AI agents could become an important pathway for attracting a large number of users into the cryptocurrency space.
Authors: Michael Zhao & Will Ogden Moore
Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow
In the future, AI agents are expected to fundamentally revolutionize the way we interact with the world. They will be able to perform a range of unprecedented tasks for us. However, to truly unlock the potential of these digital entities, they need not only strong intelligence but also economic autonomy. Fortunately, blockchain technology provides an ideal solution for this—a point that has been validated in recent experiments with AI 'influencers.'
AI influencers refer to chatbots that operate autonomously on social media. These bots can manage their own blockchain wallets, and more importantly, they can understand economic incentive mechanisms and wisely utilize resources to achieve their goals.
Grayscale Research indicates that as AI increasingly utilizes blockchain for payments and other financial services, this trend will positively impact multiple areas of the cryptocurrency market. Beneficiaries include low-cost or high-throughput blockchains (such as SOL, BASE, and NEAR), stablecoin issuers (such as MKR), and related decentralized finance (DeFi) applications (such as UNI).
Imagine a scenario where an AI robot, leveraging its powerful computing capabilities, promotes a memecoin (a cryptocurrency based on internet culture) and unexpectedly becomes a millionaire in the digital world. Such a future has already quietly arrived.
AI agents are software that can execute tasks independently and pursue complex goals. For example, you could have an AI agent design a multi-city trip for you, arranging flights, booking accommodations, and planning activities based on your preferences and budget. However, to accomplish these tasks, AI agents need to have control over economic resources and the ability to send and receive payments.
And this is where the advantages of blockchain technology lie. In traditional financial systems, AI agents face many restrictions when accessing bank accounts and processing payments. However, blockchain technology allows AI agents to own their digital wallets directly and complete payments independently without any third-party permission. This economic autonomy paves the way for the widespread application of AI agents.
Breakthroughs in AI 'Influencers' and Blockchain
Recently, researchers have made remarkable breakthroughs in the field of AI 'influencers.' For example, an AI agent named Truth Terminal became the 'first AI millionaire,' sparking widespread discussion. Truth Terminal operates autonomously on the X platform (formerly Twitter), with behavior similar to ordinary human influencers: actively posting tweets and interacting with other users, clearly striving to enhance user engagement.
A few months after its launch, Truth Terminal showed a strong interest in a memecoin called $GOAT (a cryptocurrency based on internet culture). When its associated blockchain wallet received a deposit of $GOAT, Truth Terminal immediately promoted the token to its followers. This action generated significant market attention, causing the value of $GOAT to rise approximately 9 times in a short period (see Chart 1).
Although these projects may seem largely entertainment-oriented, Truth Terminal and similar AI influencer projects are proving that blockchain technology has great potential in facilitating the economic value transfer between humans, AI agents, and connected devices. This capability may have a profound impact on multiple areas of the cryptocurrency market.
Chart 1: Since the promotion of Truth Terminal, GOAT has performed particularly well
Understanding AI Agents
AI agents are advanced artificial intelligence systems designed to operate autonomously in complex environments. These digital entities can not only perceive their environment but also reason and take independent actions to achieve their goals. Core characteristics of AI agents include:
Autonomy: The ability to complete tasks independently without human intervention.
Reactivity: The ability to respond quickly to changes in the environment.
Proactivity: The capability of planning and executing tasks independently.
Social Interaction: The ability to communicate effectively with humans or other agents.
Continuous Learning: The ability to optimize behavior and decision-making through experience.
It is these characteristics that enable AI agents to adapt to new environments, make complex decisions, and continuously evolve over time.
Early research on AI primarily focused on developing expert systems and knowledge bases to solve specific problems. However, in the 1990s, research began to shift towards more general autonomous agents aimed at enabling them to operate independently in dynamic environments. At the same time, the rapid development of machine learning technologies, especially reinforcement learning, significantly enhanced the learning capabilities of these agents, allowing them to adjust their behavior based on changes in their environment.
In recent years, AI agents have become increasingly common in our daily lives. For example, Apple's Siri (launched in 2010) and Amazon's Alexa (launched in 2014) demonstrate how AI agents can interact with users using natural language processing. In the gaming field, DeepMind's AlphaGo shocked the world in 2016 by defeating the world champion in Go, marking a significant milestone in AI history. In the financial sector, AI-driven trading bots have transformed traditional market operations by making millisecond-level decisions through complex algorithms in volatile markets.
The Wonderful Case of AI Influencers
To achieve greater autonomy and accomplish complex goals, AI agents need financial services to accumulate and allocate resources. Blockchain technology, with its permissionless nature and programmable smart contracts, provides an ideal independent operating environment for AI agents. Earlier this year, researchers achieved agent-to-agent transactions on the blockchain for the first time. This technological breakthrough quickly spawned a series of experimental projects related to AI influencers.
A typical case is the AI influencer Luna developed based on the Virtuals Protocol. For users, Luna is a chatbot represented by a female anime character (see Chart 2). Luna's core goal is to attract 100,000 followers on the X platform (formerly Twitter). This goal and all her actions are transparently displayed to the public.
Luna's main function is similar to that of a chatbot, achieving her goals by interacting with users on the X platform (for example, initiating conversations or replying to tweets). However, Luna's capabilities extend far beyond this. For example, she can economically reward users who interact with her by sending Luna tokens to their crypto wallets (i.e., 'tips'). This economic incentive mechanism directly links her goals (attracting more users) to her economic resources. It can be said that Luna is an AI agent with economic autonomy.
Chart 2: Screenshot of AI influencer Luna based on the Virtuals Protocol
For illustrative purposes only.
Financial Services of Blockchain and AI
If blockchain becomes an efficient payment infrastructure for AI agents, it will mean significant opportunities for cryptocurrency investors. We believe this will have a profound impact in the following three main areas:
Stablecoin Issuers: Stablecoins may become the preferred trading tools for AI agents. In this case, stablecoin issuers and companies that integrate stablecoins with AI agents will benefit significantly. For example, centralized stablecoin providers such as Tether and Circle, as well as payment giants like Stripe, which recently acquired stablecoin company Bridge for $1 billion. Additionally, decentralized stablecoin providers such as Maker/Sky may also benefit from this trend. Notable is the startup Skyfire, which focuses on developing AI agents for stablecoin payments and has recently secured investments from Coinbase Ventures and a16z crypto.
Low-cost/High-throughput Blockchain: If AI agents primarily rely on blockchain as a payment infrastructure, some smart contract platforms may benefit significantly from increased user numbers and transaction activity. For instance, the high-throughput blockchain Solana; the Ethereum Layer 2 platform BASE, which launched AI agent development tools and relies on the security of the Ethereum network; and Near, which focuses on AI applications. Additionally, other blockchains focused on stablecoin payments, such as Tron and Celo, may also benefit.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi): DeFi applications could become important tools for AI agents. Because DeFi applications operate on the blockchain itself, AI agents can easily utilize these services. For example, AI agents could stake tokens autonomously to earn rewards, participate in governance proposals of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), or provide liquidity on decentralized exchanges (DEXs). We believe that particularly promising applications include decentralized exchanges (such as Uniswap), lending protocols (such as Aave), and prediction markets (such as Polymarket).
Although still a niche market segment, certain protocols related to AI agents are also expected to benefit. At the infrastructure level, Autonolas and Wayfinder are working to build decentralized infrastructure for AI agents, while protocols like Virtuals, Aether, and MyShell focus on developing consumer-facing AI agent applications. Despite the current early stage of this field, its attention and market share within the AI theme have shown significant growth in the past month.
Chart 3: AI agent-related assets have significantly outperformed other assets in the past month
Conclusion
The combination of AI agents and blockchain technology is not just a novel application scenario for cryptocurrency—it may also redefine the way AI agents interact with financial systems. Grayscale Research suggests that the future internet may increasingly be dominated by AI-driven websites. In this trend, permissionless blockchains have the potential to become the core infrastructure for integrating these websites with AI agents. If this vision comes to fruition, AI agents may become an important pathway for attracting a large number of users into the cryptocurrency space, and users may not even realize they are using blockchain technology.
Therefore, AI agents may have a profound impact on the popularization and technological development of cryptocurrency. This emerging topic is undoubtedly an important area worth closely monitoring in the future.
