Yuma, a development studio and accelerator for the Bittensor decentralized AI (deAI) network created by Barry Silbert of Digital Currency Group, has introduced Yuman Asset Management, to allow institutional and accredited investors easy access to the deAI ecosystem.
Bittensor is a decentralized network for AI that rewards people for contributing data and computing power to a range of activities in the form of distinct use-case-based entities called “subnetworks,” which can include things like text translation, fraud detection, image recognition to more esoteric goals like predicting the structure of complex protein chains.
Powered by its native token, TAO, Bittensor aspires to become the “World Wide Web” of AI, enabling permissionless AI innovation where anyone can create, populate, or access models via subnets – an alternative to centralized infrastructure or company-owned AI resources.
Yuma Asset Management, which comes with a $10 million seed investment from DCG, offers two fund strategies investing in subnet tokens, the protocol-native crypto assets of these decentralized contributor networks, denominated and traded with TAO, according to a press release.
The Yuma Subnet Composite Fund, which is designed for market cap-weighted exposure across all active subnets, is similar to the “NASDAQ Composite” for subnet tokens, DCG said. The Yuma Large Cap Subnet Fund is similar to the “Dow Jones Industrial Average” for subnet tokens, designed for targeted exposure to major subnets by market capitalization.
In the early days of Bitcoin, Silbert did something similar when he launched the Bitcoin Investment Trust in 2013, now Grayscale’s GBTC product. DCG believes it remains difficult for investors to access Bittensor, or for investors to access AI in general, given that the largest AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are private. As such, Yuma Asset Management provides an early and unique gateway to AI for institutions and accredited investors, DCG said.
“Subnetwork tokens are an emerging asset class, powered by TAO, that provides investors with unprecedented exposure to a massive wave of AI innovation,” said Barry Silbert, CEO of Yuma. “The decentralized AI sector has the power to be as transformative as Bitcoin, and Yuma Asset Management is opening the door for investors to access it through Bittensor.”
