Crypto billionaire Barry Silbert is making headlines once again, this time with a bold declaration about the future of digital assets. According to Silbert, the next transformative wave in crypto will be driven by decentralized artificial intelligence (AI), and his vehicle of choice for this revolution is Bittensor (TAO).

In a recent interview with macro strategist Raoul Pal on the Real Vision YouTube channel, the Digital Currency Group (DCG) founder revealed that he’s stepping back into a more active leadership role to champion Bittensor through his new venture, Yuma. This startup is dedicated entirely to building, investing, and expanding the Bittensor ecosystem.

Silbert has long been a vocal advocate for innovation in the crypto space. He was one of the early backers of Bitcoin and Ethereum, and he played a significant role in the growth of institutional crypto adoption through DCG. Now, he believes decentralized AI will become the next dominant narrative in the crypto market.

“I started looking across the whole decentralized AI space and started digging in on Bittensor,” said Silbert. “Very quickly, I came to the conclusion that from a theme or era perspective, this is the next big one.”

Bittensor is a decentralized blockchain network designed to power a global, collaborative AI economy. Its unique architecture revolves around “subnets,” which are smaller, independent units responsible for specific AI tasks. These subnets compete and collaborate in an open marketplace where participants are rewarded in TAO tokens based on the value of their AI contributions.

Silbert views this decentralized structure as a game-changer for the future of AI, enabling open innovation while also addressing concerns around centralization and data monopolies that plague the current AI landscape.

The crypto mogul is aiming to replicate the same kind of success he had with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and blockchain infrastructure firms—this time with Bittensor. Through Yuma, Silbert plans to make strategic investments, build tools for easier development on the network, and foster wider public understanding of the protocol.

“We’re going to invest in it, we’re going to build on it, we’re going to help educate, create awareness, create access,” he said. “We launched a new business in the fall of last year called Yuma. I’m putting my jersey back on. I’m still running DCG, but I’m back in the game.”

Yuma has already begun developing an accelerator to help builders launch subnets on Bittensor more efficiently. This initiative aims to simplify the onboarding process for developers, allowing for faster innovation and increased adoption.

Silbert also expressed his interest in finding foundational projects within the Bittensor ecosystem that could play the same role as companies like Coinbase, Bitgo, or Chainalysis did for early crypto. These companies helped shape the infrastructure of the space, and Silbert hopes to identify and back similar players emerging within Bittensor’s growing community.

The timing of this push into decentralized AI could not be more relevant. AI has been dominating headlines across the tech world, and integrating it with blockchain could unlock entirely new business models and technologies. Silbert believes Bittensor has already reached a level of growth that sets it apart from the pack.

“There are a number of projects that have launched. We’ve backed a number of them. But the one that over the past year or year and a half that has reached escape velocity is Bittensor,” he noted.

With Bittensor’s unique value proposition, growing developer interest, and a high-profile backer like Silbert leading the charge, the network could very well become a central player in the next era of blockchain innovation.

For now, Silbert’s message is clear: the next big theme in crypto is decentralized AI, and Bittensor may be the project that defines it.