Cyber Co-founder Starts New Venture.
Written by: 1912212.eth, Foresight News
In the current environment where funding in the crypto space has significantly decreased, some projects still attract venture capital interest. On December 10, Surf successfully raised $15 million, with this round led by Pantera Capital, and Coinbase Ventures and DCG participating. Surf positions itself as an AI intelligence platform specifically designed for cryptocurrency; what are its standout features?
It is well-known that current large models still experience "hallucinations" leading to biased results. Additionally, as cryptocurrency is a vertical field, its complex content and analysis may not be perfectly represented by general large models. Surf provides accurate and reliable insights through a simple chat interface, helping traders, researchers, and investors avoid common mistakes made by general AI models.
In short, Surf aims to be the ChatGPT of the crypto space.
At its core, Surf is an AI system with a multi-agent architecture that combines proprietary models and industry-leading data sources to provide accuracy beyond that of general LLMs. Users can ask questions through the chat interface, ranging from basic knowledge (e.g., "What is Bitcoin halving?") to advanced analysis (e.g., "Analyze the on-chain activity and social sentiment of a specific token"). The platform integrates social sentiment, on-chain activity, and token market behavior in real-time, providing insights through a single entry point, thus avoiding the errors and complexities of manual research.
In terms of performance, Surf 1.0 stood out in the CAIA benchmark test. This benchmark was developed in collaboration with Princeton University to assess the ability of AI models to perform tasks typically handled by junior human analysts. The results showed that Surf outperformed models like ChatGPT and Grok by four times on crypto-specific tasks, providing more specific citations and fewer errors.
Additionally, Surf supports on-chain data tracking for over 40 blockchain networks, helping users understand fund flows, wallet behaviors, and protocol activities. It serves not only as a research tool but also as a trading assistant, allowing users to obtain real-time market data and answers supported by a crypto knowledge base, just like conversing with ChatGPT. Recently, Surf also launched a mobile app, further lowering the barrier to information access.
Unlike other AI assistants, Surf emphasizes "trust." Ryan Li stated in an interview, "When people make financial decisions, they need trustworthy information. General AI tools are not built for this purpose. We created Surf to provide reliable support in the rapidly changing crypto market." This philosophy stems from the unique challenges of crypto data: the market is highly volatile, and information sources are diverse and easily manipulated. Surf's proprietary training ensures higher contextual understanding and detail accuracy, avoiding the common failures of general models in crypto scenarios.
Surf was co-founded by Ryan Li, who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, with a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He was the CTO of BitTorrent and also a co-founder of CyberConnect. In May 2024, the decentralized social platform CyberConnect transformed into a social re-staking modular L2, rebranding as Cyber, while Link3 was spun off into an independent brand, after which Cyber was marginalized.
According to official disclosures, Ryan Li personally experienced the pain points of AI in the crypto market. General AI platforms output inaccurate or fabricated information, which can lead to significant losses for traders. Based on this observation, Ryan decided to create Surf—an AI model specifically designed for crypto.
Surf was launched in July 2025 on an invite-only basis and opened to the public in September. Currently, its team consists of fewer than 30 people and has achieved millions of dollars in annual recurring revenue (ARR). In just a few months, the platform has generated over 1 million research reports, with user numbers exceeding 80,000 and a monthly growth rate of up to 50%.
Like general large models, Surf operates on a paid subscription model, where free users can access Ask and Research features, but with limited quotas. Paid members have higher usage limits and enjoy exclusive support.
Currently, the official website indicates that Surf has no plans for a token issuance.
Following this funding round, Surf is set to launch Surf 2.0, which the company states will be the most advanced proprietary model, along with an expanded data pipeline designed for market and on-chain intelligence, and additional agents capable of handling complex, multi-step analytical workflows.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
