MEXC stakes its claim: 40M users now yield-farming Bittensor's AI brain trust 🌾

Cryptocurrency exchange MEXC has launched staking support for Bittensor's native TAO token, enabling users across its reported 40 million-user base to earn rewards by helping secure one of the largest decentralized artificial intelligence networks. Bittensor validator Yuma announced Tuesday that MEXC has integrated its validator infrastructure to support TAO staking globally.

Yuma participates in Bittensor's consensus mechanism by evaluating the performance of network subnets — specialized AI applications that perform specific machine learning tasks — and assigning weights that help determine how staking rewards are distributed. The companies said the integration is intended to expand access to the Bittensor ecosystem and increase participation in the network.

TAO holders can stake tokens to validators, who allocate stake across subnets and earn rewards based on those allocations. The Bittensor ecosystem currently consists of 128 subnets that specialize in tasks such as AI inference, model training, coding assistants and financial modeling. The network coordinates the development of AI models and services through these subnets, which compete for token rewards based on their performance and usefulness to the broader system.

The ecosystem has expanded as interest in decentralized AI grows, with advocates arguing that open networks such as Bittensor are less susceptible to government or corporate restrictions than proprietary AI models. That argument gained renewed attention after the US Commerce Department restricted public access to certain Anthropic models due to national security and export control concerns.

TAO was trading at around $199 at the time of writing, giving it a market capitalization of roughly $1.916 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.