The biggest VC rounds: AI in focus. Watchlist ↓ 1. Infrastructure-first (Deep Tech Plays) These projects are building rails, compute layers, privacy-preserving tooling, or data marketplaces. They aim to become part of the protocol stack, not the app layer. Examples: • @nillionaire98 (privacy-preserving computation) • @oceanprotocol (data liquidity layer) • @SentientAGI (decentralized AI compute) • @PhalaNetwork (confidential smart contracts & compute) These are high-capex, high-mojo bets often with long time horizons and complex regulatory overlays. 2. Agent-first (Consumer UX plays) This group is focused on making AI usable in Web3 contexts: identity, wallets, task automation, even social UX. Examples: • @billions_ntwk (human verification layer) • @Gaianet_AI / @openmind_agi (AI agents, DeFi interfaces) • @SaharaLabsAI (on-chain assistants & chat UX) • @TheoriqAI (autonomous trading + treasury AI) They solve immediate UX bottlenecks and have faster feedback loops, hence quicker adoption and possibly faster token velocity. 3. Missing Middle Layer = Opportunity What’s not being funded: • Tooling for training on-chain • Model versioning and reproducibility layers • AI security (anti-sybil, adversarial defense) These gaps may define the next AI crypto cohort especially as inference becomes commoditized and the infra race saturates. Crypto found consensus. AI brings cognition. The frontier is what happens when both are native.