AI x Crypto: Landscape Summary

In May 2024, with NVIDIA’s latest earnings exceeding expectations, it has become more clear than ever that global demand for computing solutions is accelerating rapidly. As artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure grows, attention is increasingly shifting towards the intersection of AI and crypto—where decentralisation, incentives, and ownership models are opening new pathways for innovation.

The DWF Ventures team has been closely tracking this space. Here’s an updated look at the developments, catalysts, and opportunities shaping the AI x Crypto sector. Check out niches in AI x Crypto, and the list of the most prominent projects in each group:

A Rapidly Evolving Landscape

Earlier this year, The DWF Ventures team already outlined key trends across AI &Web3 integration. Since then, the sector has continued to evolve, with new initiatives, alliances, and frameworks gaining momentum. Several catalysts are now setting the stage for a more mature and diverse AI x Crypto ecosystem.

NEAR Protocol: Becoming the Consumer Chain for AI

NEAR Protocol is positioning itself to be the leading blockchain for consumer-facing AI applications. Through dedicated incubation programmes, NEAR aims to support developers across multiple AI verticals, offering structured resources and funding to accelerate adoption.

By fostering an AI-focused developer community, NEAR is laying the groundwork for broader use cases in AI agents, decentralised applications, and autonomous infrastructure.

Arweave and AO: Scaling Compute Horizontally

Arweave, known for its decentralised storage solution, is pushing deeper into the compute layer through AO (Arweave-Oriented compute). AO combines persistent data storage with scalable on-chain compute, addressing critical challenges like memory management and compute workload distribution.

This innovation broadens the scope for complex agent-based systems to operate fully on-chain, unlocking a new category of use cases. Early momentum is visible, with projects like Autonomous Finance, 0rbit, and AOX already building within the AO ecosystem. With additional incentives and announcements expected in June 2024, AO is a growing hub to watch.

Artificial Superintelligence Alliance: A Major Token Merger

A significant milestone for the decentralised AI sector came in April 2024 when Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, and Ocean Protocol voted to merge into the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (ASI). The merger allows Fetch’s infrastructure to integrate enhanced data access and AI tooling from the other two projects, strengthening its development capabilities.

This collaboration is seen as a key catalyst for decentralised AI growth, bringing together critical resources and expertise under one ecosystem.

Ora Protocol: Tokenising AI Model Ownership

Many Web3 projects have tried to replicate models like Hugging Face on-chain, but often without offering sustainable incentives for contributors. Ora Protocol addresses this gap by introducing the Initial Model Offering (IMO)—a framework that allows AI models to be tokenised.

Through the IMO process, contributors can receive tokenised ownership of models and earn revenue sharing over time. Ora’s tokens use the ERC-7641 token standard, which enables ETH-based rewards to be distributed in a fair and verifiable way.

In addition to ERC-7641, the Ora team has proposed other technical standards tailored for AI, aiming to build better infrastructure for model ownership, revenue distribution, and transparency as the sector grows.

Conclusion

To sum up, beyond simply decentralisation, crypto infrastructure offers unique advantages to the AI stack: from improving transparency and incentivisation to creating fair ownership models for contributors.

While the current focus is largely on incentivisation, we believe future developments will unlock a broader range of use cases—extending crypto's impact across all layers of AI development and deployment.

At DWF Ventures, we are actively looking to support projects building at the intersection of AI and crypto. If you’re working on innovative solutions in this space, feel free to contact our crypto venture capital firm.