Been thinking a lot about why certain types of challenges resonate.
Not because of the prize money. Or the leaderboard. But because they give people a shot at solving something real in their own way.
From detecting structural breaks in synthetic time series to predicting cancer risk from images, Crunchers are proving that collective intelligence scales.
You don’t need a PhD. You need the right challenge.
Grab a 
or don’t. Let’s get into it!
ADIA Lab Structural Break Challenge
Analyze 30,000+ univariate time-series. Each series contains a defined boundary and your task is to predict if a structural break occurred at that point. Prize Pool: $100,000. Deadline: Sept 15.
DataCrunch Leaderboard Update
The equity market neutral crunch is heating up! Remember, rewards are distributed based on cumulative returns. Submit often. Iterate smart. And don’t forget to check the leaderboard regularly to see how you stack up.
Autoimmune Disease Broad 2 Spotlight #1 - Alexis Gassmann
We’re proud to congratulate Alexis Gassmann for ranking #1 on the Broad 2 leaderboard.
Alexis tackled a complex biomedical challenge with elegance, building one of the top models in the world for predicting cancer risk from colon tissue images.
Here’s how he did it:
• Used contrastive learning to align pathology images, gene expression, and spatial data
• Fine-tuned a masked language model to generalize across 19,000+ genes
• Integrated spatial transcriptomics to identify precancerous gene markers
His approach is now undergoing experimental validation.
A stellar reminder of what open, collective science can achieve.
Team Spotlight - Welcome, Saina!
Meet Saina Deshpande, our newest Research Intern.
She’s contributing to real-time FX pricing improvements and decoding user behavior in the Bird Game (more on this coming soon!) onboarding process.
Saina previously:
• Published a paper on predicting tennis rankings
• Worked at MIT CSAIL on surface roughness modeling
• Is now diving deep into predictive intelligence at Crunch
Welcome to the lab, Saina!
Jean Herelle @ Solana Builder’s Mansion (Superteam France)
Last week, our CEO Jean Herelle joined the Solana Builder’s Mansion hosted by Superteam France. An immersive experience for the most ambitious builders shaping the future of Solana.
In just 2 minutes, Jean breaks down the why behind Crunch, its mission to decentralize predictive intelligence, and what it means to bring Crunch to Solana.
Crunch at Permissionless: Jean Herelle on the Main Stage
We’re going big.
CrunchDAO CEO Jean Herelle will be speaking on the Main Stage at Permissionless this June 24th alongside leaders from Blockworks Research, Render Network, IoTeX, and Archetype.
Panel: “The DeFi x AI Confluence”
Main Stage, Permissionless
June 24th
Expect insights on decentralized AI, predictive models, and what’s coming next.
Attending Permissionless? Come say hi. DM us if you’re there. We’d love to meet fellow Crunchers IRL.
Solana Brunch Sessions @ Permissionless
Join CrunchDAO and our friends from Sushi, Halborn, STXN, Axelar, Offline, The Bless Network, and OnChainDen for a casual yet powerful side event at Permissionless.
We’re bringing builders, researchers, and curious minds together over food, not FUD.
June 25
10:00 AM – 1:00 PM
Solana Brunch Sessions @ Permissionless
RSVP here
Spots are limited. Bring your appetite.
Meme of the Week
How it feels getting my setup ready for the next Crunch…
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That’s it for this week.
If you’re working on a Crunch, hit us up with your questions. If you’re lurking—time to deploy.
We’re building with you,
— The CrunchDAO Team