Cryptocurrency deal financialย resources company Paradigm, one of most established and active players in the space, is going beyond just blockchainย tech and highlighting a focus on a broader array of โfrontier techโ that includes artificial intelligence, two sources with knowledge of the matter informed The Block.ย
The change is subtlety visible on the firmโs website, with the company now calling itself a โresearch-driven technology financing firmโ as opposed to one that inย particularย invested in โdisruptive crypto/ Webย 3.0 corporations and protocols.โ The revision seemsย to have gone live around May 3, reportsย by the Wayback Machine thatโs operated by the Internet Archive.
A line that stated โwe believe cryptocurrency will define theย following few decadesโ was removed from the home page, which now makes no mention of Webย 3.0 or blockchainsย teck. 1 source who was not authorized to speak publicly stated the change didnโt mean the company was shying away from cryptocurrency but rather highlighting its reach into adjacent areas.ย
The companyโs portfolio section of the website still lists dozens of corporations associated with cryptocurrency, (DeFi) and NFTs.ย
The individual familiar with the strategy stated the company had not changed its mandate and continued to focus on cryptocurrency and Webย 3.0, with no practical change. The updated website copy was meant toย say its technical research, the individual stated, keepingย inย mindย that Paradigm had backed corporations that have explored new technologies within their core strategy such as Artificialย Intelligenceย (AI) Arena.ย
The company didnโt instantly respond to a request for further comment.ย
Cryptocurrency industry challenges
The wider focus comes as the cryptocurrency industry isย still dealing with aftershocks from the crisis aย yearย ago marked by the collapse of the FTXย Tradingย Ltd exchange. Paradigm was an investor in FTXย Tradingย Ltd and wrote off its $290 Million financing in the company after it filed for bankruptcy in November.
Paradigm was co- established in 2018 by Coinbaseย Cryptoย exchange co- founder Fred Ehrsam and previous Sequoia partner Matt Huang. In November 2021, the company raised a $2.5 Billion fund, which at the time was the largest ever crypto-focused deal fund. Its portfolio includes high-profile corporations including Uniswap, OpenSea and Fireblocks, reportsย by The Block Proโs Deals Dashboard.
Paradigm has invested in over 100 cryptocurrency startups to date, reportsย by the dashboard.
After a troubled year, cryptocurrency VC assets have slowed down. Deal investors put around $2.8 Billion into cryptocurrency assets in the 1st quarter of 2023, down from about $3.5 Billion in the fourth quarter of 2022, reportsย by data tracked by The Block Research.
Can cryptocurrency and Artificialย Intelligenceย (AI) work together?ย
The fresh focus comes amid a surge in attention on Artificialย Intelligenceย (AI) inย theย year, especially with the widespread adoption of OpenAIโs ChatGPT language model. And there has likewise been much industry chatter about how Artificialย Intelligenceย (AI) and blockchainย tech can be integrated.ย
Jeremy Allaire, the co- founder and CEO of cryptoย stablecoin issuer Circle, stated Thursday that he was already hearing about โ Artificialย Intelligenceย (AI) Bots spinning up on-chain wallets and using USDC.โ
โ Artificialย Intelligenceย (AI) and Blockchainsย teck are made for each other,โ he wrote on Twitter. โProvenance of data, machine generated and enforced contracts, and machine to machine value exchange.โ
Allaire was responding to a lengthy post from Hunter Horsley, the CEO of cryptocurrency financing company Bitwise, who stated heโd spent manyย of time talking with Artificialย Intelligenceย (AI) engineers inย theย previous plentyย of days.
โ Artificialย Intelligenceย (AI) couldย be a catalyst for cryptocurrency in this cycle,โ Horsley wrote, adding that the tech would create new demand for cryptography and blockchainsย teck. โFeeling increasingly convinced that these two disparate technologies are going to have intertwined futures, and that cryptocurrency is going to become a lot more important as Artificialย Intelligenceย (AI) starts to proliferate.โ
