Barry Silbert Bets Big on Bittensor as DCG Pushes Into Decentralized AI

Digital Currency Group’s Barry Silbert has just made a bold move into artificial intelligence—specifically, a decentralized version that’s reshaping how AI infrastructure could operate. The investment firm, a longstanding champion of cryptocurrency innovation, has launched Yuma, a new venture focused on building businesses that leverage Bittensor’s ecosystem. Silbert himself is stepping into the CEO role at Yuma, signaling how seriously DCG is treating this bet on decentralized AI as the next major frontier.

Silbert’s conviction runs deep. In conversations about the project, he’s laid out an ambitious vision: comparing Bittensor to early Bitcoin. “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,” he explained. This positioning isn’t casual—it reflects Barry Silbert’s years of experience betting on transformative technologies that reshape entire industries.

Understanding Bittensor: The Decentralized AI Network

At its core, Bittensor operates as a decentralized network incentivizing contributors to supply data and computing power. Unlike traditional AI systems controlled by tech giants, Bittensor distributes this work across miners and validators who stake the network’s native token, TAO, to participate in tasks ranging from text translation and data storage to protein structure prediction.

The economics are designed to reward quality contributions. Miners provide computing services for specific tasks, while validators assess the work and allocate rewards based on performance. Currently trading at $191.00 with a 24-hour gain of +7.85%, TAO has captured significant market attention, boasting a circulating market cap of $1.83B. This price action reflects growing investor confidence in the decentralized AI thesis.

The Barry Silbert Play: Why Now?

This isn’t DCG’s first encounter with Bittensor. Barry Silbert’s firm made its initial investment into the project back in 2021, establishing early conviction. That move proved prescient—Grayscale, DCG’s asset management arm, later launched dedicated funds for AI-focused cryptocurrencies, including TAO tokens. The progression from early believer to active builder through Yuma represents a natural evolution for Silbert and his investment thesis.

By positioning himself as Yuma’s CEO alongside a launch team of approximately 25 employees, Silbert is putting capital and credibility behind the vision. The move echoes how Joe Lubin’s Consensys model accelerated Ethereum’s ecosystem—but with a different structure. Rather than owning all the infrastructure subnets created under Yuma’s umbrella, the company operates as a hybrid between Y Combinator’s venture capital model and a dedicated accelerator.

Yuma’s Two-Path Strategy: Accelerator and Incubator

Silbert outlined the dual approach clearly: “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.”

This framework has already produced results. Five subnets currently operate live—four graduated through the accelerator track and one through incubation. Another nine are in development and expected to launch within weeks. The portfolio spans diverse use cases: human and bot detection, time series prediction, academic AI research, security protocols, role-play applications, and sports prediction models.

According to Evan Malanga, Yuma’s chief revenue officer, this diversity reflects genuine market demand. The mix of consumer-facing applications and infrastructure-level tools suggests the Bittensor ecosystem is moving beyond theoretical potential into practical deployment. Each subnet running on the network represents another use case proving that decentralized AI can solve real problems.

Addressing the Centralization Problem

The broader context matters here. As AI has consolidated within a handful of major technology companies—Microsoft, Google, Meta—concerns about data privacy, algorithmic bias, and concentration of power have grown louder. Bittensor and similar decentralized AI networks present an alternative: distribute computational work across a network of independent participants rather than funneling everything into corporate data centers.

Barry Silbert’s embrace of this vision, through both DCG’s investments and now Yuma’s operational commitment, positions the company at the intersection of two major technology shifts: blockchain infrastructure and artificial intelligence. For investors and entrepreneurs watching this space, Silbert’s track record of identifying transformative technologies makes his bet on Bittensor worth serious attention.

The question isn’t whether decentralized AI will matter—it’s whether Bittensor specifically will emerge as the dominant protocol, and whether Yuma can successfully nurture the ecosystem that makes it indispensable.