Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at crypto venture firm Dragonfly, argues that comparisons between AI's rapid adoption and crypto's trajectory overlook key differences in their products. In an interview at NEARCON 2026, he dismissed concerns that capital is permanently moving away from crypto, calling the current contraction a necessary market correction. Qureshi emphasized crypto's strong fundamentals, including steady stablecoin growth.
In San Francisco, at the NEARCON 2026 conference, Haseeb Qureshi addressed growing unease in the crypto industry amid artificial intelligence's surge in venture funding and public attention. Some observers worry that crypto has missed a pivotal "ChatGPT moment" or that investment is shifting irreversibly to AI. Qureshi rejected this view outright.
"I would completely dispute this framing," Qureshi said. He pointed out that while AI tools have reached about 80% of Americans, less than 1% of users pay for them, with 99% relying on free tiers. In contrast, crypto lacks such a free option: "There is no free Bitcoin. There’s no free Ethereum." Despite this, he noted that 15% of Americans own crypto, describing it as "a mass-market phenomenon."
Qureshi highlighted crypto's global utility, particularly in payments, where stablecoins have shown resilience. "Stablecoin supply has been growing 50% year over year," he said. "That’s exponential growth." Even as sentiment has cooled and venture capital flows toward AI, he views the shift as normal market behavior. "Money is a leading indicator," Qureshi explained. "Human beings respond to money — they don’t respond to the reality on the ground."
Crypto remains a $2 trillion asset class, and its projects often operate with small teams, unlike AI firms such as OpenAI with thousands of employees. "We don’t have any 9,000-person companies like OpenAI — and that’s a good thing," he said. "Crypto is incredibly high leverage as a technology."
The recent downturn, Qureshi argued, corrects years of overfunding: "To the extent that there were too many people building too many things in crypto, the market’s correcting that. That’s capitalism doing its job." Dragonfly's recent $650 million fund announcement underscores this confidence. "That’s the best time to double down," he added.
While exploring intersections between crypto and AI, Qureshi cautioned against hype. "Is AI going to save crypto? F*** no," he said, noting that AI agents using crypto are years away. He criticized crypto's tendency to latch onto trends, like tokenizing chatbots, and urged patience amid volatility. "Chill out," Qureshi concluded. "It’s not a catastrophe."
