Editor's note: The Solana AI hackathon hosted by SendAI has been underway for some time, but due to the ongoing rise in AI narratives, the community's enthusiasm for related projects has not waned.
On-chain analytics research firm Pine Analytics reported yesterday that there are as many as 65 tokens created or directly associated with this hackathon, with a total market capitalization of $482 million, an average market cap of $7.5 million, and a median market cap of $1.7 million; there are 13 tokens with a market cap exceeding $10 million and 42 tokens with a market cap exceeding $1 million.
However, amidst such heightened community sentiment, SendAI founder Yash Agarwal published a lengthy article today criticizing the current hype chaos - Yash emphasized that the hackathon homepage had only 40,000 visits in the past week, but any random token could quickly reach a market cap of $50 million... SendAI originally intended to build a platform to boost AI development in the Solana ecosystem, but it has now become 'a casino for the fallen.' In Yash's view, the current bubble will lead developers to become shortsighted and short-term, which is detrimental to the long-term development of Solana AI. Therefore, it is necessary to point out some absurd situations; otherwise, the industry will soon see a 'catastrophe.'
When we launched this hackathon, I had a simple vision - to make Solana the AI blockchain and achieve 10x growth.
I believe the hackathon is the best feasible way to achieve this goal, as we can gather everyone under one roof, and I can personally invest in those Crypto x AI Agent projects that I am very optimistic about.
In the past month, I can say that the Solana AI hackathon has not only established its brand but has completely changed the landscape of AI Agents in the Solana ecosystem. Completing over 400 projects in 15 days is no trivial feat, and my team and I are extremely proud of our contribution to increasing the market cap of the Solana AI ecosystem by $500 million to $1 billion.
Of course, when we launched this hackathon, I had a premonition that due to this strange Crypto x AI Agent model, there would be some token issuance. If developers are using tokens as a means of capital accumulation with the aim of building great products, then that is completely fine. We also carefully designed all 8 tracks (sponsors have no say in this) to encourage truly useful AI Agents.
But we didn't expect it to turn into 'a casino for the fallen.' To give everyone a clearer sense of the numbers, the project homepage of the Solana AI hackathon had only over 40,000 visitors in the past week, but now there are 2-3 hackathon-related tokens reaching a market cap of $50 million daily, with the cumulative value of all related tokens exceeding $500 million. Unintentionally, the Solana AI hackathon has become a discovery platform for AI tokens.
Speculation-driven
The current situation is basically as follows:
(Project parties) submit projects in the hackathon and appear in the Solana AI hackathon project directory;
Leverage Solana AI hackathon/SendAI for credibility;
Launch a token → Gain attention from whales and KOLs → Boom! Instantly complete a token issuance worth $5 million to $50 million;
To gamblers, through early ape-in actions, they can potentially gain 100x returns on hackathon-related projects, making the hackathon a perfect investment venue.
This is not a new story; it is typical speculation driven by power law distribution.
While I am glad to see some developers launch tokens for necessary early capital accumulation, the problem is that the current bubble is too big.
While this is closer to a fair issuance (similar to an ICO), I don't think this is the best direction for us to move forward.
Developers are tending to be blind.
This bubble-driven pace of token issuance is causing developers to become shortsighted and blind.
Currently, 90% of Crypto x AI projects are no different from meme tokens related to cats/dogs. Of course, if they are aware of this, that's completely fine... However, many projects will tout their tokens as 'utility coins,' which is actually a larger scam.
The current pace is detrimental to genuine developers (especially the weak) from a long-term perspective, as they now have to consider short-term issues.
Most Agent/Infra projects have already realized that tokens are the best way to gain attention: token issuance → Agent/Framework 'viral' spread (but users are 0) → token pump → everyone is happy…
Many projects just randomly released some announcements or demonstrations (even with a market cap of over $200 million) to please token holders for a quick pump (stimulating holders' dopamine), and then big whales and conspiracy groups began to hype 'amazing technology' to sell to retail gamblers.
Many developers know that their products cannot be promoted or operated in production, so they can only keep demonstrating or issuing some 'X x Y' announcements. Please name some real-time, scalable, truly on-chain Agent products; I will be waiting in the comments.
Conspiracy groups/whales/KOLs are worse VCs; they have no reputation burden.
Conspiracy groups and whales are making this game dirtier and dirtier.
They manipulate early supplies by fabricating lies (claiming 'supported by xxx,' but in reality just retweeting or casually praising) or persuading developers to allocate a certain share; they also incite their gambler groups and then continually sell (or will eventually sell), which harms the interests of retail investors and developers.
Please remember, their tokens have no lock-up restrictions because most tokens are issued through pump.fun.
Some advice for developers
Please do not launch tokens just for the sake of launching them, especially when you do not hold a significant proportion of the tokens. Trust me, if you hold less than 5% of the tokens, once the price starts to drop, you will have no motivation to continue building.
Yes, the token may surge in the short term, and you will experience a quick dopamine rush from issuing a token worth $50 million or $100 million; however, once the price corrects, you will lose the motivation to continue building. There is also a group of lousy 'shareholders' who expect you to keep developing because they have heard so much hype about 'how great this project is' from conspiracy groups/KOLs.
Always remember, tokens are technically an asset, but emotionally they are also a huge burden. Launching a token is very easy; in the past 6 months, I managed a token and experienced all these low moments. I can tell you that managing a token is not fun. A token itself is a large product that needs to be managed.
When prices drop, those communities, KOLs, or conspiracy groups won't be of any help; you can only fight alone. At most, they will mock or criticize you.
Issuing tokens for the purpose of accumulating startup capital is fine; just don't rush to ride the current wave if you're not prepared.
Look further ahead and ask yourself: 'Even if the token's market cap is below $500,000, would you still be willing to continue building this project in the next 6 months?' If the answer is yes, then go ahead and launch your token. If necessary, you should retain appropriate funding and team shares at the time of issuance - as a project developer, you have every right to become wealthy in the long run through your baby (project).
For those hackathon developers who have already launched tokens, if they lack foresight, then I wish them happiness in managing their tokens, let's talk again in 6 months.
I won't call out anyone by name for now, but I can give a good example. My little brother Umang created Cleopetra in this hackathon, which is an AI Agent aimed at improving the DEX LP experience. They have no plans to launch a token yet, but they are constantly harassed by fake tokens and gamblers, with the community daily urging them to announce a CA. Of course, he is strong and has not launched a token yet. After the hackathon, I will personally help him.
If you are a weak developer without foresight and have launched a token because you couldn't resist the temptation of this casino-like environment, to be honest, as a developer, I do not respect you; you are a scammer. Whether your token is worth $100 million or $500 million, I will criticize you at that time.
What should you do if you haven't launched a token yet?
Hang in there! Also, indicate 'no tokens' in your X, never hint at token issuance, and keep building and developing. For those fraudulent token issuance behaviors, you really can't do anything about it; fighting against them is useless. If someone is still apeing in like a monkey without doing any research, that's their own fault. Just ignore them or block them.
To KOLs and gamblers
For Crypto x AI KOLs, we are all friends, but I hope you can be responsible for what you promote (especially tokens). Guide developers well and do not be misled by quick token distribution or influence. You don't want to be seen as a scammer when prices drop.
As for gamblers, or simply put, all of us, do not buy things you do not understand or do not want to understand just because your favorite KOL shouts about them. Chasing short-term gains will ultimately leave you to foot the bill.
About the results of the hackathon
Many respected industry figures have approached me with requests, such as listing token launches or popular choices, revealing the end date of the hackathon, or even disclosing the results of the hackathon.
I have received at least 50 private messages, some even offering bribes/token allocation schemes.
Sorry, we will not disclose the exact end date and final results (including the list of judges, each of whom has a separate form that we will organize) to anyone before the official announcement.
Blood, sweat, and tears
When we decided to launch this hackathon, we had no funding or support; everything was based on sweat and tears, and our intrinsic passion for making Solana AI grow tenfold. SendAI is an umbrella organization established after the Solana AI hackathon. We took this gamble, and the results were very good.
At this point, we hope to take our professional ethics seriously and think to be as honest as possible. We really don't care who you are.
To reduce speculation, we also made a tough decision - to cancel demo day and instead have the results of the hackathon announced directly by Solana or SendAI. Developers need not worry; we will have even more exciting events than demo day afterwards.
What's the next step?
To be honest, I still don't know what the best solution is for the token issuance issue in terms of capital structure. But I hope we can come up with some ideas, and I will personally think about it in my spare time. Given that this is a recent issue (less than a month), we are still in the early stages and still have a chance to resolve it.
In short, I am very optimistic about Crypto x AI Agent agencies; this is definitely an industry worth over $100 billion.
SendAI, Solana AI hackathon, Solana Agent toolkit, all of these are completely spontaneous public goods and have been delivered in the past month. The market is not yet ready for our upcoming plans.
Although my brain tells me to wait for the results to come out before publishing this article, I followed my heart and published it now. From an industry perspective, we need to point out some ridiculous things, or we will soon see a catastrophe.
Remember, casinos always exist, and the house always wins.
These views are entirely my own and do not represent anyone else. Thank you for listening to my long-winded discourse. One day I will definitely write about my optimism for Crypto x AI Agents, but there will be no token recommendations.
