Table of Contents
Hermes, a Bittensor subnet launched by SubQuery in January, has today announced it will shut down operations, citing an inability to recover from its current position of deregistration.
In a post shared with the community, the team said it had been placed next in line for deregistration and did not see “a clear path out of the position we’re in.”
“With that in mind, we want to give you advance notice that in 8 hours’ time, we will be liquidating our alpha holdings to cover operational expenses incurred since launch,” the team wrote. “Up until now, these costs have been covered out of pocket, and we have not previously sold any alpha.”
A Sudden Turn After Recent Pivot
The closure comes just weeks after Hermes outlined a strategic shift toward a consumer-facing product called Hermes Pilot.
Announced on April 9, Hermes Pilot was positioned as a “super agent for crypto,” designed to help users and autonomous systems understand and navigate the ecosystem through a single interface. The product aimed to abstract away fragmented dashboards, block explorers, and analytics tools, allowing users to query the system in plain English and receive actionable insights.
Behind the interface, Hermes Subnet 82 functioned as an optimization layer, where miners competed to improve the intelligence powering the agent. The team also introduced a “skills-based” model, shifting from raw data infrastructure toward scenario-driven outputs aligned with user needs.
On April 16, the team acknowledged mounting pressure on the subnet and outlined steps to stabilize its position, including an updated roadmap for Hermes Pilot, a planned "major" data partnership announcement by month-end, and an increase in burn rate to 100% to better align emissions with current network conditions.
Despite those efforts, the team now says it was unable to reverse course.
Signs of a Potential Intervention
The shutdown has sparked discussion across the community about how subnets are evaluated and what determines long-term viability, particularly as Const was seen reaching out to the Hermes team in Discord, which some have taken as a sign of a potential rescue effort initiated.
The situation has brought two competing views into focus.
On one side, some argue that subnets must ultimately prove their ability to attract capital and sustain emissions, regardless of product direction. In this view, subnets should be allowed to fail as part of a competitive market structure, and failure to capture investment is a signal that a subnet must re-evaluate its strategy.
On the other side, the argument is that Hermes didn't have sufficient time to execute on its pivot, especially given that it launched in a subnet slot already at risk of deregistration. From this perspective, selective intervention is warranted to retain teams building viable products instead of losing them to another ecosystem.
For now, liquidation remains the stated path forward, and it remains unclear whether an alternative is in the cards.
