Quick Review:
- Barry Silbert, CEO of Digital Currency Group, stated that decentralized AI is the "next big era of crypto."
- In a letter, he said the company has invested over $105 million in more than a dozen decentralized AI projects.
Crypto investment giant Barry Silbert is heavily betting on decentralized AI (deAI), calling it the "next big era of crypto" that could even surpass Bit.
In a letter to his Digital Currency Group (DCG) crypto group shareholders, Silbert expressed strong optimism about deAI - the crypto industry's attempt to integrate AI innovation with blockchain technology. He believes this technological fusion could bring greater returns to humanity than the closed-system models being developed by OpenAI and other tech giants.
"We are moving from ownership of digital assets to decentralized intelligent ownership and the availability of massive decentralized computing resources," Silbert wrote in the fourth-quarter letter reviewed by CoinDesk.
This trend reminds Silbert of Bit - the world's most famous and largest cryptocurrency, which was also the field where he initially accumulated crypto wealth. But rather than calling deAI a monetary revolution, he says it is a revolution of power, with crypto technology becoming the core mechanism for distributing ownership and governance of powerful AI models.
DCG shares the same view. Silbert stated in the letter that the company has invested $105 million in more than a dozen deAI projects, and "we are excited to further increase our investment in 2025."
He specifically mentioned DCG's investment in Bittensor - a crypto network focused on machine learning and AI applications, and believes the company is closest to achieving "escape velocity" (breakthrough growth). He pointed out that Bittensor's TAO token is similar to Bit in many ways.
It's worth noting that TAO's market cap is currently $2.7 billion, compared to Bit's nearly $2 trillion valuation, which is only a "fraction" level.
DCG plans to heavily invest in the Bittensor ecosystem. Silbert mentioned that DCG established a company called Yuma in November 2023 to incubate Bittensor infrastructure projects. In addition, DCG's subsidiary Grayscale has already launched related investment products to provide institutional and retail investors with access to TAO.
Silbert's fourth-quarter letter also marks the end of a year of "rebuilding" for DCG. After the FTX collapse led to the bankruptcy of its lending business Genesis, the company went through a turbulent period. DCG also sold CoinDesk to Bullish by the end of 2023. However, he stated that DCG's five business segments achieved success in 2024.
"Over the past few years, we have maintained strict discipline, which not only made our infrastructure and processes more mature, but also significantly improved our governance structure, making DCG a stronger company focused on executing our growth plan," Silbert wrote.
