Dune Analytics said it has cut 25% of its staff and is concentrating resources on two growth areas: AI data tools and institutional client adoption. The move reshapes a company long known for serving on-chain researchers and crypto-native users.
The company said its core product, Dune MCP, lets teams and AI agents access on-chain data, build dashboards, and create workflows with little need for SQL knowledge. That marks a clear change in product focus. Dune previously built its reputation around a workflow where data analysts wrote SQL for DeFi researchers, token holders, and Web3 operators; it is now steering toward natural-language access for AI agents and financial institutions.
From crypto-native analytics to AI and enterprise data access
The restructuring points to a broader shift across the crypto data market. Dune’s target users are no longer centered only on crypto-native participants. The roadmap now emphasizes financial institutions and AI-driven users, changing how the platform positions its data products and whom it expects to pay for them.
The source identifies three forces behind that shift. First, AI-based LLM analysis tools are reducing reliance on SQL and traditional BI software inside data teams. Second, institutional customers show stronger willingness to pay; while retail users face subscription fatigue, institutions are prepared to spend more for reliable data pipelines. Third, increasing standardization in on-chain data is opening the door for a single data layer to replace stacked SaaS tooling.
Layoffs and restructuring are spreading across data platforms
Dune is not alone. Nansen cut 30% of its workforce in 2025 and drew criticism for being too expensive while offering too few features, a backlash that reportedly pushed a large number of customers toward Dune. The source also says competitors including Glassnode, CryptoCompare, and DeFiLlama have gone through organizational restructuring.
This wave is about more than cutting costs. Crypto data platforms are being pushed to choose between selling analytics interfaces to retail users and delivering standardized data infrastructure to institutions. Those are different businesses, and the product requirements do not match.
Institutional demand grows as traditional assets move on-chain
Dune said it is expanding toward large financial institutions as currencies, equities, bonds, and commodities move on-chain. The rise of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs has also brought on-chain assets into retirement accounts, mutual funds, and portfolio funds.
According to the source, BlackRock’s FBTC and Fidelity’s spot ETFs have surpassed $10 billion in assets under management. For firms operating at that scale, the need is not the same as it is for retail users browsing dashboards. What matters is standardized on-chain data infrastructure that can be integrated into internal systems and workflows.
In Taiwan, the source describes crypto data infrastructure as relatively mature. Chainalysis has set up a regional office there, and several blockchain startups have established regional headquarters in Taipei. Local blockchain industry plans and digital asset securitization trends are also adding to demand for stronger data infrastructure.
Dune’s 25% workforce reduction shows where this part of the market is heading: away from tools built mainly for crypto-native analysts, and toward a dual-track platform built for AI agents and institutional clients.