Decentralized AI Platform Ritual Hires BitMEX Co-Founder Arthur Hayes As Advisor: Report

Last updated: January 9, 2024 23:06 EST . 2 min read

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BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has joined forces with decentralized AI platform Ritual in an advisory capacity.

The Block reported on Wednesday that Hayes had joined Ritual’s advisory team, and will help the decentralized AI platform to expand the financialization of AI models.

“As an advisor to Ritual, Arthur will provide his deep crypto and financial markets expertise to further the financialization of AI models, GPUs, and data, help grow the Ritual brand, and develop new use cases of on-chain AI,” Ritual co-founder Akilesh Potti said. “His unique expertise — as well as his passion for the crypto eco — will be invaluable to us as we continue to grow Ritual and create a decentralized, permissionless, and open future of AI.”

In his own statement, Hayes noted that the future of AI hinges on whether it can become independent from the small number of tech giants who currently control it.

“I’m excited to join the Ritual team as an advisor to ensure the burgeoning AI economy has access to a more censorship-resistant, collaboration-powering technology than we currently have,” Hayes said.

Hayes is currently the Chief Investment Officer of Maelstrom, an investment fund that seeking to build the “trustless decentralization of everything.” According to Maelstrom’s website, the fund normally targets venture-stage investments between valued between $100K – $250K in equity and tokens.

Hayes is also known as the creator of perpetual swaps, a type of futures derivative contract used in crypto trading that differentiates itself from traditional futures contracts in the sense that it never expires. BitMEX first introduced perpetual swaps in May 2016, and the trading product currently boasts daily trading volumes of over $150 billion.

“Arthur Hayes was also one of the first crypto leaders to understand the opportunities at the intersection of AI and Crypto and will utilize his perspective from both traditional and crypto markets to help Ritual scale,” the company said in a statement.

Arthur Hayes Joins Ritual’s Prestigious Board of Advisors

Hayes will joins Ritual’s board of advisors which includes several prestigious members of the crypto community, including EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan, NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin, and Gauntlet founder and Robot Ventures GP Tarun Chitra.

In an interview with The Block, Hayes said he had not personally invested in Ritual before joining the team as an advisor, but refused to disclose whether he had been offered any sort of incentives or compensation to join its advisory board.

“I strongly believe that AI is changing the world. Generative AI, in particular, drives new use cases and worker productivity, and will have massive rippling effects on the economy,” Hayes said in the interview. “One sector I’m most interested in working with Ritual on is the financialization of AI models, GPUs, and data.”