You could also argue the exact opposite. Crypto skyrocketed around 2011-2012 which is also the advent of the compute heavy deep learning boom. If anything, the

You could also argue the exact opposite. Crypto skyrocketed around 2011-2012 which is also the advent of the compute heavy deep learning boom. If anything, the cost escalation and scarcity of GPUs due to the demand by the crypto-space slowed down AI progress since resources were dedicated to computing useless hashes instead of training better models. I think a good story can be told for both sides.