Grayscale Debuts Its Decentralized AI Fund to Track Projects Like Filecoin, Bittensor

Crypto asset manager Grayscale Investments is debuting its new Grayscale Decentralized AI Fund that seeks to provide accredited investors exposure to protocols at the intersection of blockchain and artificial intelligence.

The fund is currently available only to eligible accredited investors, the firm noted in a press release.

The new Grayscale fund focuses on a basket of decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) crypto protocols. As of July 16, the fund’s composition includes Near (NEAR) at 32.99%, Filecoin (FIL) at 30.59%, Render (RNDR) at 24.86%, Livepeer (LPT) at 8.64%, and Bittensor (TAO) at 2.92%.

To maintain relevance in the rapidly evolving crypto market, the fund will undergo quarterly rebalancing.

Grayscale said its new fund targets three primary categories of Decentralized AI assets, including protocols building decentralized AI services, ones that address centralized AI-related problems, and infrastructure and resources critical to AI technology development.

“The blockchain-based AI protocols embody the principles of decentralization, accessibility, and transparency, and the Grayscale team feels strongly that these protocols can help mitigate the fundamental risks emerging alongside the proliferation of AI technology,” said Grayscale’s Head of Product & Research, Rayhaneh Sharif-Askary.

This launch comes amid growing interest in decentralized alternatives to mainstream AI technologies. Just last month, decentralized AI projects got a strong tailwind as publicly traded chip maker Nvidia reported better than expected quarterly earnings.

While the raises and valuations have cooled compared to last year’s big AI boom, there’s still plenty of venture capital flowing into decentralized AI projects. Earlier this month, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal saw Sentient, of which he is a core contributor, raise $85 million in a round led by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund.

“The rapid advancement of AI has the potential to transform every aspect of our lives, but the concentration of power in the hands of a few centralized entities poses significant risks,” Nailwal said in a statement at the time. “By building an open platform for AGI development, we aim to ensure that the benefits of AI are distributed equitably and that its development aligns with the interests of humanity as a whole.”

Edited by Stacy Elliott.