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 execute a range of unprecedented tasks for us. However, to truly unlock the potential of these digital entities, they will require not only strong intelligence but also economic autonomy. Fortunately, blockchain technology provides an ideal solution for this—this has been validated in recent experiments involving AI 'influencers'.
AI influencers are chatbots that autonomously operate on social media. These bots not only manage their own blockchain wallets but, more importantly, they are capable of understanding economic incentive mechanisms and utilizing resources effectively to achieve their goals.
Grayscale Research indicates that as AI increasingly utilizes blockchain for payments and other financial services, this trend will have a positive impact across multiple cryptocurrency market sectors. Beneficiaries include low-cost or high-throughput blockchains (like SOL, BASE, and NEAR), stablecoin issuers (like MKR), and related decentralized finance (DeFi) applications (like UNI).
Imagine a scenario where an AI robot, leveraging its powerful computing capabilities, promotes a memecoin (a cryptocurrency based on internet culture) and inadvertently becomes a millionaire in the digital world. Such a future is already quietly arriving.
AI agents are software capable of executing tasks independently and pursuing complex goals. For example, you can 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, the AI agent needs control over economic resources and the ability to send and receive payments.
This is precisely where the advantages of blockchain technology lie. In traditional financial systems, AI agents face numerous restrictions when accessing bank accounts and processing payments. However, blockchain technology allows AI agents to directly own their digital wallets and autonomously complete payments without any third-party permission. This economic autonomy paves the way for the widespread application of AI agents.
AI 'Influencer' and Blockchain's Breakthrough Progress
Recently, researchers achieved 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 is an autonomous agent operating on the X platform (formerly Twitter), whose behavior mirrors that of ordinary human influencers: proactively posting tweets, interacting with other users, and clearly striving to enhance user engagement.
A few months after its launch, Truth Terminal showed 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 entertaining, Truth Terminal and similar AI influencer projects are proving that blockchain technology has immense potential in connecting humans, AI agents, and IoT devices in the transmission of economic value. This capability may have profound implications across multiple areas of the cryptocurrency market.
Chart 1: Since Truth Terminal's promotion, GOAT has performed exceptionally 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 surroundings but also reason and take independent actions to achieve their goals. The 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 ability to actively plan and execute tasks.
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 evolve over time.
Early research in AI primarily focused on developing expert systems and knowledge bases to solve specific problems. However, in the 1990s, research shifted towards more general autonomous agents designed to operate independently in dynamic environments. Simultaneously, the rapid advancement of machine learning technologies, particularly reinforcement learning, significantly enhanced the learning capabilities of these agents, enabling them to adjust their behavior based on changes in the environment.
In recent years, AI agents have become increasingly common in our daily lives. For instance, 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 finance, AI-driven trading bots have utilized complex algorithms to make decisions in volatile markets in milliseconds, fundamentally changing traditional market operations.
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 first achieved agent-to-agent transactions on the blockchain. 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 presented as 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 primary function resembles that of a chatbot; she achieves 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 instance, she can economically reward users who interact with her by sending them Luna tokens from their crypto wallets (i.e., 'tips'). This economic incentive mechanism directly links her goal (attracting more users) with her economic resources. Luna can be considered an AI agent with economic autonomy.
Chart 2: A screenshot of AI influencer Luna based on Virtuals Protocol
For illustrative purposes only.
Blockchain and Financial Services for AI
If blockchain becomes an efficient payment infrastructure for AI agents, this will signify important opportunities for cryptocurrency investors. We believe this will have profound effects in the following three main areas:
Stablecoin Issuers: Stablecoins may become the preferred trading tool for AI agents. In this case, stablecoin issuers and companies integrating stablecoins with AI agents will benefit significantly. For example, centralized stablecoin providers like Tether and Circle, as well as payment giant Stripe, which recently acquired stablecoin company Bridge for $1 billion. Additionally, decentralized stablecoin providers like Maker/Sky may also benefit from this trend. Startups like Skyfire, which focus on developing AI agents for stablecoin payments, have recently received investments from Coinbase Ventures and a16z crypto.
Low-Cost/High-Throughput Blockchains: If AI agents primarily rely on blockchain as payment infrastructure, some smart contract platforms may benefit significantly from increased user numbers and transaction activity. For example, high-throughput blockchain Solana; Ethereum Layer 2 platform BASE, which has launched AI agent development tools and relies on Ethereum network security; and Near, which focuses on AI applications. Furthermore, other blockchains focusing on stablecoin payments, like Tron and Celo, may also benefit.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Decentralized finance applications may become important tools for AI agents. Since DeFi applications run on the blockchain, AI agents can easily use these services. For example, AI agents can autonomously stake tokens to earn rewards, participate in governance proposals of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), or provide liquidity on decentralized exchanges (DEXs). We believe that particularly beneficial applications include decentralized exchanges (like Uniswap), lending protocols (like Aave), and prediction markets (like Polymarket).
While it remains 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-oriented AI agent applications. Although this field is still in its early development stage, its attention and market share related to AI themes have shown significant growth over the past month.
Chart 3: AI agent-related assets have significantly outperformed other assets over 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 interaction between AI agents and the financial system. 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 is realized, AI agents may become an important pathway for attracting large numbers of users into the cryptocurrency space, even without the users realizing they are using blockchain technology.
Thus, AI agents may have profound implications for the popularization and technological development of cryptocurrency. This emerging theme is undoubtedly an important area to closely monitor in the future.
