Antseed Launches Decentralized AI Inference Marketplace; Edge Markets Builds Margin-Call Infrastructure for Prediction Markets

Antseed says the marketplace was created to address what it calls the skyrocketing cost of AI inference. Citing Gartner Inc., the startup says global spending on AI cloud infrastructure is projected to grow to $42 billion by the end of this year. It says developers have had few options but to access models through centralized middleman gateways and application programming interfaces controlled by a handful of model providers. Those providers can dictate costs and usage limits and can change pricing quickly, leading to unpredictable price spikes for inference workloads.

The marketplace routes AI requests across hundreds of independent and mainstream model providers, bypassing centralized gateways. Antseed claims this forces model providers to compete for every request by lowering prices, and it says users can access leading frontier models for up to 97% less than official API prices.

Antseed relies on a self-hosted local router through which providers can list available inference capacity using hardware they own and set their own prices. Antseed verifies that each provider does provide access to the models it claims to serve. If a provider fails a verification check, its reputation decreases and its routing priority declines.

Antseed co-founder Amos Meiri compares the marketplace to the file-sharing service BitTorrent. “What BitTorrent did for files, Antseed is doing for AI inference, with no central server and no company deciding who gets access or what it costs,” he said. “As agents make more model calls and inference becomes a material operating cost, developers need a simple way to route each request based on price, performance, capability and privacy. Antseed gives them one compatible local endpoint and access to a competitive market of independent providers, without locking their applications into a single centralized gateway.”

Antseed says its decentralized approach lets model pricing be dictated by open market dynamics, and the service is entirely anonymous, so developers are not required to sign up or provide any details. Because the router runs locally on the provider’s own systems, developers can also choose hardware-verified providers that ensure strict prompt confidentiality. Developers can access models through a pay-per-request pricing model, with no need to commit to rigid subscription tiers. Meiri said the strategy is already getting traction, pointing to on-chain data showing Antseed has processed almost 150 billion tokens across 202 active providers so far.

Spark Capital co-founder and General Partner Santo Politi said inference is to AI what fuel is to airlines. “It’s a core operating cost that companies need to manage as they scale, but right now only a handful of companies control the wells,” he said. “Antseed is the counterweight to that centralized control, serving as a decentralized open market that gives developers the freedom to choose how they source compute while creating a direct market for providers to compete.”

In separate news, Edge Markets is building an automated system that allows institutions to authorize capital for prediction markets and helps companies move money to cover margin calls even when traditional banking systems are closed, according to CNBC. “Markets are becoming increasingly automated and global, but the infrastructure for accessing and moving capital on prediction markets falls short of real-world demand,” said Seni Thomas, founder and CEO of Edge Markets.

Edge Markets is a provider of financial infrastructure focused on the gaming and prediction markets industries. Its new infrastructure, available through its Edge Pro service for market makers, aims to support institutional trading for markets that operate around the clock. It allows institutions to decide in advance how much capital to deploy, including setting limits on daily transactions executed by artificial intelligence agents and trading algorithms.

The product comes as prediction market products face a roadblock: perpetual futures, derivative contracts that never expire, trade nonstop, while traditional banking systems do not. Perpetuals were first launched by Kalshi in May 2026, CNBC reported. If a margin call happens outside working hours, Edge’s payment infrastructure, called Edge Connect, would allow institutional traders to pre-authorize a clearing house to automatically pull additional collateral. A margin call alerts a trader to add more funds if the trader’s account drops below the required margin benchmark.

“Clearing houses should not have to tie up hundreds of millions of dollars simply because a margin call happens outside banking hours,” Thomas said. “By allowing firms to establish permissions in advance, we can help reduce avoidable liquidations, improve capital efficiency and make always-on markets more resilient.” The tool is expected to launch later this year and would help institutions route capital and transactions from trades to banks. Edge Markets is partnering with companies such as River Markets, ParlayX, OpenMarkets and Pikkit, whose clients will have access to the new product. CNBC disclosed that it and Kalshi have a commercial relationship that includes customer acquisition and a minority investment.