🚨 SEVEN MONTHS AGO BARRY SILBERT SAID $TAO CAN GO 500X. HERE IS WHAT HIS OWN COMPANY HAS DONE SINCE. February 11, 2026. Bitcoin Investor Week. Barry Silbert, founder of DCG and chairman of Grayscale, on stage: "I think a Zcash, I think Bittensor can go up 500x. And so our portfolio is allocated accordingly." Plenty of people say things on stage. What matters is what they do after. So I pulled Grayscale's own daily data for GTAO, the Grayscale Bittensor Trust, and checked. THE CALL CAME NEAR THE BOTTOM Every GTAO share holds a fixed amount of $TAO, 0.01889 today. Divide NAV by that and you get TAO's price from Grayscale's own books. • February 11: NAV $2.81. TAO roughly $147. The lowest NAV of 2026 • September 21: NAV $5.78. TAO roughly $306 • NAV up 22% on September 21 alone, and about 33% since August 31 He said 500x within days of the low. $TAO has roughly doubled since. MORE THAN JUST A PRICE Shares outstanding only rise when accredited investors put new money into the trust. • June 2024 launch: 72,200 • February 2026: 1,907,800 • August 21: 2,474,800 • September 21: 2,845,800 Up 49% this year. Up 15% in the last month. Nearly 40 times the launch count. That money came in while $TAO sat between $150 and $230 and the timeline said it was over. Institutions accumulated through the exact months retail capitulated. THE ETF IS ALREADY FILED On December 30, 2025, Grayscale filed an S-1 with the SEC to convert GTAO into a spot ETF on NYSE Arca under the same ticker. The first proposed US exchange-traded product for $TAO. An amendment has since been filed in 2026. What the filing lays out: • NYSE Arca listing as Grayscale Bittensor Trust ETF • TAO held directly, custodied with Coinbase Custody and BitGo • In-kind creations and redemptions through authorized participants • BNY Mellon as administrator and transfer agent • Staking permitted by the trust documents, pending regulatory clearance Silbert's line when they filed: decentralized AI is developing quickly, and Grayscale is pioneering access. Europe already has TAO products, including a staked TAO ETP on the SIX Swiss Exchange. The US does not. GTAO is first in line. CHANGES THE BUYER On September 21, GTAO closed at $8.55 against $5.78 of underlying TAO per share. A 48% premium. Without redemptions, the OTC trust can drift far from its holdings’ value. An ETF’s creation and redemption mechanism helps keep that gap tighter. Exchange access could also expand eligibility across advisors, retirement platforms and model portfolios. The trust is roughly $16.4 million today. The potential buyer pool is much larger. And DCG’s involvement extends into the network: its company Yuma operates a root validator. The group is pursuing both investment access and participation inside Bittensor. WHAT 500X MEANS From $147, 500x means $73,500 per TAO. Approximately $1.54 trillion at the full 21 million supply. My Take is: • ETF filed, not approved. • GTAO’s premium can collapse even while TAO rises. • The trust charges 2.5% annually, paid through TAO sales. • Through August 31, NAV remained down 37.5% since launch. THE POINT The investment case extends beyond the price chart to who can access $TAO, through which accounts, and at what cost. An ETF would not guarantee demand. It could remove barriers standing between that demand and said asset. The paperwork is important because access changes the buyer. DYOR. I hold $TAO and multiple subnet positions.