# The Web3 + AI Daily #69 *Daily insights into the fascinating convergence of crypto and AI.* By [The Web3 + AI Newsletter](https://web3plusai.xyz) · 2026-07-08 web3plusai, web3ai, albena, deai --- **What's Hot in Web3 + AI?** ---------------------------- ### **Venice AI Raises $65M at $1B Valuation** I have often praised Erik Voorhees' [**Venice.ai**](http://Venice.ai) for being one of the very few alternatives to [**OpenAI**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/openai/)'s ChatGPT focused on privacy, and it seems, VCs have started to pay attention to it, too. The company raised $65M at a $1B valuation in a Series A led by crypto-focused venture firm [**Dragonfly**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/dragonfly-capital-partners/) and backed by [**Coinbase**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/coinbase/) Ventures, [**North Island Ventures**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/north-island-ventures/), and others. > Just two years in, the company already has more than 850,000 unique visitors to its website, and serves more than 3 million active users and an average of 1.7 million API calls per day. At a time when hyperscalers like OpenAI and [**Anthropic**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/anthropicresearch/) are under intense pressure to monetize users' personal data and bolster their valuations ahead of IPOs, Venice AI's efforts to protect clients' privacy pay off - [**"the company is already profitable, with annualized run-rate revenues of over $70 million."**](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/01/venice-ai-becomes-a-unicorn-with-65m-series-a-as-its-privacy-first-ai-platform-takes-off/) > The startup hosts “uncensored,” open source models on its own data centers, and routes queries to closed-source models, such as those by OpenAI or Anthropic. All user input is encrypted and unencrypted client-side, and routed through an external proxy before it is processed and returned, with no data stored on Venice’s own systems. It also provides end-to-end encryption on some models, though you have to pay for a subscription to get that feature. As a veteran crypto entrepreneur, Vorhees successfully introduced cryptoeconomic elements into Venice AI's value proposition - a move that helped with attracting new users: > \[...\] There are two crypto tokens associated with the effort. Venice launched a token called “VVV” in early January, in a bid to attract users, Voorhees said, and in August last year added another, called “DIEM.” Users can buy VVV and then stake it to mint DIEM, which generates $1 worth of AI credits per day that you can spend on Venice. However, Voorhees said only about 8% of the company’s users pay with crypto. > > The founder credited the company’s growth to the good performance of the crypto tokens, though he said the strongest driver was getting close to feature parity with ChatGPT. “When we launched, we were very far away from what ChatGPT could do, but people would use us because it was private. And today, we’re very close to what ChatGPT can do \[…\] so as we’ve closed that gap, it’s become an increasingly compelling alternative,” he said. [ Venice AI becomes a unicorn with $65M Series A as its privacy-first AI platform takes off | TechCrunch ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Venice AI is already profitable, with annualized run-rate revenues of over $70 million, CEO Erik Voorhees said. https://techcrunch.com ![Venice AI becomes a unicorn with $65M Series A as its privacy-first AI platform takes off | TechCrunch](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/53e99cb4f1c5938ce884b81d1140b49524b3d3ef17ea3b6124869077a8181d34.png) ](https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/01/venice-ai-becomes-a-unicorn-with-65m-series-a-as-its-privacy-first-ai-platform-takes-off/) * * * **Web3 + AI Readings & Conversations** -------------------------------------- ### **Decentralized AI Is Dangerous The Same Way Bitcoin Was in 2014** [**Brownstone Research**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/brownstone-researchllc/)'s Ben Lilly has recently argued that the growing regulatory noose around open-source AI strongly resembles Bitcoin's early struggle. Yet, similarly to how DeFi helped establish Bitcoin and crypto as a viable alternative to banks, Decentralized AI (DeAI) is helping open-source AI now. Let's break this down. Lilly reminds us of [**Anthropic**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/anthropicresearch/)'s Dario Amodei, and may I add [**OpenAI**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/openai/)'s Sam Altman, condemning open-source AI as "dangerous" as early as 2023. And despite the historical evidence of open systems demonstrating more resilience than their closed counterparts, the policy response was to restrict the open while reinforcing the closed. That's where we are right now and that's also what Bitcoin faced for more than a decade - a battle for survival. However, just as [**U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/secgov/)'s "regulation via enforcement" failed to break the Web3 ecosystem, current restrictions won't choke off open-source AI. Rather, the recent censorship of Anthropic’s Fable 5 is actually a commercial for open alternatives. Moreover, Lilly believes that DeAI can be the catalyst for this change by "making it easier for retail to “rent” their compute towards projects building open-source models." > In a span of two years, decentralized training has gone from sub 1-billion parameter size to 100 billion. > This is significant because it shows that bigger models can be trained on distributed, retail hardware across the globe in a permissionless manner. > It’s a massive infrastructure unlock. [ Like Buying Bitcoin When It Was Still "Dangerous" - Brownstone Research ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Digital asset investors know this fight. They've been fighting it for years now. https://www.brownstoneresearch.com ![Like Buying Bitcoin When It Was Still "Dangerous" - Brownstone Research](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/23cd527bc5506128a6171032290c3f020aa656de9cdbd3b25bd927b67c27ecb9.png) ](https://www.brownstoneresearch.com/chain-of-thought/like-buying-bitcoin-when-it-was-still-dangerous/) The same thesis was echoed by a panel organized by [**The Defiant**](https://www.linkedin.com/company/defiantmedia/): > For a corner of crypto that has spent years building AI on blockchains, the takedown was a live demonstration of its pitch. While the most capable AI models remain under the control of a handful of US firms and the US government, DeAI's value proposition consists in decentralized networks keeping AI running, private and beyond any single authority. Yet, it remains to be seen whether DeAI can match the performance of centralized labs. [ Fable's Shutdown Hands Crypto Its Case for Decentralized AI | The Defiant ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crypto investors and builders say the censorship of Anthropic's Fable 5 proves their long-running argument: that AI should run on decentralized networks no company or government can switch off. https://thedefiant.io ![Fable's Shutdown Hands Crypto Its Case for Decentralized AI | The Defiant](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/6127b8214bdaaf91b551f2ac09d08abf21059e5325a3f18ecbe20b33c61d3083.jpg) ](https://thedefiant.io/news/blockchains/fable-s-shutdown-hands-crypto-its-case-for-decentralized-ai) * * * > **Thank you for reading! If you haven't done so yet, I invite you to subscribe to stay in the loop on the hottest dAI developments.** [Subscribe](https://web3plusai.xyz/subscribe) > **The Web3 + AI Book Club is live on Fable! Join us in exploring our July title - 'Empire of AI' by Karen Hao. Follow the link below to read with us.** [The Web3 + AI Book Club](https://fable.co/club/the-web3-ai-book-club-with-albena-417116729458?club_type=free) > If you want to support the publication financially, you can either purchase my writer token $WEB3AI, or buy my [creator token $ALBENA on](https://zora.co/@albena) [**ZORA**](https://zora.co/@albena). [$WEB3AI](https://web3plusai.xyz/coin) > **I'm looking forward to connecting with fellow Crypto x AI enthusiasts, so don't hesitate to reach out on social media.** [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/albena-kostova-nikolova/) [Firefly.Social](https://firefly.social/profile/farcaster/albena) [Zora](https://zora.co/@albena) * * * **Disclaimer:** None of this should or could be considered financial advice. You should not take my words for granted; rather, do your own research (DYOR) and share your thoughts to encourage a fruitful discussion. --- *Originally published on [The Web3 + AI Newsletter](https://web3plusai.xyz/daily_69)*