Pantera Capital Targets $1 Billion with New Fundraising Effort

Crypto investment firm Pantera Capital has set its sights on raising a new fund of $1 billion to inject fresh capital into the crypto industry.

According to Cosmo Jiang, the portfolio manager at Pantera Capital, over $200 million of the fund is earmarked for investments in artificial intelligence (AI) projects.

In a recent interview with DL News, Jiang said he believes that in the future, every crypto company will incorporate AI into its operations, making it a ubiquitous technology.

He compares investing in an AI firm to investing in a company with a website, stating that it will become a standard practice for businesses.

As a result, Pantera Capital is actively seeking projects that leverage AI to enhance blockchain businesses or vice versa.

Pantera Capital to Allocate Significant Funds to AI

Pantera Capital, whose portfolio includes major companies such as Coinbase, Circle, and Bitstamp, aims to allocate a significant portion of the new fund to AI-related blockchain projects.

Their previous fund invested approximately 15% to 20% of its capital in such projects, and Jiang expects the new fund to allocate even more.

If the trend continues, Pantera Capital could potentially invest over $200 million in AI-adjacent crypto projects throughout the rest of the decade.

While Jiang does not confirm a specific figure, he considers it a reasonable estimation.

The intersection of AI and blockchain technologies has garnered significant attention, with predictions suggesting it could contribute around $20 trillion to the global economy by 2030.

Investors have already poured over $98.8 million into the sector since the beginning of 2024.

The total market value of AI tokens has reached $26 billion, and Bitcoin miners are exploring opportunities to provide processing power for training AI tools used by Silicon Valley giants.

Pantera Capital is not alone in recognizing the potential of AI and blockchain convergence.

Other industry players, such as hedge fund manager Brevan Howard, are actively exploring opportunities in this space.

Three Major AI Blockchain Firms Merge

SingularityNET, Fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol are planning a merger of their crypto tokens to establish a decentralized AI platform and foster collaboration among the three companies.

The companies are exploring the creation of an ASI token, which would possess a fully diluted value of approximately $7.5 billion.

While the merger plans are subject to approval from the respective communities, an official announcement could be expected as early as Wednesday.

Under the proposed arrangement, SingularityNET, Fetch.ai, and Ocean Protocol would maintain their separate operations while working together under the guidance of a newly formed entity called the Superintelligence Collective.

However, not everyone is optimistic about AI-related crypto tokens.

In a recent research report, leading crypto exchange Coinbase said the surge in the AI token market may be driven more by hype than actual utility.

The report suggested that the value potential of many AI tokens may be overstated due to the prevailing attention on the AI industry, and that these tokens may lack sustainable demand-side drivers in the short to medium term.