A feud between Fetch.ai CEO Humayun Sheikh and the Ocean Protocol Foundation has escalated into legal threats, onchain accusations, and a reaction from Binance, all centering on about 286 million Fetch.ai (FET) tokens worth roughly $84 million.
The conflict stems from the Artificial Superintelligence (ASI) Alliance, a 2024 merger that combined AI-focused crypto projects Fetch.ai, Ocean Protocol and SingularityNET under a shared token framework.
On Wednesday, Sheikh alleged that Ocean Protocol minted and transferred millions of OCEAN tokens before the merger. He said the project later converted them into FET and moved large sums to centralized exchanges and market-making firms without proper disclosure.
“If Ocean as a stand-alone project did this, it would be classed as a rug pull,” Sheikh wrote on X, detailing how 719 million OCEAN were minted in 2023, with 661 million swapped for 286 million FET in July 2025. He alleged that portions of these tokens were subsequently moved or liquidated.
Binance restricted support for OCEAN tokens
Amid the escalating dispute, crypto exchange Binance announced that it will cease support for Ocean deposits starting next Monday, Oct. 20.
While the exchange said users can still deposit using other supported networks, it said ERC-20 deposits made after Oct. 20 “will not be credited and may lead to asset loss.”
Though the exchange did not mention the dispute as the cause for the move, limiting ERC-20 deposits suggests that the exchange is conducting internal risk controls or investigations, as many of the disputed tokens are on Ethereum.
Sheikh interpreted Binance’s decision to cease support for the tokens as the exchange “listening” to his public calls on X to investigate Ocean Protocol’s token transfers.
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Sheikh pledges class-action lawsuits, Ocean Protocol responds
Sheikh pledged to fund class-action lawsuits across three or more jurisdictions and called on Binance, GSR and ExaGroup to investigate. He also called on FET tokenholders to prepare evidence against Ocean Protocol, as he said he would set up a channel for them to submit their claims.
Ocean Protocol responded on X, denying the allegations outright and describing them as “unfounded claims and harmful rumors.”
In an official statement on X, the company said its treasury was intact and that it had suggested waiving confidentiality over an adjudicator’s findings related to the dispute. Ocean claimed Sheikh refused this proposal.
“Ocean is working and active,” the post said. “We are preparing responses to the various unfounded claims and allegations while respecting the ambits of the law.”
The mention of an adjudicator suggests that the conflict has already reached a formal legal arbitration, likely under the merger framework that governed the ASI Alliance’s token conversions.
Cointelegraph reached out to Fetch.ai and Ocean Protocol, but had not received a response by publication.
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