MEXC opens TAO staking to 40 million users through Yuma deal

MEXC opened Bittensor's TAO staking to its 40 million users Tuesday through validator Yuma, adding exchange-based access to rewards from one of the largest decentralized AI networks.

"Introducing millions of users to Bittensor takes broad distribution and high-quality infrastructure," Evan Malanga, chief revenue officer at Yuma, said. "Our proprietary research enables Yuma to commit stake to rewarding the most productive and valuable subnets, enhancing the health of the Bittensor ecosystem."

Under the integration, Yuma operates the validator infrastructure behind the service while MEXC provides the customer-facing staking product. Yuma evaluates network performance firsthand and submits its own weights — a form of performance grading to achieve network consensus — so TAO staked via MEXC earns rewards by supporting the strongest Bittensor contributors. Bittensor's ecosystem currently contains 128 subnets, according to the company, with projects focused on AI inference, coding assistants, financial modeling and model training.

The deal removes several steps normally required to stake directly on Bittensor, which involves transferring TAO to a supported wallet, selecting a validator and completing the delegation on the network. TAO traded near $199 at the time of the announcement, giving Bittensor a market capitalization of about $1.91 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.

MEXC reports serving more than 40 million users in over 170 countries and regions. The exchange lists more than 3,000 cryptocurrencies across spot and derivatives markets and offers industry-leading 0-fee trading, according to its website.

Yuma, a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, focuses exclusively on Bittensor. The firm invests, validates, mines, researches and builds across the network through staking infrastructure, subnet acceleration and institutional asset management.

The partnership follows Yuma's public criticism of Root Reborn, a proposed Bittensor governance overhaul that would change how validators allocate capital. Yuma argued the proposal could turn validators from neutral network operators into active capital managers, potentially encouraging collusion and preferential treatment. TAO fell nearly 20% from its June 15 peak of about $283 to roughly $225 on June 19 as governance concerns weighed on the market, according to Crypto.news data.

MEXC will support the launch with limited-time promotions to encourage network participation, the companies said.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.