

**OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor predicts the AI industry's token-based pricing model will be replaced by outcome-based pricing within 12 months.** OpenAI Chairman Bret Taylor said the AI industry's token-based pricing model will be replaced by a pay-per-outcome system within 12 months, as companies push for clearer returns on their AI investments. "I believe where the world is going is paying for outcomes," Taylor, who also co-founded AI startup Sierra, said in a CNBC interview Monday. Token costs have prompted companies to rein in AI spending this year, with CFOs scrutinizing whether they are getting a return on investment. Taylor compared the current market to the early internet, when building a website cost substantially more. He pointed to Ramp's token spend tracking tool and legal AI startup Harvey as examples of companies managing token complexity for clients, rather than forcing enterprises to track tokens themselves. The shift could reshape how enterprises budget for AI, moving from per-token accounting to subscription or outcome-based pricing. Taylor predicted IT departments will become "really sophisticated" about AI applications within 12 months, with different tools for marketing, engineering and other functions. "You just don't need to think about the word token at all," he said. **Kimi K3 and the Cost Question** Taylor struck a cautious tone on Moonshot's Kimi K3, a model released last week that has drawn Silicon Valley attention for rivaling OpenAI and Anthropic's capabilities at a lower reported cost. "Is it cheaper to use is the most important part for anyone considering it," Taylor said. "And I think the jury's out on that." The skepticism reflects a broader industry debate over whether open-weight models can sustain their cost advantage at scale. Frontier models from OpenAI and Anthropic remain more token-efficient, Taylor argued, suggesting that headline pricing comparisons may not capture real-world inference costs. Kimi K3's reported performance on key benchmarks has not been independently verified against the test conditions used by OpenAI's GPT-4o or Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet, leaving enterprise buyers without a clear basis for comparison. **Who Wins, Who Loses in the Pricing Shift** The transition from token-based to outcome-based pricing carries implications across the AI value chain. Application-layer companies — Sierra, Harvey, Ramp and others that build on top of foundation models — stand to benefit as enterprises shift from managing token budgets to paying for specific business outcomes. These companies can absorb token cost fluctuations and present a simplified pricing structure to customers. For model providers including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google's DeepMind, the move could compress margins if outcome-based pricing proves less profitable than per-token billing. OpenAI's API pricing currently ranges from $0.01 to $0.03 per 1,000 tokens for its GPT-4 class models, depending on input versus output. A shift to outcome pricing would transfer cost risk from the enterprise to the model provider, potentially squeezing margins at the infrastructure layer. Moonshot's Kimi K3, if its cost advantages are confirmed, could accelerate pricing pressure on frontier model providers. The Chinese startup has not disclosed the full methodology behind its performance claims, leaving investors and enterprise buyers without a clear basis for comparison. Taylor's "jury's out" assessment suggests the market should treat cost claims with caution until independent benchmarks are available. **Investment Implications** For investors, the pricing model transition creates divergent incentives. Companies that build AI applications for specific verticals — legal, finance, marketing — may see improved adoption as enterprise buyers face simpler pricing. Conversely, pure-play model providers could face margin compression if outcome-based pricing becomes the industry standard. The broader AI infrastructure ecosystem — GPU providers like Nvidia, cloud platforms including Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, and data center operators — is less directly affected by the pricing model shift, since their revenue depends on compute consumption rather than token pricing. However, if outcome-based pricing drives higher AI adoption, compute demand could accelerate, benefiting infrastructure providers regardless of the pricing mechanism at the application layer. Taylor's prediction, if realized, would mark a fundamental shift in how AI is bought and sold — one that could make the word "token" irrelevant to enterprise buyers within a year. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

CoinShares PLC unveiled a new UCITS platform on Tuesday, expanding into Europe's €26.3 trillion regulated fund ecosystem with its inaugural Bitcoin Mining UCITS ETF listing on Deutsche Börse Xetra. "This is not simply the launch of another investment product. It marks our entry into the UCITS market with a platform that allows us to develop and launch regulated investment funds under one of the world's most widely recognised fund frameworks," Jean-Marie Mognetti, Co-Founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of CoinShares, said. The Jersey-based digital asset manager, listed on Nasdaq under CSHR, received authorization from the Central Bank of Ireland for the UCITS vehicle. The platform sits alongside CoinShares' existing ETP franchise, creating what the company described as a multi-engine asset management structure capable of generating recurring fee revenue across exchange-traded products, regulated investment funds, alternative strategies and on-chain asset management. The strategic significance lies in the wrapper, not the product. Traditional debt-based crypto ETPs face strict allocation limits among institutional investors, whose mandates often restrict holdings to UCITS-compliant funds. CoinShares already serves many of these allocators through its existing digital asset products — the constraint was the vehicle, not the relationship. The UCITS platform removes that barrier, giving pension funds, insurance platforms and private banks a regulated format to gain crypto exposure. The Bitcoin Mining UCITS ETF, which launched on July 16, begins trading on Xetra today. CoinShares expects to use the platform to launch additional digital asset and thematic strategies over time, with each subsequent fund drawing on the same authorized structure at progressively lower marginal cost. The upfront capital investment and regulatory groundwork are complete, the company said, positioning the platform to generate operating leverage as assets under management grow. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.

Bitcoin rose above $65,000 on July 20, as Polymarket prediction markets priced a 93% probability the Federal Reserve holds rates steady at its July meeting. "Markets are pricing near-certainty of a July hold after recent inflation data came in softer than expected," Nina Volkov, crypto macro analyst at Edgen, said. "That's providing a tailwind for risk assets including bitcoin." Bitcoin traded at $65,491 as of 14:30 UTC, up 1.5% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko. Trading volume reached $28.4 billion over the same period, above the seven-day average of $22.1 billion. The move pushed bitcoin's market cap to $1.29 trillion and its dominance rate to 54.7%. Polymarket's "Fed to hold rates in July" contract traded at 93 cents, implying a 93% probability of no change at the Federal Open Market Committee's July 28-29 meeting. The next resistance level sits at $68,000, a zone that has capped upside since mid-June, with support at $62,000 if the rally stalls. The Fed's July decision and any shift in forward guidance will determine whether bitcoin can sustain its move above $65,000 or retrace toward the lower end of its recent range. The rally extended beyond bitcoin. Ether gained 2.9% to $1,922.33, while VIRTUAL and UNI also held gains as altcoin trading volumes picked up. The broader crypto market capitalization rose 1.8% to $2.36 trillion, CoinGecko data shows. The Polymarket contract, which has drawn $4.2 million in total volume since launching in January, reflects a sharp shift from early June when traders assigned a 35% probability to a rate cut. The repricing follows the June consumer price index report, which showed headline inflation cooling to 2.9%, below the 3.1% consensus estimate. Bitcoin's breakout above $65,000 comes as U.S. equities showed mixed performance, with the S&P 500 closing at 7,443.28, down 0.19%, suggesting the crypto move was driven by crypto-specific catalysts rather than a broad risk-on rotation in traditional markets. Open interest across bitcoin futures rose 3.2% to $37.8 billion, while the weighted funding rate on major exchanges stood at 0.008%, neutral territory that suggests the rally has room to run without triggering a long squeeze, Coinglass data shows. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.