Bullish Makes $4M Post-IPO Bet on the ‘Bank’ of AI Companies

Bully: – A Crypto Exchange operator bound by Peter Thiel has announced that the corporate investment division will invest $4 million in on-chain funding platform USD.AI.

With the investment made earlier this week, USD.AI aims to fund AI infrastructure through hardware-backed loans. This has revealed the strategic investment since expanding Bullish’s first disclosure strategic investments earlier this summer.

According to Bullish’s announcement and the company’s social post, the $4 million commitment was made by Bullish Capital. The investment is part of crypto companies’ broader push towards AI-related infrastructure and tokenized finance.

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I’m happy to announce the $4 million investment @usdai_officialan on-chain platform for AI infrastructure finance. pic.twitter.com/q9etwqprrm

– Bullish (@bullish) September 22, 2025

Bullish invests in AI Companies ‘Bank – USD.AI

Bullih describes the AI ​​investment project USD.AI as a chain platform that issues synthetic dollars and structural lending facilities using physical AI hardware as collateral.

According to an analysis from the company’s white paper, USD.AI is a simple idea. This is a Web3 service that allows small AI companies to borrow money using AI hardware (such as GPUs) as collateral.

The AI ​​hardware sector is extremely underfunded, close to the $800 billion gap each year. Startups building AI models don’t have the luxury of waiting for traditional funding. They need capital almost instantly.

USD.AI is working on this by turning physical GPUs into on-chain assets and approving funds nearly 90% faster than legacy lenders. The protocol issues digital dollar tokens (called USDAIs) that people can use, trade, or hold in place of regular dollars.

When an AI company transfers the GPU to the USD.AI tokenization agent, the agent immediately reissues ownership as an NFTS. These NFTs serve as collateral for drawing loans to USDAI, the synthetic dollar for the project. Everything is chained and over-processed, so the approval window shrinks from weeks to just hours.

Those who provide money (an investor) can purchase yield tokens (called Susdai) that earn money from the loan. Investors earn income, and borrowers earn cash.

The project was built in 2021 by a Permian lab founded by David Che, Conor Moore and Ivan Sergev. USD.AI itself was launched in 2025 and raised funding for the venture to deploy a GPU-backed lending model.

The project says, “It helps Provides fluidity For the emerging AI companies that have Real collateral However, it is not the size of Openai, or you can access Blackstone. ” The USD.AI project is already promoting important early demand, reporting approximately $250 million in private beta deposits.

However, there are risks as well. GPUs lose value quickly – if prices drop, collateral may not cover the loan. Furthermore, if borrowers can’t make enough money by running AI jobs, they could be the default.

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Crypto Firms AI Bet

The timing of the investment is also worth noting. Bullish completed its shares IPO in mid-August 2025, priced the shares at $37, raising approximately $1.1 billion. The company’s stock jumped sharply with its debut.

Since its release, it has made clear plans to expand its custody, institutional services and capital market offerings. Investing in finance computing protocols is both strategic and experimental. USD.AI BET utilizes tokenized capital markets while being exposed to the AI ​​infrastructure layer.

This investment is further aligned with the growing trend of crypto companies redirecting capital to AI infrastructure and projects. From VCSs such as Coinbase Ventures to leaders like CZ, the industry has seen Crypto*AI gain momentum.

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