Surf, an AI research and intelligence platform focused on digital assets, has raised $15 million in a funding round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Digital Currency Group (DCG), the company said Wednesday.
The San Francisco–based startup will use the funds to build Surf 2.0, an upgraded version of its crypto-focused AI model, and expand its enterprise offering. Unlike general-purpose large language models, Surf trains proprietary systems specifically for digital asset analysis and combines them with crypto-native datasets to improve precision and reduce misinformation risk.
The platform runs on a multi-agent architecture that processes social sentiment, on-chain activity, token dynamics, and market behavior. Findings are delivered through a chat-style interface designed to reduce the manual research time typically required of analysts. Surf 2.0 will introduce a more advanced model, expanded datasets, and new agents capable of executing multi-step workflows normally handled by seasoned researchers. Surf Enterprise will provide dedicated infrastructure and security tooling for institutional clients.
“Generic AI tools aren’t built for financial decision-making,” said Ryan Li, Surf’s co-founder and CEO.
Surf says it has generated over 1 million research reports, reached strong recurring revenue, and is used by 80% of major exchanges—reflecting the broader industry shift toward specialized AI tools for finance, as seen in recent launches of domain-specific analytics and automation platforms across the sector.
