Dune Cuts 25% of Staff to Focus on AI Agents and Institutional On-chain Data
Dune Analytics is chopping 25% of its workforce as cofounder Fredrik Haga restructures the platform round AI brokers and institutional adoption of onchain finance.
The May 14 publish from Haga additionally drew a pointy reply from Surf cofounder Ryan Li, who argued crypto analysis now calls for infrastructure constructed for AI brokers fairly than human-operated dashboards.
Restructure Targets AI and Institutional Clients
Haga stated Dune is preserving its end-to-end information stack whereas letting go of robust performers he’s brazenly recommending to different hiring companies.
The firm has raised roughly $79 million in complete funding, together with a $69.4 million Series B in 2022, and Haga stated it stays effectively capitalized.
The pivot leans on Dune MCP, an open-standard server launched in March 2026 that lets AI brokers query the platform’s data warehouse through natural language.
Twelve instruments cowl desk discovery, question execution, and visualization throughout greater than 100 chains. Dune additionally not too long ago released a dbt Connector for groups constructing on-chain information pipelines.
Haga stated Dune already powers most main crypto corporations and is now increasing white-glove service to monetary establishments tokenizing shares, bonds, and commodities.
Surf Challenges the Dashboard Era
Li, who stated he was beforehand a heavy Dune person, used his reply to place Surf as a purpose-built various.
“However, crypto analysis has developed and working within the AI period calls for infrastructure constructed for brokers, not people clicking by way of dashboards. We want quick question engines, dependable SQL, structured outputs. At Surf, we’ve spent Q1 constructing an end-to-end crypto information stack purpose-built for AI brokers,” he stated.
Surf raised $15 million in December 2025 from Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and DCG.
The trade marks an escalation within the crypto information race as established platforms compete with agent-native entrants for AI analysis workflows.
The publish Dune Cuts 25% of Staff to Focus on AI Agents and Institutional On-chain Data appeared first on BeInCrypto.
