Silicon Valley shifts AI funding to crypto using an Ethereum ICO blueprint

Y Combinator wants to fund crypto startups that make AI fundraising easier, expand stablecoin banking, and build financial tools for agents, according to its October request for founders.

Visiting partner Nemil Dalal shared the call on Oct. 28, saying YC wanted to fund more crypto companies solving financial needs. Its October Crypto Request for Startups sets out its funding interests for the next six months, spanning capital raising, stablecoins, trading and agents.

The AI capital-raising request connects AI businesses' financing needs with crypto's fundraising history. YC describes investment in AI as one of the largest capital-raising events in human history and points to Ethereum's initial coin offering as a precedent for blockchain fundraising, asking founders to make AI capital raising easier, leaving the financing structure open.

YC and Coinbase's Sept. 23, 2025 request already sought stablecoins, tokenization, trading, on-chain capital formation and apps and agents. The October document gives AI capital raising an explicit place within that continuing financing agenda.

Stablecoins, crypto trading and agent access

YC wants dollar stablecoin products that reach new customer or merchant groups, stablecoins in additional currencies, and neobanks serving people or businesses that existing providers underserve.

Global contractors and international businesses are examples of banking services. The document also points to gaming as a possible customer segment for dollar stablecoins, pairing the choice of user with the need for a distribution strategy.

Distribution is an explicit part of the dollar-stablecoin request: founders must identify a group that benefits from the product and work out how to reach it. The neobank category adds a requirement to manage risk effectively while providing banking services to an underserved segment.

The accelerator asks founders to choose assets that benefit from global, round-the-clock markets and integration with decentralized finance. A house represented by an NFT, with blockchain-based capital helping fund mortgages, appears as an illustrative possibility.

The document also seeks exchanges and interfaces built around new assets, derivatives, or geographies.

YC's broader thesis expects new assets to be issued, including startup equity and small securities, with trading, lending, and derivatives services developing around them.

That expectation connects the fundraising request to the trading categories: the accelerator sees opportunities in both creating assets and building the financial services that make them usable.

Alongside those venues, YC wants founders to build trading applications and infrastructure for agents. The document expects these software actors to become active financial participants and prolific traders, including when a human directs them.

The API category focuses on financial connections designed for agents. YC argues that today's interfaces largely serve human developers, while some agent tasks will require several services to work together.

The infrastructure request recognizes that blockchain access alone may cover only part of an agent's task. YC wants founders to connect the services needed to complete it, including fiat-to-crypto routes.

Its trading request covers activity in crypto and other assets, with agents acting under human instructions and participating more broadly in financial markets.

YC argues that institutional financial needs drove crypto uptake over the past year, citing oil hedging and faster cross-border movement of enterprise money.

For founders responding now, YC's application page lists the Winter 2027 batch as running from January through March in San Francisco. YC will still consider applications submitted after Nov. 2, although it cannot promise when those applicants will receive a response.