Jason Calacanis is making a much bigger bet on decentralized AI than a casual market call. In an episode of This Week In Startups, the veteran angel investor appears to frame Bittensor’s $TAO token as the kind of asymmetric opportunity that venture investors spend years hunting for, and one that, in his view, could still be dramatically underpriced.
Calacanis’s $TAO Comments Land as Bittensor Gains a More Explicit Venture-Style Bull Case
In the segment posted by TWiSTartups, Calacanis argues that $TAO may have the kind of upside that could produce a 200x (from a $2.5 billion market cap), effectively labeling Bittensor as a long-duration, high-conviction AI infrastructure bet rather than a simple crypto trade.
Calcanis is widely known as an early Uber backer and longtime startup investor, and has increasingly attached his name to the Bittensor narrative.
A Stillcore Capital fund overview from late 2025 lists Calacanis as a consulting partner and describes the vehicle as a U.S. fund focused on Bittensor and $TAO, presenting the token as institutional-grade exposure to decentralized AI. The same materials describe Bittensor as an “intelligence infrastructure” play and repeatedly position $TAO as a reserve asset within that ecosystem.
Calacanis’ call fits with a larger thesis now circulating around Bittensor, which is that if Bitcoin was the money layer of crypto and Ethereum became the application layer, $TAO bulls believe Bittensor could become the intelligence layer for an AI-native internet.
Stillcore’s own materials go as far as to describe Bittensor as the potential “ Bitcoin of AI.”
$TAO appears to be outshining an otherwise stagnant altcoin market, currently trading at $326, currently up 87% in the last 30 days.
FAQ 🔎
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Who is Jason Calacanis? J
ason Calacanis is a longtime angel investor and podcaster best known for early bets including Uber and for hosting This Week in Startups. -
What is $TAO?
$TAO is the native token of Bittensor, a decentralized AI network that supporters describe as an intelligence infrastructure for the internet. -
Why did Calacanis’s $TAO comment get attention?
It got attention because he appears to frame $TAO as a potential 200x-style opportunity, and he has also been publicly linked to a Bittensor-focused fund. -
Is Calacanis formally involved with Bittensor-related investing?
Yes. A Stillcore Capital fund overview lists him as a consulting partner on a fund focused on Bittensor and $TAO.
