suggests a market gaining confidence and perhaps treating recent lows not as windows for panic but opportunities for entry. It’s a sentiment shift reminiscent of early-stage bull markets where conviction trumps reflexive selling.
If momentum sustains—and both the ETP rollout and halving proceed without delays—TAO may outperform even optimistic projections. For now, all eyes remain on the $450 mark: break it cleanly with convincing volume, and the door opens not just to $678, but potentially into new all-time high conversations by mid-2025.
