Venture Capital Gravitates to Crypto-AI Combo Projects

Venture investors are favoring artificial intelligence/cryptocurrency projects over pure crypto firms.

That’s according to a report Saturday from CoinDesk, which says that 40 cents of every venture capital (VC) dollar invested in crypto companies last year went to companies building products that merge AI and crypto, compared to 18 cents of every dollar in 2024.

The report quoted recent findings from Binance Research arguing that “AI is increasingly entering crypto not as a parallel narrative, but as part of crypto’s own product and infrastructure stack.” The Binance study cited data from Silicon Valley Bank, and added that this shows “how quickly AI is becoming embedded within crypto roadmaps.”

That pressure, CoinDesk added, can be seen in crypto’s pivot from AI co-pilots to AI agents. Co-pilots help users analyze information, while agents can keep track of conditions and carry out actions. In the trading world, where timing influences outcomes, closing the gap between insight and execution can affect behavior.

The report said this trend is part of a larger uptick in AI spending, citing Crunchbase data showing AI companies raised about $242 billion in the first quarter of this year, or around 80% of global venture funding. Gartner estimates total AI spending will come to $2.52 trillion for 2026.

CoinDesk also pointed to a report from Binance Research showing that while nearly every industry wants to weave AI into its business model, crypto companies have moved faster than traditional finance (TradFi) firms in doing so.

PYMNTS reported in early February that capital is leaving digital assets at a pace not seen since the depths of the last crypto winter, with institutional allocations shrinking as outflows increase “and the speculative energy that once powered the crypto-native verticals of the blockchain space is beginning to run on fumes.”

“At the same time, the value proposition of stablecoins and other institutional blockchain instruments is rising inside traditional financial workflows,” PYMNTS wrote.

Among the companies employing AI agents for crypto transactions is Ant Group, which earlier this month debuted Antvita, a platform the Chinese conglomerate called an investment in an “agent-to-agent” economy, allowing bots to hold assets and make payments with little to no human involvement.

Visa and Coinbase have introduced competing protocols for agent-based payments, with Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol centered on card-rail checkout and Coinbase’s x402 more focused on stablecoin micropayments.