Pantera, Multicoin Capital invest in Solana AI project Gradient Network

Gradient Network, a decentralized artificial intelligence infrastructure project on Solana, has raised $10 million in a seed funding round led by Pantera Capital and Multicoin Capital.

The Gradient team, which is building a decentralized AI runtime on Solana, announced the seed round funding milestone on June 17, 2025. Capital injection from the crypto venture capital giants will go into accelerating Gradient Network’s plans to democratize the edge computing ecosystem.

While AI increasingly permeates every facet of society, its adoption has global concerns related to privacy, equity, and centralization top of the agenda for ecosystem players and regulators. Multiple projects are now looking to tap into blockchain technology to address privacy risks and exclusion among other concerns. 

Gradient Network’s decentralizing AI infrastructure is one of these endeavors, with key features driving integration including distributed data, compute and algorithm development.

“This approach not only protects user privacy and democratizes access to AI but also mitigates the systemic biases entrenched in centralized systems,” Gradient Network wrote in a blog post.

Gradient’s technology seeks to turn everyday devices such as smartphones and computers into a decentralized global network enabled for faster streaming and compute.

In addition to Pantera and Multicoin, the $10 million seed round also saw participation from HSG (formerly Sequoia Capital China), along with several prominent partners and angel investors from across the crypto and AI sectors.

Gradient Network’s roadmap includes two flagship technologies: Lattica, a universal peer-to-peer data communication protocol, and Parallax, an inference protocol designed to improve scalability throughout the AI ecosystem.

Decentralized physical infrastructure networks continue to gain momentum as real-world adoption grows. Gradient joins a growing list of blockchain-based AI and data infrastructure projects including io.net, DePHY, Aethir, metastreet, and CrunchDAO.

Top DePIN projects by market capitalization, according to CoinMarketCap, include Bittensor, RENDER, Theta Network, Helium, Internet Computer, and Filecoin.