Ocean Community 51% Tokens
By: Bruce Pon
I want to address the following false statements and allegations made by Sheikh, Goertzel and Burke:
To put to rest any false claims or allegations of “theft” of property, let’s track the story from start to finish. This post has also been prepared with input from Ocean Expeditions.
Prior to March 2021, Ocean Protocol Foundation (‘OPF’) owned the minting rights to the $OCEAN token contract (0x967) with 5 signers assigned by OPF.
The Ocean community allocation, which would comprise 51% of eventual $OCEAN supply, (‘51% Tokens’) had not yet been minted but its allocation had been communicated to the Ocean community in the Ocean whitepaper.
To set up the oceanDAO properly, OPF engaged commercial lawyers, accountants and auditors to conceive a legal and auditable pathway to grant the oceanDAO the rights of minting the Ocean community allocation.
In June 2022 (but with documents dated March 2021), the rights of minting the 51% Tokens was irrevocably signed over to the oceanDAO. Along with this, seven Ocean community members and independent crypto OGs, stepped in, in their individual capacities to become trustees of the 51% Tokens.
One year later, in May 2023, using the minting rights it had been granted in June 2022, the oceanDAO minted the 51% Token supply and irreversibly relinquished all control over the $OCEAN token contract 0x967 for eternity. The $OCEAN token lives wholly independent on the Ethereum blockchain and cannot be changed, modified or stopped.
The 51% Tokens were minted into existence on the Ethereum blockchain. The address holding the $OCEAN tokens sat in the ether, owned by no one. The address could release $OCEAN when at least 4 of 7 signers activated their key in the Gnosis Safe vault, which governs the address.
None of the signers had any claim of ownership over the address, Gnosis Safe vault or the contents (51% Tokens). They acted in the interest of the Ocean community and not anyone else, and certainly not OPF or the Ocean Founders.
During the ASI talks in Q2/2024, Fetch.ai applied significant pressure on OPF to convert the entire 51% Token supply immediately to $FET. OPF pushed back clearly stating that it had no power to do so as the 51% Tokens were not the property of, or under the control of OPF.
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During those talks, OPF also repeatedly emphasized to Fetch.ai and SingularityNET that the property rights of EVERY token holder (including those of OPF and oceanDAO) must be respected, and that these rights were completely separate to the ASI Alliance. Fetch.ai and SingularityNET agreed with this fundamental principle.
It must also be highlighted that oceanDAO was never a party to any agreement with Fetch.ai and SingularityNET. It had its own investment priorities and objectives as a regular token holder. oceanDAO’s existence, and the fact that it was the entity controlling the 51% Tokens with 7 signers, was acknowledged by SingularityNET at the very start of talks in March 2024.
In those discussions, OPF explained the intentions of the oceanDAO to release $OCEAN tokens to the community on an emission schedule.
In mid-2024, after the formation of the ASI Alliance, Fetch minted 611 million $FET tokens for the Ocean community. The sole purpose of minting this 611 million $FET was to accommodate a 100% swap-out of the Ocean community’s token supply of 1.41 billion $OCEAN. This swap-out would be via a $OCEAN-$FET token bridge and migration contract.
At that time, the oceanDAO did not initiate a conversion of the Gnosis Safe vault 51% Tokens from $OCEAN to $FET. The 51% of tokens sat dormant, as they had since being minted in May 2023.
However, with the continued and relentlessly deteriorating price of $FET due to the actions of Fetch.ai and SingularityNET, the Ocean community treasury had fallen in value from $1 billion in Q1/2024 to $300 million in Q2/2025.
oceanDAO therefore decided around April 2025 that it needed to take steps to avoid further fall in the value of the 51% Tokens for the Ocean community by converting some of the $OCEAN into other crypto-currencies or stablecoins, so that the oceanDAO would not be saddled with a large supply of steadily depreciating token.
The immediate and obvious risk to the Ocean community would be that if and when suitable projects come about, the Ocean community rewards could very well be worthless due to the continued fall in $FET price. This was an important consideration for the oceanDAO when it eventually decided that active steps had to be taken to protect the interests of the Ocean community.
Upon the establishment of Ocean Expeditions, a Cayman trust, in late-June, 2025, oceanDAO transferred signing rights over the 51% Tokens to Ocean Expeditions, who then initiated a conversion of $OCEAN to $FET using the token bridge and migration contract.
Sheikh alluded to this act of conversion of $OCEAN to $FET, along with his incorrect understanding of their purpose in a podcast.
However, unlike what Sheikh falsely claimed, Ocean Expeditions’s conversion of the 51% Tokens from $OCEAN to $FET and the selling of some of these tokens, is in no way a “theft” of these tokens by Ocean Expeditions or by OPF. These are unequivocally, not ASI community tokens, not “ASI” community reward tokens and not under any consideration of the ASI community.
Ocean Expeditions converted its $OCEAN holdings into $FET by utilising the $FET that were specifically minted for the Ocean community and earmarked by Fetch.ai for this conversion. It is important to emphasize that Ocean Expeditions did not tap into any other portion of the $FET supply. Simply put, there was no “theft” because Ocean Expeditions had claimed what it was rightfully allocated and entitled to.
Any token movements of the 51% Tokens to 30 wallets, Binance, GSR or any other recipient AND any token liquidations or disposals, are the sole right of, and at the discretion of Ocean Expeditions, and no one else.
Ocean Expeditions sought to preserve the value of the community assets, for the good of the Ocean community. Any assets, whether in $FET, other tokens or fiat, remain held by Ocean Expeditions in trust for the Ocean community. The assets have not been transferred to, or in any other way taken by OPF or the Ocean Founders.
We demand that Fetch.ai, Sheikh and all other representatives of the ASI Alliance who have promulgated any lies, incitement and misrepresentations (e.g. “stolen” “scammers” “we will get you”) immediately retract their statements, delete their social media posts where these statements were made, issue a clarification to the broader news media and issue a formal apology to Ocean Expeditions, Ocean Protocol Foundation, and the Ocean Founders.
We repeat that the 51% Tokens are owned by Ocean Expeditions, for the sole purpose of the Ocean community and no one else.
