In this edition, we’re sharing a mix of our latest thinking—featuring three posts from Jesse and Dan for developers working with AI agents—along with some of the biggest product launches and fundraises from our portfolio companies.
Over the past few months, we’ve backed a wave of pre-seed and seed-stage teams that bring fresh perspectives, ideas, and approaches across AI, energy, creator tools, infra, and DeFi. Many of them are hiring, so if you’re experienced and eager to join an early-stage team building something new, reach out — we’d love to connect you.
And finally, if you're heading to ETHDenver, come co-work with us and join office hours with the Variant, Uniswap Foundation, and Morpho teams. See you IRL on Feb 28!
Enjoy reading!
Liability Considerations for Agent Developers in Crypto
Many agent developers in crypto are wondering how agents will impact their liability exposure. Naturally, the feature these developers focus on is autonomy. They picture fully autonomous agents roaming the internet and harming people in ways far beyond what the developer intended, and they worry they will be liable for the agent’s action.
While I find this thought experiment academically interesting, I worry it distracts from a more pressing liability analysis regarding the agents that are here right now, which have plenty of their own liability wrinkles.
Read the full article on our website for steps to reduce liability exposure.
DAO 2.0 Product Ideas: From prediction markets to risk monitoring
I believe the emergence of AI agents onchain could lead to DAOs 2.0, where agents have the potential to put the "A" back in DAO. Jack, Daniel, and I jammed on some specific products we are actively looking to invest in.
Read the full list on our blog.
Unchaining Web2 Data Onchain: What Agents and Oracles Need to Know About the Law
With the rise of agents that heavily interact with Web2 applications, primitives that help users unchain their Web2 data will become increasingly important. These primitives allow crypto companies to offer products/services that empower users to unlock their data without giving these companies access to users' credentials.
Read the full post on our blog to see how Web3 companies can protect themselves.
Updates From Our Portfolio
January/February highlights from our portfolio
Investments:
Variant invested in Whetstone Research, which just released its first product, Doppler. It’s a “self-executing initial pricing auction for tokens” with tons of functionality, but perhaps its most important characteristic is helping token launches spread more of the value to actual users instead of bots. Check out this Bell Curve episode with Jesse and Whetstone founder Austin to dive deeper.
Fundraises:
Reservoir, which is building the token-trading infrastructure and APIs for everyone from OpenSea and Magic Eden to Coinbase and Solana wallet Phantom, completed a $14M Series A (which we happily participated in).
Speaking of Phantom, it announced its $150M Series C, which included participation from Variant.
Blockaid, one of the most-used crypto security platforms for protecting users against fraud and exploits, raised $50M in its Series B, a round we were also proud to support.
Product News:
Turnkey published a whitepaper on verifiable key management that’s, well, key to understanding crypto infrastructure.
Uniswap Labs must never sleep. In quick succession, it launched v4 of the protocol and an L2 to run it on, Unichain.
Intents make it easy to send tokens across Ethereum’s many chains. And nobody is more intent on spreading intents than Hyperlane. Which is why it’s the foundation for Ethereum’s new Open Intents Framework.
Pluto had a far-out idea: to open-source its SDK so all developers can generate Web Proofs and integrate them into their apps.
Users can now apply for Bitcoin-backed loans on Coinbase. Which protocol is facilitating the loans? Why, Morpho, of course.
Ceramic parent company 3Box Labs, which specializes in crypto data storage, merged with Textile to build infrastructure for AI agents.
Farcaster hired some all-star community members and launched its wallet, Warplet.
Thinking in Public
Reply on X and Warpcast
Jake lays out whether markets will start preferring serious projects over pumps:
Jack wants more eyeballs on an onchain agent space he thinks is primed to expand:
Alana looks at where token issuance mechanisms might be headed:
If this newsletter gave you ideas (or prompted more questions), we want to hear from you. Give a shout to anyone on the Variant team.
Thanks for reading. We’ll see you next issue.
Disclaimer: This post is for general information purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any investment and should not be used in the evaluation of the merits of making any investment decision. It should not be relied upon for accounting, legal or tax advice or investment recommendations. You should consult your own advisers as to legal, business, tax, and other related matters concerning any investment. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by Variant. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, Variant has not independently verified such information. Variant makes no representations about the enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. This post reflects the current opinions of the authors and is not made on behalf of Variant or its Clients and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Variant, its General Partners, its affiliates, advisors or individuals associated with Variant. The opinions reflected herein are subject to change without being updated.
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