Grayscale Spotlights 3 Crypto Projects Poised to Power the AI Infrastructure Boom - Crypto Economy

Asset manager Grayscale Investments has identified three crypto ecosystem initiatives it views as addressing operational bottlenecks in AI infrastructure, spanning data collection, hardware financing, and compute monetization. The analysis, authored by Head of Research Zach Pandl and dated October 23, 2026, was presented that Friday in Grayscale's institutional research series The Stack. Grayscale's thesis holds that decentralized networks and machine learning intersect beyond the use cases commonly associated with platforms such as Bittensor, NEAR, or World, and that integration now reaches into fundamental computing operations. The report links the search for decentralized capital models to physical component shortages and high acquisition costs faced by hardware operators.

The first protocol highlighted is DATA Network (DATA), which develops tools for collecting, licensing, and tracing human-generated video, audio, and photo files. Applications on the network license these data packages to AI laboratories for model training. Official protocol documentation indicates that on October 12, 2026, the project announced plans to migrate its base architecture to the Sui network, designating Walrus as its default storage layer.

USD.AI, associated with the CHIP token, structures credit instruments backed directly by graphics processing units and the cash flows generated by their commercial activity. According to Grayscale, its on-chain pools enable on-chain capital to finance loans collateralized by computing hardware, with liquidity providers earning yields. The third platform, Pearl (PEARL), is designed to let processing equipment execute AI workloads while securing a proof-of-work network. Data center operators could earn rewards in the network's native asset on top of regular processing revenue. According to CoinGecko metrics cited in the report, the PEARL token gained 580% in the quarter ending October 22, 2026.

Grayscale cautions that despite these recent performance figures, the long-term viability of all three ecosystems will depend on actual operational adoption metrics and their ability to maintain competitive economics against traditional cloud infrastructure providers. The firm said it will continue technical tracking of these assets ahead of the quarterly rebalancing of its thematic products, scheduled for the close of the current fiscal period.