What blockchain x AI actually means

This week we saw Sony launch a layer2 on top of Ethereum, a continuation of ICO’s roaring back, returning retail investors to the space, and—in a sign of a thawing regulatory environment—Coinbase’s launch of bitcoin backed loans through our portfolio company Morpho.

One of the hottest topics in blockchain circles is the confluence of blockchain and AI. Depending on which way they look at it, very clever people get either extremely excited or extremely alarmed. But what does it actually mean? What is blockchain x AI?

In short, in a world where AI becomes more and more prevalent, blockchain technology naturally provides the transaction and coordination layer over which AI agents will conduct their business. Firstly, blockchains will allow anybody to independently verify that an AI agent is what it says it is. Blockchains can verify the authenticity and source of information used in a world where deep fakes and misinformation/spam are going to explode. In that same vein, blockchain networks can provide a verifiable proof of humanhood where needed (see Worldcoin, Sam Altman’s crypto project). This is an important mechanism and fairly easy to grasp.

The second leg to this coordination layer however is altogether more wild. Since a couple of months, big steps have been made to fully autonomize AI agents that are now able to independently control crypto wallets and behave like businesses. That means AI agents can now execute financial transactions, collect money and learn over time—essentially improving their behavior based on profit—all operating completely independently from any human intervention. To take this one step further, it also means AI agents can now interact financially with other AI agents.

This need not necessarily lead to a dystopian scenario where we are all walking around in loin cloths while bots rule the world. At our recent Legends4Legends conference in October, Co-founder of Polychain, Olaf Carlson-Wee, put it thoughtfully when he stated that he saw a future where AI agents will dominate digital and financial systems, but crucially, it will happen because humans willingly adopt AI systems that simply perform a certain task better than they do. What is important to remember is that blockchains are an integral part of this completely new economic behaviour, as they will both enable the future and provide safeguards to mitigate risks. Governance through blockchain networks might be our best shot at solving the problem of AI running amok.

From an investment point of view, one way to think about it is that blockchain networks are the toll roads collecting fees from the explosion of value traffic that the above will generate, not centralized rent seekers like banks or social media companies. And as this infrastructure is being built from the ground up for 100% by start-ups, it provides very attractive early stage investment opportunities to get exposure to AI. That contrasts with direct AI investments which tend to be held by large private groups at high valuations.

One or two projects I can recommend digging into are Grass, a decentralized data set and the aforementioned Worldcoin. See below for a great piece the Theta team wrote on Grass.

Look out this weekend for Trumps attendance at the Crypto Ball in Washington after Bloomberg reported that Trump is planning to release an executive order elevating crypto as a policy priority.

Relevant financial updates

• Phantom, the leading wallet provider on Solana raised a $150mln Series C round co-led by Sequoia and Paradigm.
• Sygnum Bank, the Swiss crypto bank raised a $58mln strategic growth round led by Fulgur Ventures.
• Komainu, a Nomura-backed regulated digital asset custodian raised a BTC-denominated $75mln Series B led by Blockstream’s venture arm.
• 1Money* a company building a Layer 1 exclusively designed for stablecoin payments raised a $20mln Series A, with the participation of Hack VC, Anagram, Galaxy, Kraken Ventures, BitGo Ventures and gumi Cryptos amongst other investors.
• Reown* (prev. Wallet Connect), the leading service provider for wallet interoperability raised a $13mln Series B co-led by 1KX and Union Square Ventures with the participation of Kraken Ventures, Fenbushi and Figment.
• Rena Labs* a startup specialized in verifiable artificial intelligence raised a $3.3mln pre-Seed round led by Paper Ventures with the participation of Eterna Capital, Selini Capital, Faction and Lyrik Ventures.
• Starpower* a startup working in the intersection of energy and crypto raised a $2.5mln Seed led by Framework and with participation from Solana Ventures, Escape Velocity and Bitscale Capital.

*Underlying TBV portfolio position

Interesting things to read

• Franklin Templeton’s take on the intersection of AI Agents & the Crypto Ecosystem
• Bankless’ AI Roll up: the hottest AI crypto trends of 2025
• The Chopping block with our managers Robot Ventures and Dragonfly: Scarcity vs abundance, AI’s crypto role
• Regan Bozman of our manager Lattice wrote about how ICOs are making a comeback

Upcoming events

• iConnections Global Alts Miami
• Consensus Hong Kong
• Legends4Legends 2025, Amsterdam