'Crypto King' Barry Silbert Doubles Down on AI Token Poised to Be the Next Zcash (ZEC)

Digital Currency Group (DCG) founder Barry Silbert, who earned the status of a "crypto king" in the industry for building a massive institutional empire and making early investments in Bitcoin, is shifting his capital focus to the decentralized artificial intelligence market.

His new major bet is the Bittensor AI token ($TAO), in which the investor, who for years has remained one of the main defenders of Zcash (ZEC) on Wall Street, sees a direct continuation of the scarcity model behind privacy coins.

The discussion in the industry was sparked by a widely shared social media thread in which analysts compared the fundamental properties of the two ecosystems.

DCG chief brings the scarcity model of Zcash and Bitcoin to the decentralized AI market

Silbert responded with an affirmative gesture to a post whose authors recalled his early calls on Bitcoin and Zcash, effectively confirming that he sees this AI token as a successor to his previous long-term strategies.

Investors draw direct parallels between these assets because of the strict mathematical scarcity parameters built into their code:

• Fixed supply: As in the Bitcoin and Zcash networks, TAO issuance is strictly capped at 21 million coins, while its distribution algorithm includes regular halvings.
• Productive mining: Unlike traditional PoW networks that spend resources on abstract computations, miners in Bittensor compete in training and mutually evaluating real artificial intelligence models within competing subnets.