AI Agents Will Need Crypto to Work (Here’s Why) w/ Tom Schmidt

Dragonfly GP Tom Schmidt on crypto’s maturation: stablecoins, perps, and regulation shaping the next liquidity phase while practical AI use-cases and fund strategy guide founders and investors.

Key Takeaways

Institutions are mainstreaming crypto; BlackRock, Fidelity and Morgan Stanley involvement signals maturation—founders should build compliant, scalable products to capture institutional demand.
Dragonfly closed a $650M fund and now leads rounds with concentrated stakes; expect investment cycles across infrastructure, applications, tokens, and equity—prioritize durable product-market fit.
Stablecoins are the primary payments and custody substrate—ideal for micro agent payments, cross-border API charges, and enabling new web3 apps like global games, betting, and prize pools.
Perpetual futures and tokenized RWAs show stronger product-market fit than spot markets; RWA perps likely to dominate due to leverage, global access, and oracle integrations.
Regulatory clarity is improving but uneven: hire counsel, structure tokens with clear intent, and monitor legislation like the Clarity Act to navigate onshore regulated derivatives.
Practical AI+crypto work favors distributed or local inference (not fully decentralized stacks); prioritize verifiable provenance, personhood, and efficient on-device or sharded compute.
Flash crashes (e.g., Oct 10) stem from volatility and low liquidity rather than existential failures; set risk limits, avoid overexposure, and expect occasional market events.

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