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infrastructure

AI Infrastructure Firm Gradient Bags $10 Million to Develop Protocols on Solana

by admin June 19, 2025

In brief

Gradient raised $10M from Pantera, Multicoin, and HSG to introduce Lattica and Parallax—protocols designed to run AI models across decentralized devices instead of centralized servers.
The system leverages untapped computing power from phones, laptops, and IoT devices, using Solana to coordinate data and payments.
The team says this approach slashes costs, keeps user data local, and pushes back against AI monopolies—but critics say latency and complexity could be roadblocks.

Gradient Network closed a $10 million seed funding round to build what it calls a decentralized AI infrastructure stack, with venture firms Pantera Capital and Multicoin Capital leading the investment alongside HSG (formerly Sequoia Capital China).

The Singapore-based startup plans to use the funds to develop two core protocols—Lattica and Parallax—that would allow artificial intelligence models to run across a distributed network of devices rather than in centralized data centers. The company said both protocols will debut this week.

“We believe intelligence should be a public good, not a corporate asset,” Eric Yang, co-founder of Gradient Network, said in an announcement shared with Decrypt. “This round gives us the momentum to build infrastructure that brings decentralization to the heart of AI.”

The timing arrives as AI companies face mounting criticism over data privacy and the concentration of computational power among a handful of tech giants. Gradient’s approach would tap into unused processing power from smartphones, computers, and other devices to create what could basically be the equivalent of a global, crowdsourced supercomputer.

Lattica functions as a peer-to-peer data communication protocol like Bitcoin or Torrent—think of it as plumbing that moves information between devices without going through central servers. The company said its network of “Sentry Nodes” has already facilitated over 1.6 billion connections across more than 190 regions.

Road to Lattica

Over the past months, our Sentry Node community helped run one of the world’s largest decentralized connectivity experiments with over 1.6B peer-to-peer connections made across 190+ regions.

Today, that network evolves into Lattica.

— Gradient Network (@Gradient_HQ) June 19, 2025

Decentralizing AI

Parallax tackles the problem of how to run massive AI models without massive data centers. The protocol dissects large language models into smaller pieces that can run simultaneously across multiple devices. Instead of sending data to OpenAI’s or Amazon’s servers for processing, Parallax would let the computation happen on a network of participating devices, keeping user data local.

To be sure, critics have raised concerns that coordinating tasks across thousands of devices introduces complexity and that network latency remains a challenge for decentralized systems.

But the company says its distributed approach and technology could slash costs compared to traditional cloud computing while addressing privacy concerns. When AI models run on centralized servers, user queries and data get transmitted to and processed by those servers. Gradient’s system would process data closer to where it’s generated.

Gradient Network operates on Solana’s blockchain, chosen for its high transaction speeds and low costs compared to other networks. The blockchain handles the coordination and payment mechanisms for devices contributing computing power to the network.

The startup joins a growing field of companies attempting to decentralize AI infrastructure. Competitors include SingularityNET, which focuses on creating a marketplace for AI services, the Superintelligence Alliance network and various projects building on different blockchains. Bittensor and Gensyn have pursued similar distributed computing models, though with different technical approaches.

Gradient said it will release additional protocols beyond Lattica and Parallax, though it hasn’t specified what these might include. The company also mentioned plans to publish research papers and open channels for developers to contribute to the project.

Edited by James Rubin

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June 19, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

A Startup Is Looking to Pay 30% Yield by Tokenizing AI Infrastructure

by admin June 18, 2025

Compute Labs, a startup that turns the industrial-grade GPUs that power AI data centres into fractionalized yield-bearing tokens, and enterprise AI cloud firm NexGen Cloud, have joined forces to begin distributing ownership of a $1 million “public vault,” the companies said on Wednesday.

The power and profitability of AI infrastructure are largely centralized and generally confined to hyperscalers like AWS or large venture-backed firms. However, Compute Labs is attempting to bring its token holders direct access to the earning potential of enterprise hardware such as NVIDIA H200 GPUs, which would retail at around $30,000 for a single unit.

“For investors, this pilot [project] represents the first-ever opportunity to earn stablecoin yield directly from live AI compute without having to manage the hardware or rely on overvalued public equities,” Compute Labs said in a press release.

Europe’s NexGen, which gives its customers access to AI computing power and had raised $45 million in April, will handle the initial financing through its investment arm InfraHub Compute.

How it works

The funds raised will be used by InfraHub to buy GPUs, which will then be fractionalised for investors and customers, according to the press release.

The first “vault” has already raised $1 million from investors. The initial vault will have top-of-the-range NVIDIA GPUs, which are currently used for “AI training and inference,” the firm said. The firms are projecting to have a yield, in USDC, that might go over 30% per year based on active enterprise GPU rental agreements.

Nikolay Filichkin, chief business officer at Compute Labs, talks to the type of data center operators who might have additional floor space and are looking to add extra capacity; the data center equivalent of “mom and pop shops,” he said in an interview with CoinDesk.

“When the data center is using the GPU owned by an investor, Compute Labs manages that through its protocol and balance sheet, and leases the GPUs to the data center,” Filichkin said in an interview. “The net revenue, minus things like hosting and energy costs, goes back to the investor who owns a slice of the GPU processing power.”

The firms tokenize and fractionalize these GPUs within the vaults, which can then be offered to individual investors in increments of a few hundred dollars. NFTs are also used to distinguish between varying types of tokenized GPU hardware investments.

Compute Labs is backed by Protocol Labs, OKX Ventures, CMS Holdings and Amber Group, among others. The firm operates with a flat 10% fee structure across tokenization, asset management and performance yield.

“This model assigns concrete, tradable value to each GPU cycle, rationalizing the AI market by removing the speculation of investors, and directly linking supply, demand, and price,” said Youlian Tzanev, co-founder and chief strategy officer at NexGen Cloud.

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June 18, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

NFTs are quietly shifting from speculative assets to essential digital infrastructure.

by admin June 10, 2025

Opinion by: Charu Sethi, president of Unique Network

Some argue that NFTs are dead. Others are holding out for the speculative art boom to return with the next market cycle. Both assumptions miss the reality. NFTs are neither obsolete nor poised for another speculative hype wave. What’s unfolding instead is likely the most important phase in their evolution: where NFTs are transitioning into core digital infrastructure underpinning gaming, AI and machine-driven applications.

The market has evolved

There are clear signs that NFT utility is replacing speculation, and the trend is holding. According to DappRadar, in Q1 2025, NFT trading volume dropped 24%, but sales declined only by 10%, pointing to lower average prices rather than user exit. AI and social DApps — with the potential to leverage NFTs for agent identity, assets, credentials and access — grew sharply in Q1, and utility categories like real-world assets (RWAs), domain NFTs and metaverse assets showed sustained traction.

In gaming, platforms like Mythical and The Sandbox continue to grow, where in-game assets provide real, functional value. While there is still a vision and demand for interoperable NFTs, there are also examples where they are being delivered for developers and end-users.

NFTs in the agentic AI era

NFTs were originally conceived to enable verifiable digital ownership, identity and programmable rights — not speculative trading. It was meant to give people ownership of their digital lives. Be it their identity, health records, social media content or creative work — NFTs offered a way to prove ownership. That vision was foundational to the broader Web3 movement.

This foundational vision was obscured by the rise of memecoins and short-term financial hype, distorting public perception of NFTs and Web3. This core utility resurfaces as the agentic AI era emerges, where code meets cognition. Autonomous AI agents now require self-sovereign identity, memory and access control to operate effectively onchain.

With AI frameworks maturing, NFTs are becoming embedded as infrastructure. They function as identity anchors, verifiable data containers and access credentials for agents acting across decentralized environments. An NFT-bound agent can independently access services, sign transactions, and trigger contract logic — its authority validated by the NFT. This transforms NFTs into operational components that persist across contexts.

Recent: Crypto, NFTs are a lifeboat in the sinking fiat system: Finance Redefined

This utility is already in production. ReinforcedAI’s subnet on Bittensor issues NFTs as proof of completed Solidity audits, enabling encrypted validator review and decentralized reward mechanisms. Similarly, NFTs are used to certify input-output processes across AI pipelines. In parallel, projects like Peaq use “machine NFTs” to give devices like vehicles and drones identity and autonomy to transact. As AI agents integrate further into Web3 systems, NFTs will underpin workflows ranging from personal AI wallets to non-fungible autonomous agents.

UX-driven wallets and mainstream entry

The growth of social wallets is another driver. Instead of complex key management, users onboard through email or social login, and their profile pics, memberships and credentials (silently NFTs) display as part of their Web3 identity. Over 50% of users aged 18-34 already use social wallets regularly, especially in gaming and community apps.

These wallets prioritize user experience and easily embed NFTs into familiar interfaces. In social gaming platforms, for example, players may not even realize their avatars, emotes or achievements are NFTs. Yet these assets are portable, tradable and interoperable — acting as the connective tissue across platforms. There are significant lessons learned about how true ownership and great UX are critical for SocialFi apps to succeed.

NFTs as invisible infrastructure

NFTs are not disappearing — they are becoming core infrastructure, functioning as the underlying layer for asset ownership, transactional logic and autonomous agent behavior in decentralized systems. They support player-owned economies in gaming, serve as identity and credential containers for AI agents, and enable payments and access rights in machine-to-machine networks. This reflects a broader architectural shift from front-end collectibles to back-end components embedded in wallets, SDKs and protocols. NFTs now power access control, data provenance and interoperability, redefining their role from visible assets to essential system primitives.

Waiting for the return of the speculative NFT boom as a measure of success is misguided — real progress is unfolding at the infrastructure layer, where NFTs are quietly becoming essential.

Opinion by: Charu Sethi, president of Unique Network.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

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June 10, 2025 0 comments

GameFi Guides

Top U.S. Bitcoin miners report strong May performance and infrastructure growth

by admin June 3, 2025

Some of the largest U.S.-based Bitcoin miners—CleanSpark, MARA, and Riot Platforms—released their May 2025 operational updates today, reporting solid gains.

All three companies reported month-over-month gains in Bitcoin (BTC) production, infrastructure development, and strategic positioning in the post-halving market.

CleanSpark produced 694 BTC in May and reached a hashrate of 45.6 EH/s, a 7.5% increase from the previous month. The company also announced it now holds 12,502 BTC, double its treasury from a year ago, with all reserves mined directly.

CleanSpark expanded its contracted power capacity to 987 megawatts and is on track to become the first public miner to hit 50 EH/s with fully self-operated infrastructure.

CEO Zach Bradford said CleanSpark’s infrastructure-first model is built to support scaling beyond 60 EH/s while maintaining full operational control.

MARA, meanwhile, reported its strongest month since the April 2024 halving. The company produced 950 BTC in May, up 35% from April, and earned 282 blocks—a 38% month-over-month increase.

MARA’s BTC holdings now exceed 49,000, with its self-operated MARA Pool contributing significantly through above-average block reward “luck” and operational efficiencies.

CEO Fred Thiel emphasized MARA’s vertically integrated model as key to driving down costs and optimizing energy use.

Riot Platforms mined 514 BTC in May, marking an 11% increase from April. In addition to mining growth, Riot is investing heavily in its data center business.

The company finalized the acquisition of 355 acres near its Corsicana site in Texas to build high-performance computing data centers aimed at enterprise and hyperscale clients. Riot also appointed Jonathan Gibbs, a veteran in the sector, as Chief Data Center Officer to lead the development of the new platform.

Together, the three miners are adapting to the post-halving environment by doubling down on infrastructure, vertical integration, and strategic treasury management.

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June 3, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Ripple Builds Tokenized Asset Infrastructure for Future Generations

by admin May 24, 2025

Ripple’s Metaco pushes into TradFi
Ripple v. SEC: New developments

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has mentioned Ripple and XRP as leaders of financial markets tokenization.

A recent report by WEF, “Asset Tokenization in Financial Markets: The Next Generation of Value Exchange,” identifies key trends and players shaping the future of digital finance, spotlighting Ripple and XRP Ledger (XRPL) as instrumental in tokenizing private equity (PE) assets.

The report outlines how the tokenization of real-world assets, including PE, is set to reshape financial markets by improving efficiency, transparency and accessibility.

Among notable developments, the report cites the $1 billion tokenized PE and debt fund launched by Aurum Equity Partners on XRP Ledger. This pioneering move demonstrates XRPL’s utility as a scalable, decentralized Layer-1 blockchain, providing enhanced liquidity and fractional ownership options through secondary markets.

WEF also acknowledges Ripple’s acquisition of Metaco, a key digital asset custody provider, as part of a broader trend where digital-native service providers like BitGo and Metaco are positioned to offer specialized custodial and compliance solutions.

These services will be vital to helping financial institutions manage tokenized assets securely and within regulatory frameworks.

As private equity is projected to grow to $7 trillion by 2030, with 10% expected to be tokenized, the report emphasizes that tokenization could address longstanding inefficiencies in PE markets, such as lack of transparency and high barriers to entry.

Through blockchain platforms like XRPL, investment minimums have already dropped from over $100,000 to as low as $10,000, enabling broader investor participation.

Ripple’s Metaco pushes into TradFi

Switzerland-based Metaco has recently aligned itself with a new initiative in the crypto trading space — one that aims squarely at major banks and institutional players.

Metaco commented on a Bloomberg report detailing the launch of Rulematch, a fresh digital asset trading venue tailored specifically for banks and financial institutions located outside the United States.

Ripple v. SEC: New developments

However, while Ripple makes strides in expanding its utility and reach through ventures like Metaco, its legal entanglement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission remains unresolved.

In a new development this week, Judge Analisa Torres of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected a joint motion filed by Ripple and the SEC. The motion had sought an indicative ruling on a proposed settlement in their long-running case.

The parties had requested clarity on whether the judge would approve the settlement if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit were to remand the case.

OpenAI says it will expand Stargate AI infrastructure project to the UAE, starting with a 1GW cluster

by admin May 22, 2025

OpenAI has today announced the launch of Stargate UAE, the first international deployment of its AI infrastructure platform, Stargate. The company says it will build a 1GB cluster in Abu Dhabi, and says that coordination with the U.S. government was vital in making the expansion possible.

“Stargate represents our long-term vision for building frontier-scale compute capacity around the world in service of safe, secure, and broadly beneficial AGI,” the company said in a press release.

OpenAI says the move is also the first partnership under OpenAI for Countries, a global initiative to help interested governments build sovereign AI capability in coordination with the U.S. government, a scheme OpenAI says is “rooted in democratic values, open markets, and trusted partnerships.”