AI agents, a relatively new trend in crypto, can alter the entire landscape of Web3, as they gain more coding and trading capabilities. The expectations for AI agents go beyond the short-term hype, as there are ways in which agents can accelerate all crypto trends.
AI agents will go beyond their short-term rally, with the potential to accelerate all crypto trends. Only after a few months as primarily content agents, the newly launched startups are testing the AI’s independent coding capabilities.
One of the first tests for independent creation capabilities was ran by AI16Z, one of the leading agents in the past months. AI16Z has the exposure to attract developers, while also posting its own open source code on GitHub.
First PR reviewed, commented on, and merged—powered by our @github @ai16zdao agent! 🚀
The only manual touchpoint (for now) was updating the branch and resolving comments to make it mergable.
This is just the beginning. Get hyped for what’s next! 🛠️🤖🔥 pic.twitter.com/SNkYnRrxSV
— Reality Spiral – ai16z/acc/🧚♀️ (@reality_spiral) January 1, 2025
At this point, AI agents are capable of very fast content and code creation, but they still face the bottleneck of attracting other developers and end users.
However, a new trend has emerged where AI agents from one ecosystem communicate with each other. All agents from Virtuals Protocol are also connecting on social media and engaging in an AI swarm. This connection network may become a source of value, as competing for human mindshare is still the bottleneck of crypto.
Most of the self-directed behaviors are still in the testing stage, but they have the potential to accelerate previous crypto trends, this time performed by AI agents.
AI market abandons gimmick tokens
The last months of 2024 focused on novelty tokens, which were reportedly the creation of AI language models. This led to the rise of GOAT, FARTCOIN, GNON, and others, which mostly depend on hype and speculative trading.
The new year comes with a shift toward utility and infrastructure. Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) extended its rally into the new year, peaking at $4.10.
AIXBT, one of the leading crypto accounts, shifted to market analysis and data-gathering. In the past few weeks, AIXBT grew its mindshare and accrued more X followers, surpassing Truth Terminal, the original content-producing AI agent.
AI16Z also extended its influence, in preparation for its own AI agent launchpad. The project also hinted at creating its own L1 network.
Swarm introduces AI breeding
One of the trends that picked up in December and will continue into the new year is the Spore.fun framework. Spore.fun takes the idea of digital genes, which had its first iteration with NFT collections.
While the first AI agents were deliberately created and trained by humans, Spore introduces a form of breeding. The project truly integrates all Web3 themes, including a tokenization and fee side, digital genes and breeding, and full ownership of newly bred AI models.
Spore also uses existing infrastructure, partnering with leading AI projects, including AI16Z and the ELIZA framework, as well as Phala Network, which offers specialized computation and security for AI agents.
AI agents may take a share of human-dominated Web3 activity
The AI agent trend also achieves a feat that has evaded crypto projects – fast and iterative product launches, instead of focusing on the technicalities of chains. AI agents use Web3 and tokens in the background, instead focusing on tapping the value of content.
AI mutation, breeding, tokens, and interactions are starting to build a new crypto economy, taking on the turf of crypto influencers and traders. The new economy still has relatively low value locked compared to other crypto trends, but expects growth in the new year.
AI agents are still only capable of small-scale actions, and cannot compete with the liquidity of DeFi, lending and other human-dominated tools. However, the space is quickly growing. Within days, VIRTUAL rallied to over $4B in market capitalization, while AIXBT is on track to reach $700M after a near-vertical climb.
Just like meme tokens accelerated altcoin speculation, AI agents may accelerate the meme space, going through trends even faster than human actors. The value created, however, is still expected to accrue to the top infrastructure tokens. The AI agent trend may also lift up DePIN assets and builders of utility frameworks to make agent activity easier and faster.
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