The Ethereum Foundation has launched a new "dAI team" to focus on integrating artificial intelligence with blockchain technology, aiming to position Ethereum as a foundational layer for AI development.

The Event in Detail

The Ethereum Foundation has established a new "dAI team" to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence on the blockchain. This initiative signals a strategic focus on integrating AI with blockchain technology within the Ethereum ecosystem. Led by Davide Crapis, an Ethereum core developer, the team's objective is to foster the development of AI systems within the crypto ecosystem and to integrate top players from the off-chain AI industry into the network. The team is currently hiring for two additional full-time roles, reflecting the organization's acknowledgment that the AI sector is "key" to its long-term sustainability.

A near-term focus for the dAI team is the ERC-8004 standard, designed to enable AI agents to transact seamlessly across Ethereum. This standard is scheduled to debut at the upcoming Devconnect conference in November. The long-term vision is to construct decentralized AI infrastructure, aiming to prevent corporate monopolization, with ongoing partnerships being forged in Silicon Valley.

Deconstructing Financial Mechanics

The ERC-8004 standard represents a critical financial and technical instrument, facilitating direct, trustless transactions for AI agents on-chain. This capability is pivotal for the emergence of an "agentic web" where AI entities can interact and exchange value autonomously. Enabling AI agents to transact seamlessly is seen as essential for realizing the full economic potential of decentralized AI.

Separately, the Ethereum Foundation employs a structured treasury management strategy involving the conversion of ETH holdings into stablecoins like DAI. This approach is utilized to fund operational expenses, grants, and research initiatives while mitigating market impact. For instance, the Foundation has reported sales of 7,294 ETH for $33.25 million in DAI. This strategy includes a 15% annual spending cap and a multi-year reserve buffer, reflecting institutional best practices to balance liquidity needs with long-term ecosystem sustainability and avoid large-scale liquidations that could cause price distortions.

Business Strategy & Market Positioning

This strategic move positions Ethereum as a foundational settlement layer for the "agentic web." By prioritizing interoperability and user experience (UX) improvements over the next 6 to 12 months, the Foundation aims to enhance agent discovery and foster trust through reputation and validation. The collaboration with MetaMask and Google on ERC-8004 underscores this commitment to broad ecosystem integration.

The initiative's long-term goal of building decentralized AI infrastructure directly contrasts with potential corporate monopolization in the traditional AI sector. This strategy seeks to provide an open, transparent, and verifiable environment for AI development, aligning with Web3's core principles of decentralization and user empowerment. The focus on integrating off-chain AI industry players further solidifies Ethereum's ambition to become a leading platform for AI innovation.

Market Implications

The formation of the dAI team is expected to stimulate increased innovation, adoption, and investment in on-chain AI solutions within the Ethereum ecosystem. This could inspire other layer-1 blockchains and protocols to explore similar integrations, driving new use cases and potentially increasing the long-term value of ETH and related tokens. Short-term, this announcement may generate speculative interest in projects aligned with this strategic direction.

Institutional investment in Ethereum-backed instruments reached $2.4 billion in Q2 2025, highlighting growing confidence. Projections from asset manager VanEck suggest that a million AI agents could be utilizing crypto rails and blockchains by the end of 2025, a significant increase from 10,000 Web3 agents observed in December 2024. This anticipated growth from both retail and institutional users is driving an urgent demand for improved, more interoperable UXs within the Crypto x AI market.

Expert Commentary

Andrii Miloshin, CTO of Tairon, emphasized the critical role of interoperability for AI agents and the "agentic web." He stated, "Interoperability is absolutely mission-critical for AI agents and the agentic web. Otherwise, we end up with a bunch of isolated intelligences, with limited resources and thus sub-par capabilities. More importantly, when agents take actions based on siloed or fragmented data, they are more likely to hallucinate, which can be a disaster when there's millions and billions of dollars at stake." Miloshin suggests that building integrated communication channels for AI agents to access on-chain and off-chain data is crucial for ensuring interoperability.

Michael Sena, Co-Founder of Recall Labs, commented on the accelerated timeline for "Coordination accelerationism" due to AI's exponential growth, noting its impact on overall feasibility. Davide Crapis, lead of the new dAI team, reiterated the team's mission to "bridge the gap between blockchain organizations and AI organizations" and underscored the sector's importance to Ethereum's long-term sustainability.