#18 - Investing in Surf
Creating the AI copilot for crypto
By Jay Yu, Nihal Maunder
Original Article here.
We at Pantera are leading a $15M round for Surf to build the leading AI copilot for crypto.
The Problem
Today, we believe crypto faces a massive education challenge, from dense technical jargon to the industry’s unique subculture. Mainstream AI products often can’t keep up with crypto – even with tool-calling, many off-the-shelf agents, including GPT-5, Grok 4, and Claude Opus, can only provide rough project summaries, and have less than 70% accuracy when it comes to specific data questions, such as “Retrieve the block timestamp for Ethereum block 19,560,000” or “How many new stETH was minted on UTC 2024-12-31?”
Accuracy of mainstream AI models on the CAIA crypto query benchmark.
As a result, onchain research today can often be a fragmented, labor-intensive process requiring squinting at exchange charts, manually writing APIs, and crafting (potentially bug-filled) Dune queries – a process that cannot scale as crypto gains adoption.
Enter Surf
All this changes with Surf AI. With a familiar chatbot-style interface, any user can ask questions about any crypto project, whether it be price action, project fundamentals, tracking whale wallets or anything else, and receive a high-quality, in-depth research report on the topic.
Sample Research Report from Surf AI
Behind this deceptively simple product interface, Surf tackles many of the thorniest technical challenges of AI – how do we reduce model hallucination, verify data accuracy, and triangulate data sources, all in a high-stakes environment where a single token ticker may map to hundreds of distinct contract addresses, and one mistake could potentially cost millions of dollars in capital. Surf introduces a transparent, multi-agent reasoning system that combines social sentiment, technical analysis, and onchain tracking to “find alpha” in the high-noise, low-signal environment of crypto data, building a product that combines the intuitive workflow of mainstream AI chatbots with the accuracy of professional data tools such as Dune and Dexscreener.
Meet the Team
Ryan, Shiyu, Wilson, and Zhimao are serial entrepreneurs that have both a deep technical background from BitTorrent, Instagram, and Google, and the consumer instinct necessary to grow Surf as a product. Together, they’ve built and sold consumer companies like DLive, as well as Web3 companies like Cyber. They’re also backed by a deep bench of PhDs and AI engineers from leading labs, including National Olympiad medalists and researchers with award-winning work in computer vision and ZK Bridges.
Our Thesis
In the past few months that Surf has launched, it has surged in popularity, with over 80k registered users on the platform, ranging from institutional investors validating investment theses to grassroots communities trying to understand token markets. As we were testing and gathering user feedback on the product, we were blown away by the organic excitement that everyday users of the product held, describing how Surf has become a crucial part of their daily workflow.
Looking ahead, we believe that Surf will become the trusted interface for crypto intelligence – a place where investors, builders, and community members all gather to understand what’s really going on in the industry. By combining an intuitive user experience with verifiable data and delivering concise, actionable insights, Surf dramatically lowers the technical barriers needed to understand crypto, expanding the number of users that can meaningfully participate in the space.
At Pantera, we’ve always believed that better information leads to better decisions, and ultimately, better markets. Surf embodies that future, and we’re extremely excited to lead the $15M investment round to partner with them.
Let’s make crypto smarter – one prompt at a time.
Disclaimer: This blog is for informational purposes only and does not contain all information pertinent to an investment decision. Nothing in this blog constitutes an investment recommendation or an offer of investment advisory services. This blog cannot be relied upon in making an investment decision. Nothing contained herein constitutes an offer to sell, or a solicitation to buy, any securities. This blog contains information Pantera believes to be reliable, and has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but Pantera makes no representation or warranty (express or implied) of any nature, nor accepts any responsibility or liability of any kind, with respect to the fairness, accuracy, completeness, or reasonableness of the information or opinions contained herein. Analyses and opinions contained herein (including market commentary, statements or forecasts) reflect the judgment of Pantera as of the date this blog was published, and may contain elements of subjectivity (including certain assumptions) or be based on incomplete information.