Crypto as Capital Formation: DePIN, AI & Zero-Employee Orgs With Multicoin | Messari's Fully Diluted

In this episode, Messari's Chris Davis sits down with Shayon Sengupta, Partner at Multicoin Capital, to unpack how crypto-native markets are reshaping everything from wireless networks and AI compute to data collection and talent markets.

They trace the lineage from Bitcoin mining to Helium and today’s DePIN / “internet labor markets,” dig into why verification is the hardest (and most under-rated) problem, and explore how crypto can fund the massive resource aggregation AI requires.

We also connect these themes to insights from Messari’s newly released State of AI 2025 report, discussing how AI, decentralized data markets, and crypto-native coordination are converging to reshape the economic landscape.

Read the Full State of AI 2025 for FREE: https://messari.io/report/state-of-ai

The conversation then zooms out to the future:

• Can agents run zero-employee companies?

• How will we pay humans for the data and labor that trains AI?

• Why proof of personhood and content authenticity may become existential primitives for the internet.

Shayon closes with candid advice on breaking into VC and how to actually be useful to founders.

0:00 – Introductions

1:01 – Background (Shayan’s path from math & startups to Multicoin)

4:30 – Investing Thesis (DePIN, internet labor markets, crypto as “money + markets”)

13:02 – Data & Verification (capital formation, network taxonomy, and why verification is hard)

22:40 – AI & Labor (compute markets, inference clouds, talent networks, zero-employee orgs)

43:28 – Identity & UBI (proof of personhood, Worldcoin, deepfakes, online identity)

49:20 – Future Ideas (data-poor domains, specialized data DAOs, brain–computer interfaces)

53:56 – How to Get Into VC (advice on writing, differentiation, being useful to founders)

57:30 – Conclusion (wrap-up + future BCI episode tease)

Hosted by Chris Davis of Messari

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This episode and its contents do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Messari, Inc. Hosts and guests may hold cryptocurrencies discussed in this content. This content is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as investment advice. You should conduct your own research, and consult an independent financial, tax, or legal advisor before making any investment decisions. Nothing contained in this content is a recommendation or suggestion, directly or indirectly, to buy, sell, make, or hold any investment, loan, commodity, or security, or to undertake any investment or trading strategy with respect to any investment, loan, commodity, security, or any issuer. This content should not be construed as an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any security or commodity. Messari does not guarantee the sequence, accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any information provided in this content.