BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has joined decentralized artificial intelligence platform Ritual with the aim of committing to the financialization of the AI industry.

Ritual's platform features fine-tuning of AI models and an API layer that lets users access those models. Hayes joins Ritual, which raised $25 million in funding in November, as an adviser.

"AI is made for decentralization – in fact, the future of this technology hinges on its ability to assert independence from the handful of powerful tech giants who control each input and output. I'm excited to join the Ritual team as an adviser to ensure the burgeoning AI economy has access to a more censorship-resistant, collaboration-powering technology than we currently have," Arthur Hayes said.

Hayes joins Ritual's existing board of advisers, which includes NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin, EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan and Gauntlet CEO Tarun Chitra.

Hayes currently serves as the chief investment officer of Maelstrom, a family office. He also co-founded cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, which was the first platform to roll out perpetual swaps, a form of derivative that never expires, unlike regular futures.