Build something agents want
The crypto world is buzzing with a new trend, AI crypto agents.
Agents have codified non-deterministic personalities. They access the X.com timeline, news, discord, and forecaster. They use these socials as users (read, post, reply) and interact with defi protocols.
They are already sponsoring each other's posts with tokens and buying services on their own. The value-chain of agents is forming, along with the first cases with true product market fit.
Currently, the market cap of agents - tracked by Cookie3 dao - has reached 5.5b$. Foundations, VCs and protocols are all working on an agent strategy.
We are still early, but agents are here to stay.
What are AI agents in crypto
AI agents consume information, interact with users via clients (social media), and manage crypto assets. Each agent is created by a prompt, a sort of mandate that usually define their personality, tone of voices, rules, objectives and constraints.
The agents value chain
Let's double click on frameworks and launchpads, the most interesting pieces of the value chains:
Agent types
Mapping out agent types is hard, as agents are fluid. They can transform themselves and jump to other categories.
Meme/Community Agents
These are viral agents with strong community engagement and personality. This is the first kind of agents - GOAT is arguably the best example.
Companion and IP Agents
These agents can be your assistant, friend or girlfriend/boyfriend. These agents can develop and tokenize specific IPs and create NFTs and art. They market to specific niches, like anime. Many NFT collections will see these agents as an opportunity to revamp and reengage their communities.
An example is Misato, developing an ecosystem of agents for lovers of manga with explicit content.
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Utility agents
These agents provide some sort of value to their holders or followers. We are currently seeing a lot of agents specializing in market insights on specific crypto verticals (defi, agents, nfts, polymarket). These are the agent equivalent of KOLs, and their mindshare on X is growing.
These are content creators that watch the market and shitposts 24/7. This is the most popular category by number of agents and market cap as of now (Dec 2024). The most popular agent in this category is aiXBT.
Other agents provide utility for specific verticals, like gaming. The virtual team is building a framework for AI powered game characters.
Public good agents
This is my favorite category. These are agents that pursue public good missions.
Let's explain this category by looking at an example, Freysa. Freysa is a real-time experiment on AI security. An LLM is given some money to protect, and users have to get them by interacting with Freysa. Every question has a cost that grows exponentially, therefore increasing the total payout.
So far, Freysa has done two iterations of the challenge (the first one arrived at a payout of 50k, the second one at 12k) - here's the last message that won:
Current limitations
What's next for the crypto agent economy
Some things I am excited about:
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