The move would end weeks of regulatory limbo that temporarily shut down access to one of the most advanced AI systems ever built, and sparked a rally in decentralized AI tokens.
The Trump administration is preparing to remove export controls on Anthropic’s Fable 5 AI model as early as tonight, ending a nearly month-long saga that saw one of America’s most prominent AI companies effectively locked out of serving its own users.
How we got here #
The story starts on June 9, 2026, when Anthropic launched Fable 5 as what it described as a safer alternative to its more powerful Mythos class of models. Three days later, on June 12, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick issued a directive to Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei imposing export controls on both Fable 5 and Mythos 5.
The rationale: national security and cybersecurity risks. The directive required foreign entities, including US employees working abroad, to obtain licenses before accessing either model.
Anthropic’s response was immediate and blunt. The company disabled both models for all users to ensure compliance with the new regulations.
Industry groups argued the controls were overbroad, punishing legitimate users and undermining American competitiveness in the global AI race.
On June 26, the administration offered partial relief. Over 100 US companies and government agencies were granted restored access to Mythos 5. Fable 5, however, remained locked down while negotiations continued behind the scenes.
What the new framework looks like #
The expected lifting of Fable 5 restrictions won’t be a simple return to the pre-June 12 status quo. New safeguards, including identity verification measures, are anticipated as part of the deal.
The controls were originally motivated by concerns that Anthropic had been, in the government’s view, reckless in deploying advanced AI technologies with known cyber vulnerabilities.
The crypto angle #
Crypto tokens associated with decentralized AI training and inference outperformed the broader market during the weeks of restriction. When a single government directive can shut down access to a leading AI model overnight, the value proposition of decentralized alternatives becomes a lot more concrete.
What this means for investors #
Before June 12, the idea that the US government would impose export controls on a domestic AI company’s consumer-facing product seemed far-fetched. Now it’s precedent. That means every major AI provider, not just Anthropic, carries a new category of regulatory risk that investors need to price in.
For the crypto AI sector, a full lifting of restrictions on Fable 5 could pull some speculative capital back out of decentralized AI tokens as the immediate crisis fades. But the structural argument for decentralized AI infrastructure has been strengthened by the episode. Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our