Surf, an AI platform built specifically for the crypto industry, has raised $15 million in new funding. The company says its model offers far stronger accuracy and domain knowledge than mainstream tools like ChatGPT or Grok, an edge it believes can help traders make more informed decisions.
Surf
The funding round included backing from Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Digital Currency Group. The raise was first reported by Fortune.
Carlos Garcia
Surf’s pitch is simple: most general AI models aren’t trained deeply enough on crypto and can produce hallucinations that steer users toward bad information. CEO Ryan Li says those gaps can translate into real financial losses for traders who rely on AI to analyze markets.
According to the company, Surf was tested with Princeton University and “performed four times better than ChatGPT and Grok on crypto tasks.” While the exact benchmarks weren’t disclosed, the team says the results reflect the model’s focused training across blockchain data, market structure, and emerging token ecosystems.
Leaderboard
Surf began as an invite-only platform but opened to the public in September. It has since grown to more than 300,000 users and has delivered over a million search results. Li said about 80% of users are everyday individuals curious about crypto, while the rest work in venture firms, exchanges, or other industry companies.
The platform already generates revenue through subscriptions and plans to release an updated version in February. Li frames Surf not as a replacement for general AI models, but as a specialist.
“ChatGPT is a really good generalist,” he said, “but it doesn’t know the crypto industry enough. Surf is like that expert who’s worked in the industry for a long time, because we trained the model just for crypto.”
As AI and crypto continue to converge—with traders increasingly looking for automated insights and risk analysis—Surf’s team is betting that a domain-specific model can offer a safer and more reliable path forward.
