South Korea’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit has listed Bittensor’s native token TAO on its spot market, introducing trading pairs against the Korean won, bitcoin and tether. The listing, which went live on February 16, immediately triggered heightened trading activity and a noticeable rise in TAO’s market price as local demand entered the order books.
Bittensor is a decentralized network designed to reward participants for contributing artificial intelligence models and computational resources. Its token, TAO, functions as the core economic layer of the ecosystem, supporting staking, incentive distribution and network transactions. The addition of direct KRW trading access is widely viewed as a significant development for the project, given South Korea’s active retail trading base and the historical influence of won denominated markets on digital asset price discovery.
To manage volatility during the early phase of trading, Upbit implemented temporary safeguards. Buy orders were limited for the initial minutes following launch, and sell orders below a specified threshold relative to the opening reference price were restricted. For the first two hours, only limit orders were permitted, a common mechanism used by major exchanges to reduce extreme price swings during new listings. The platform also issued guidance regarding supported networks to prevent transfer errors, encouraging users to utilize the designated Bittensor network for deposits and withdrawals.
Following the announcement, TAO experienced a sharp price increase as liquidity expanded across multiple exchanges. The token was trading around 189 dollars at the time of reporting, reflecting renewed momentum in the decentralized AI segment. The move came even as broader crypto markets showed mixed performance, with several large cap assets facing short term pressure.
Market analysts note that listings on major Korean exchanges often act as catalysts due to concentrated retail participation and strong local interest in emerging technology themes. Korean won pairs in particular can signal domestic capital inflows and heightened speculative interest. While overall trading volumes in South Korea have moderated compared with previous peak cycles, the region remains a meaningful driver of liquidity for selected altcoins.
The listing also reinforces the growing intersection between blockchain networks and artificial intelligence infrastructure. Bittensor’s model centers on open participation, where contributors are compensated in TAO based on the utility and performance of their AI outputs. As the broader market narrative shifts toward decentralized compute and machine intelligence, tokens linked to AI ecosystems have drawn renewed investor attention.
With circulating supply still below its maximum issuance and network participation continuing to expand, TAO’s market behavior is being closely monitored by traders assessing both liquidity depth and sustained demand beyond the initial listing surge.
