SAN FRANCISCO, CA – As artificial intelligence dominates venture funding and headlines alike, some in crypto have begun to wonder whether the industry has missed its “ChatGPT moment” — or worse, whether capital is permanently rotating away.

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at crypto venture firm Dragonfly, rejects that framing outright.

“I would completely dispute this framing,” Qureshi said in an interview with CoinDesk at NEARCON 2026. “Less than 1% of AI users are paying. That means 99% are using the free tier. Crypto doesn’t have a free tier.”

Comparisons between AI’s explosive consumer adoption and crypto’s trajectory misunderstand the nature of the products, he argued. “There is no free Bitcoin. There’s no…