Barry Silbert's Strategic Bet on Bittensor: DCG Launches Major AI Blockchain Initiative

Barry Silbert has made a bold move that signals Digital Currency Group’s pivot into the artificial intelligence space. The crypto veteran and DCG chief has established Yuma, a new venture designed to incubate and accelerate startups building on Bittensor, a decentralized AI network. This represents far more than a casual investment—Silbert has taken the CEO position at Yuma himself, underscoring his personal conviction in the project’s transformative potential.

In an interview, Silbert articulated his vision: “If you remember early bitcoin, some people would say it’s money, some people would say it’s gold. The way that I look at Bittensor is as the World Wide Web of AI.” This comparison reveals how deeply Silbert believes in Bittensor’s foundational significance within the AI ecosystem.

From Bitcoin Pioneer to AI Innovator: Silbert’s New Direction

Barry Silbert’s journey in crypto spans decades as both an investor and evangelist. His earliest bets on Bitcoin made him a recognized figure in digital assets. Now, with Yuma and his focus on Bittensor, he’s positioning himself at the intersection of two paradigm-shifting technologies—blockchain and artificial intelligence.

DCG’s commitment to this space isn’t recent. The conglomerate made its initial investment in Bittensor back in 2021. More recently, DCG’s asset management subsidiary Grayscale took another step forward by launching AI-focused crypto funds that include the Bittensor native token, $TAO. As of January 2026, TAO trades at $191.20, reflecting the market’s growing interest in AI blockchain infrastructure.

Yuma: Silbert’s Accelerator Model for Decentralized AI

Yuma operates on a dual-track model similar to Y Combinator’s venture approach combined with startup acceleration. Barry Silbert explained the two pathways: “We are doing an accelerator, so if you are a startup or an enterprise who has an idea and wants to explore the world of Bittensor and launch a subnet, we will help you. Then we have a subnet incubator, where we will partner up with somebody to build from scratch a new subnet.”

The operational scale is notable—Yuma launched with approximately 25 employees on day one, demonstrating DCG’s serious commitment to the project. This structure differs from Consensys’s relationship with Ethereum; rather than controlling the subnets it develops, Yuma operates more like a traditional venture accelerator with equity-like participation models.

The Bittensor Ecosystem: How Decentralized AI Works

At its core, Bittensor creates a network where participants contribute computing power and data for AI tasks. The ecosystem runs on incentive structures that reward miners who contribute computational resources and validators who assess work quality. The $TAO token serves as the economic engine, aligning participant interests across the network.

The value proposition addresses a critical concern in modern AI: the concentration of power in hands of tech giants. By distributing computational work across a decentralized network, Bittensor reduces dependency on centralized cloud providers and their proprietary algorithms. This approach preserves user privacy while harnessing distributed computational resources.

Building the AI Infrastructure: Yuma’s Subnet Portfolio

The momentum behind Yuma’s subnet development has been substantial. Currently, five subnets are live on Bittensor. Four launched through the accelerator program, while one emerged from the incubation track. Another nine subnets are in development and expected to go live within weeks—one through incubation and eight through acceleration.

Yuma’s chief revenue officer, Evan Malanga, outlined the diversity of use cases: “We’ve got human detection, like bot detection subnets. We have time series prediction subnets coming online. We’ve got a few academic ones as well; AI research, leveraging the miners in the subnets to go do that work for them, some security ones, and a role-play one. And sports predictions. Lots of sports predictions.”

This portfolio demonstrates that Bittensor isn’t confined to a single application. The network supports infrastructure layers, data management, predictive analytics, security services, and specialized AI research—each operating as independent economic units within the larger ecosystem.

Why Barry Silbert Sees AI Blockchain as Transformative

Barry Silbert’s belief in Bittensor’s potential mirrors his early conviction about Bitcoin. Both represent foundational infrastructure shifts—Bitcoin decentralized money, while Bittensor decentralizes artificial intelligence. By positioning DCG and Yuma at the forefront of this transition, Silbert is making a generational bet on where computational economics and AI development are heading.

The move also signals that after years of crypto maturation, the industry’s leaders are comfortable pivoting toward frontier technologies. AI’s concentration risks—where a handful of corporations control the computational infrastructure—have created an opening for decentralized alternatives. Barry Silbert and DCG are betting that Bittensor fills that role, just as Bitcoin disrupted centralized finance.