YC just dropped a standalone crypto RFS and the opening line hits different: for the first time, institutional money—not retail—is driving crypto growth.
The list breaks into 4 buckets:
1. Capital: Using blockchain to make AI fundraising easier. YC literally calls AI investment one of the largest capital events in human history.
2. Stablecoins: New use cases for dollar stables, stablecoins in other currencies, banking for underserved populations.
3. Trading: RWA tokenization, new venues and interfaces.
4. Agents: Crypto APIs for agents, letting agents trade and interact with onchain primitives.
Key thesis: Agents will become primary financial participants, accessing new assets and financial primitives through blockchain APIs.
Same day, Alphabet's Q3 earnings dropped a data point that makes this real: $51.36B capex in one quarter. Operating cash flow? $42.29B. They issued ~$29B in debt and ~$12.4B in equity to cover the gap.
The math is simple: AI is burning cash faster than even the most profitable companies can generate it. Money has to come from somewhere. YC is betting part of it flows onchain.
But here's the thing—YC admits the best ideas probably aren't on this list. Application deadline is Nov 3 Beijing time.
What I'm watching: How many teams actually build for agents as users, not just agents as narrative.
The list breaks into 4 buckets:
1. Capital: Using blockchain to make AI fundraising easier. YC literally calls AI investment one of the largest capital events in human history.
2. Stablecoins: New use cases for dollar stables, stablecoins in other currencies, banking for underserved populations.
3. Trading: RWA tokenization, new venues and interfaces.
4. Agents: Crypto APIs for agents, letting agents trade and interact with onchain primitives.
Key thesis: Agents will become primary financial participants, accessing new assets and financial primitives through blockchain APIs.
Same day, Alphabet's Q3 earnings dropped a data point that makes this real: $51.36B capex in one quarter. Operating cash flow? $42.29B. They issued ~$29B in debt and ~$12.4B in equity to cover the gap.
The math is simple: AI is burning cash faster than even the most profitable companies can generate it. Money has to come from somewhere. YC is betting part of it flows onchain.
But here's the thing—YC admits the best ideas probably aren't on this list. Application deadline is Nov 3 Beijing time.
What I'm watching: How many teams actually build for agents as users, not just agents as narrative.
