SKY vs TAO
Sky (formerly Maker) and Bittensor scored on the same 25 variables, ranked against the same 251 tokens, with every gap between them shown.
Scoring pass 18 Sept 2026. Market snapshot 7 Oct 2026.
What separates them
SKY scores 141 of 250 and ranks 30th of 251. TAO scores 128 and ranks 49th. SKY leads by 13 points, which is a real gap, though small enough that one variable moving would close much of it. SKY takes 10 of the 25 variables, TAO takes 11, and 4 are level.
5 variables separate them by 3 points or more. SKY is clear on Vesting Schedule (9 against 2), Circulating / FDV Ratio (9 against 3) and Protocol Revenue (8 against 3). TAO is clear on Social Mindshare (8 against 3).
Both score 3 or below on Supply Inflation. A weakness both sides share is not a reason to prefer either. It is a reason to check whether the category itself carries the problem.
TAO still has 46% of its eventual supply to enter circulation against 0.1% for SKY. On the same market capitalisation, a buyer of TAO is taking the 1.85x dilution path and a buyer of SKY the 1x one.
TAO is valued at $3.29B against $1.86B for SKY, a 1.8x difference. The smaller of the two scores higher on fundamentals, which is the disagreement worth understanding before either position is taken.
TAO trades 61.8% below its all-time high and SKY 21.2% below its own. Recovering the high needs 2.6x from TAO and 1.3x from SKY, which is the same statement read as the return each one has to produce.
All 25 variables, head to head
Both tokens were scored by the same framework in the same pass, so the numbers are directly comparable. What a comparison adds over two separate pages is the gap: a 6 against a 6 is a non-event, a 9 against a 3 is the reason to hold one and not the other.
Cash flow
| Protocol Revenue | 8 | 3 | SKY +5 | |
| Revenue Trend | 7 | 5 | SKY +2 | |
| P/S Multiple | 7 | 3 | SKY +4 | |
| Real Staking Yield | 6 | 6 | level |
Supply
| Supply Inflation | 3 | 3 | level | |
| Vesting Schedule | 9 | 2 | SKY +7 | |
| Circulating / FDV Ratio | 9 | 3 | SKY +6 | |
| Buyback and Burn | 4 | 2 | SKY +2 |
Ownership
| Smart Money Flows | 5 | 7 | TAO +2 | |
| Insider Selling | 6 | 5 | SKY +1 | |
| Holder Concentration | 3 | 4 | TAO +1 |
Traction
| TVL Trend | 5 | 4 | SKY +1 | |
| Active Users | 4 | 5 | TAO +1 | |
| Developer Activity | 6 | 7 | TAO +1 | |
| Network Growth | 6 | 7 | TAO +1 |
Position
| Market Share | 7 | 7 | level | |
| Competitive Moat | 6 | 6 | level | |
| Institutional Adoption | 8 | 6 | SKY +2 | |
| Exchange Depth | 4 | 7 | TAO +3 | |
| Social Mindshare | 3 | 8 | TAO +5 |
Risk
| Regulatory Safety | 4 | 6 | TAO +2 | |
| Catalyst Calendar | 5 | 6 | TAO +1 | |
| BTC Alpha Potential | 3 | 5 | TAO +2 | |
| Team Execution | 5 | 6 | TAO +1 | |
| Treasury Runway | 8 | 5 | SKY +3 |
Bars read outward from the centre: SKY to the left, TAO to the right. The side that leads a variable is filled. Each score is 1 to 10 against the same definition applied to all 251 rated tokens.
Market and supply
| SKY | TAO | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.0795 | $289.32 |
| Market cap | $1.86B | $3.29B |
| Circulating | 99.9% | 54% |
| Dilution to full supply | 1x | 1.85x |
| Off all-time high | -21.2% | -61.8% |
| To recover the high | 1.3x | 2.6x |
| Total value locked | $6.02B | not published |
| Network | Ethereum | Bittensor |
Price, market cap and all-time high from the CoinGecko snapshot fetched 7 Oct 2026. Supply shares are derived from circulating and eventual supply counts, which do not move with price. The 25 scores come from the research pass dated 18 Sept 2026.
Catalyst and risk on each side
SKY · CAUTIOUS HOLD
Buyback restoration ~Nov 2026 when Solvency Reserve hits $125M (currently $70.6M). Revenue still growing (Q1 record $61M net). SSR cut improves margins. Remaining 3 Stars. S&P upgrade path. Obex Cohort 2.
Validated RISKS: Rune SPOF (80% governance, emergency proposals bypass process). Net inflationary ~4.4%/yr at current rates. Revenue $246M net but SKY captures only $97M (holders rev). TVL declining. not MiCA-compliant (Jul 2026 deadline). $756M USDC in unverifiable EOA. 35% of USDS is just wrapped USDC. All financials self-reported by Sky Foundation.
TAO · CAUTIOUS HOLD
Dtao subnet tokenization enabling sub-token economies; AI compute demand structurally growing
No real revenue accrual to TAO; subnet quality highly variable; BTC-correlated with extra volatility; 44% supply still to emit
Common questions
- Is SKY or TAO the better investment?
- On this framework SKY scores higher: 141 against 128 of 250, and it is rated CAUTIOUS HOLD against CAUTIOUS HOLD. That is a ranking of fundamentals as recorded at the last scoring pass, not a price forecast, and SKY still wins 10 of the 25 individual variables against TAO.
- What is the biggest difference between SKY and TAO?
- Vesting Schedule. SKY scores 9 of 10 there and TAO scores 2, a gap of 7 points on a single variable.
- Which is bigger, SKY or TAO?
- SKY is valued at $1.86B and TAO at $3.29B on the latest market snapshot.
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Research and analysis, not investment advice. A higher score is one framework applied consistently to 251 tokens, not a prediction that one asset will outperform the other.