Dune Cuts 25% of Staff to Focus on AI Agents and Institutional On-chain Data

Dune Analytics is cutting 25% of its workforce as cofounder Fredrik Haga restructures the platform around AI agents and institutional adoption of onchain finance.

The May 14 post from Haga also drew a sharp reply from Surf cofounder Ryan Li, who argued crypto research now demands infrastructure built for AI agents rather than human-operated dashboards.

Restructure Targets AI and Institutional Clients

Haga said Dune is preserving its end-to-end data stack while letting go of strong performers he is openly recommending to other hiring firms.

The company has raised roughly $79 million in total funding, including a $69.4 million Series B in 2022, and Haga said it remains well capitalized.

The pivot leans on Dune MCP, an open-standard server launched in March 2026 that lets AI agents query the platform’s data warehouse through natural language.

Twelve tools cover table discovery, query execution, and visualization across more than 100 chains. Dune also recently released a dbt Connector for teams building on-chain data pipelines.

Haga said Dune already powers most leading crypto companies and is now expanding white-glove service to financial institutions tokenizing stocks, bonds, and commodities.

Surf Challenges the Dashboard Era

Li, who said he was previously a heavy Dune user, used his reply to position Surf as a purpose-built alternative.

“However, crypto research has evolved and operating in the AI era demands infrastructure built for agents, not humans clicking through dashboards. We need fast query engines, reliable SQL, structured outputs. At Surf, we’ve spent Q1 building an end-to-end crypto data stack purpose-built for AI agents,” he stated.

Surf raised $15 million in December 2025 from Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and DCG.

The exchange marks an escalation in the crypto data race as established platforms compete with agent-native entrants for AI research workflows.