JPMorgan Backs Hedge Fund Numerai With $500M, Fueling Crypto–AI Convergence
Numerai, an AI-powered hedge fund supported by billionaire Paul Tudor Jones, has secured a commitment of up to $500 million from JPMorgan Asset Management — a move that could more than double its assets under management and highlights Wall Street’s growing interest in crypto-linked investment firms.
$500M Commitment to AI-Driven Trading
Numerai confirmed Tuesday that the capital will be deployed over the next year, with performance tied to its crowdsourced trading models contributed by thousands of data scientists worldwide.
Since launching in 2015, Numerai has scaled to roughly $450 million in assets under management, with most of its growth coming in the past three years. In 2024, the fund delivered a 25% net return, leveraging artificial intelligence, digital assets, and other quant-driven strategies.
Numerai also issues its own cryptocurrency, Numeraire (NMR), which it launched in 2017. The fund began repurchasing NMR in July, starting with $1 million. Following JPMorgan’s announcement, NMR surged over 38% to $11.40, with daily trading volumes up more than 880%, according to CoinMarketCap.
JPMorgan’s Expanding Crypto Footprint
While JPMorgan did not comment directly on its commitment to Numerai, the megabank has steadily deepened its role in digital assets. It has already partnered with Coinbase to support crypto transactions and is reportedly exploring stablecoin issuance and crypto-backed lending, allowing clients to borrow against Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) holdings.
This investment signals growing institutional comfort with firms blending AI and blockchain innovation in their strategies.
Crypto Meets AI: A Growing Trend
Numerai has long stood out for merging artificial intelligence, blockchain, and crowdsourced prediction markets to drive its investment decisions. But it’s not the only example of this convergence.
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Bitcoin mining firms such as Hive Digital, Hut 8, TeraWulf, and IREN have pivoted resources toward AI and high-performance computing to diversify revenue.
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DNA Fund, a crypto-focused investment manager, is heavily involved in the Bittensor ecosystem, a decentralized machine learning network with a market cap of about $3.2 billion.
“Decentralized AI is consuming everything we’re doing,” DNA Fund CEO Chris Miglino told Cointelegraph.
AI’s Expanding Global Role
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) projects that artificial intelligence will become the world’s most valuable technology sector within the next decade. UNCTAD estimates that AI’s share of the global “frontier tech” market will quadruple over the next eight years, ensuring that its integration with crypto, finance, and other industries accelerates.
Numerai’s latest partnership with JPMorgan highlights that trend, suggesting the lines between crypto, AI, and institutional finance are blurring faster than ever.
