# Forcing crypto on AI customers was our biggest mistake

- **Speaker:** Greg Osuri
- **Attribution:** attributed
- **Said:** 2026-04-23
- **Theme:** Other — https://www.gregosuri.com/predictions/other/
- **Source:** The Infrastructure Behind Agentic Finance, with Shashank Yadav and Greg Osuri of Akash Network (Fraction AI)
- **Watch at:** 00:39:47 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59w3DyJWAQc&t=2387s
- **Canonical:** https://www.gregosuri.com/predictions/other/2026-04-23-forcing-crypto-on-ai-customers-was-our-biggest-mis-upji/
- **Cite as:** Greg Osuri, "Forcing crypto on AI customers was our biggest mistake," The Infrastructure Behind Agentic Finance, with Shashank Yadav and Greg Osuri of Akash Network (Fraction AI), 23 Apr 2026, 00:39:47. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59w3DyJWAQc&t=2387s

## Quote — verbatim

> We lost such major deals because we mandated crypto purchases... it's a very big company and everybody knows this company. We forced them to buy AKT... the finance department was very unhappy with owning crypto... we eventually lost the deal because of crypto. So if you're trying to sell to anyone decent in AI, don't do crypto. Trust me, it doesn't work. And I think trying to force crypto on AI people was our biggest mistake we made.

## Context — site annotation, not spoken

Candid admission; earlier he notes Akash's website no longer mentions crypto at all and products like AkashML were built partly "to get away from crypto branding" (00:36:56).