Crypto Magnate Barry Silbert Is Betting Big on Decentralized AI, Calling It "the Next Big Era of Crypto"

In a letter to shareholders of his crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group, Silbert went long on deAI: the crypto industry's effort to fuse AI innovations

Crypto investment giant Barry Silbert is bullish on decentralized AI (deAI), believing it has the potential to be bigger than bitcoin. In a letter to shareholders of his crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG), Silbert expressed optimism about the convergence of AI innovations and blockchain technology.

According to the Q4 letter obtained by CoinDesk, Silbert sees the integration of deAI into the crypto industry as a promising development, particularly in comparison to the closed-off systems being created by OpenAI and other major players.

"We’re moving from the digital ownership of assets to the decentralized ownership of intelligence and the availability of vast decentralized compute resources," he wrote.

The setup brings to mind bitcoin, the best-known and largest cryptocurrency by far, where Silbert initially made his crypto fortune. However, instead of a monetary revolution, deAI could usher in a power revolution, using crypto to distribute ownership of and governance over powerful AI models.

DCG is putting its money where its mouth is, having already invested $105 million in over a dozen deAI projects, Silbert noted, adding that "we're excited to ramp this up in 2025."

He highlighted DCG's investment in Bittensor – a crypto network specializing in machine learning and AI applications – as the portfolio company closest to "escape velocity." According to Silbert, Bittensor's TAO token bears striking similarities to bitcoin.

"We believe 2024 will be a breakout year for TAO, and Grayscale, another member of the DCG family, now offers investment products that provide exposure to TAO," he wrote, adding that the token has a market cap of $2.7 billion – a rounding error compared to bitcoin's nearly $2 trillion valuation.

DCG is also planning to make substantial investments in supporting the Bittensor ecosystem, Silbert noted. In November, the company spun up a firm called Yuma to incubate Bittensor infrastructure projects, while Grayscale now offers investment products that provide exposure to TAO.

Silbert's Q4 letter concludes a year of "rebuilding" at DCG following a tumultuous period sparked by the FTX implosion, which led to the failure of its lending business, Genesis. Notably, DCG was formerly the owner of CoinDesk, having sold the publication to Bullish in late 2023.

"All five wings of DCG had a successful 2024. The discipline required over the last couple of years has resulted in enhanced infrastructure and more mature processes, improved governance, and a stronger organization focused on executing on our growth initiatives," Silbert wrote in the letter.