Artificial Intelligence

This Sector includes crypto assets related to the development, production, or application of artificial intelligence technology.

Grayscale Crypto Sectors White Paper Artificial Intelligence Summary

Artificial Intelligence:

Aligning Economic Incentives: Aligns incentives between ecosystem participants, including users and tokenholders.

Decentralized Infrastructure: AI protocols leverage blockchain to create open, permissionless networks for building and accessing AI models, free from centralized control.

Transparent Development: In contrast with many centralized AI entities that operate in private, decentralized AI helps ensure that development around this critical tech is brought out into the public.

Monetize open-source: Allows open-source AI developers and researchers to monetize their work.

Representative Assets*

Bittensor offers foundational infrastructure for a wide range of AI applications and services. As AI continues to evolve into a more powerful and essential tool, there could be increasing restrictions around who can build or access these applications. Bittensor aims to create an open, collaborative network for AI development where anyone around the world can build, access, and use AI services.

Founded by a leading figure in the AI industry, Near is a blockchain platform tailored for AI use cases. While it offers general-purpose smart contract functionality, the current focus of the Near network is becoming the “blockchain for AI.”** As a highly performant, low-cost blockchain, Near leverages features like intents and chain abstraction to simplify blockchain complexities and enable users and AI agents to more seamlessly transact assets across chains at scale.***

Grass is a decentralized data scraping protocol that aims to transform unused internet bandwidth into a valuable resource. By sharing their bandwidth, users earn GRASS tokens while contributing to a distributed network that collects online data. This data is then packaged and sold to AI companies, fueling machine-learning models and data-driven applications.****

Virtuals Protocol is a decentralized AI agent platform that aims to make autonomous software into co-owned, revenue-generating digital assets. These agents operate across various domains such as gaming, markets analysis, and entertainment, offering services that may generate value for both creators and participants.

Resources

* Representative assets are for illustrative purposes only and are subject to change.
** NEAR.org.
*** NEAR.org, What is Chain Abstraction?

****Blockworks, “Reshaping the data layer of AI with Grass,” January 7, 2025.

Need More Information?

Stay on top of the latest crypto news and insights

Social Media Disclosure

Grayscale Operating, LLC (“GSO” d/b/a Grayscale Investments) is the parent holding company of Grayscale Advisors, LLC (“GSA”), an SEC-registered investment adviser, as well Grayscale Securities, LLC (“GSS”), an SEC-registered broker/dealer and member of FINRA, and Grayscale Investments Sponsors, LLC ("GSIS", together with GSO, GSS, and GSA, "Grayscale" or “Grayscale Investments”). GSIS is not registered as an investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and none of the investment products (“Products”) sponsored or managed by GSIS are registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940.

Investments in digital assets are speculative investments that involve high degrees of risk, including a partial or total loss of invested funds. Investments in digital assets are not suitable for any investor that cannot afford loss of the entire investment.

Investments managed by GSA are registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940 and subject to the rules and regulations of the Securities Act of 1933 and Investment Advisers Act of 1940.

Indexes are unmanaged and it is not possible to invest directly in an index. Carefully consider investment objectives, risk factors, fees and expenses before investing.

This information should not be relied upon as research, investment advice, or a recommendation regarding any products, strategies, or any security in particular. This material is strictly for illustrative, educational, or informational purposes and is subject to change.

© 2025 Grayscale. All trademarks, service marks and/or trade names (e.g., G®, GRAYSCALE®, GRAYSCALE CRYPTO SECTORS™, INVEST IN YOUR SHARE OF THE FUTURE ®, and GRAYSCALE INVESTMENTS®) are owned and/or registered by Grayscale.

All of the content on our site - including text, software, scripts, code, designs, graphics, photos, sounds, music, videos, applications, interactive features, articles, news stories, sketches, animations, stickers, general artwork and other content ("Content") - is owned by Grayscale or others we license Content from, and is protected by copyright, patent and other laws.

Grayscale reserves all rights not expressly described herein.