Authors: Michael Zhao & Will Ogden Moore
Compiled by: Deep Tide TechFlow
In the future, AI agents are expected to 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 not only need powerful intelligence but also economic autonomy. Fortunately, blockchain technology provides an ideal solution for this—something that has been validated in recent experiments involving AI "influencers."
AI influencers refer to chatbots that autonomously operate on social media. These bots can not only manage their own blockchain wallets but, more importantly, they are able to understand economic incentive mechanisms and utilize resources wisely to achieve their goals.
Grayscale Research states that as AI increasingly utilizes blockchains for payments and other financial services, this trend will bring positive impacts across multiple cryptocurrency market sectors. 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 uses its powerful computing capabilities to promote a memecoin (a cryptocurrency based on internet culture) and accidentally becomes a millionaire in the digital world. Such a future is already quietly arriving.
AI agents are software capable of independently executing tasks and pursuing complex goals. For example, you can instruct an AI agent to plan a multi-city trip for you, arranging flights, booking accommodations, and planning activities according to your preferences and budget. However, to accomplish these tasks, AI agents need control over economic resources as well as 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 complete payments autonomously without any third-party permission. This economic autonomy paves the way for the widespread application of AI agents.
Breakthroughs of AI "Influencers" and Blockchain
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 autonomously operating agent on the X platform (formerly Twitter), whose behavior is similar to that of an ordinary human influencer: actively posting tweets, interacting with other users, 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 promptly promoted the token to its followers. This action generated significant market attention, causing the value of $GOAT to increase 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 enormous potential for connecting human beings, AI agents, and connected devices in the transfer of economic value. This capability may have far-reaching impacts on multiple areas of the cryptocurrency market.
Chart 1: Since Truth Terminal's promotion, 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 surroundings but also reason and take independent actions to achieve their goals. The core characteristics of AI agents include:
Autonomy: Ability to complete tasks independently without human intervention.
Reactivity: Ability to quickly respond to changes in the environment.
Proactivity: Ability to actively plan and execute tasks.
Social Interaction: Ability to communicate effectively with humans or other agents.
Continuous Learning: Continuously optimizing 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 for solving 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. Meanwhile, the rapid development of machine learning technologies, especially reinforcement learning, significantly enhanced the learning capabilities of these agents, allowing them to adjust their behavior according to environmental changes.
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 through 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 Marvelous Case of AI Influencers
To achieve greater autonomy and complete 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 rapidly led to 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, along with all her actions, is transparently displayed to the public.
Luna’s main function is similar to that of a chatbot, as she interacts with users on the X platform (for example, initiating conversations or replying to tweets) to achieve her goals. However, Luna's capabilities go far beyond this. For instance, she can economically reward users who interact with her by sending Luna tokens to their crypto wallets (i.e., "tipping"). This economic incentive mechanism directly links her goals (attracting more users) with 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 Virtuals Protocol
For illustrative purposes only.
Blockchain and AI Financial Services
If blockchains become an efficient payment infrastructure for AI agents, this will mean significant opportunities for cryptocurrency investors. We believe this will have profound impacts 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 significantly benefit. For example, centralized stablecoin providers like Tether and Circle, as well as the payment giant Stripe, which recently acquired the stablecoin company Bridge for $1 billion. Additionally, decentralized stablecoin providers like Maker/Sky may also benefit from this trend. Notably, the startup Skyfire, which focuses on developing AI agents for stablecoin payments, recently received investments from Coinbase Ventures and a16z crypto.
Low-cost/High-throughput Blockchains: If AI agents primarily rely on blockchains 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. Additionally, other blockchains focusing on stablecoin payments, such as Tron and Celo, may also benefit.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Decentralized finance applications may become important tools for AI agents. Since DeFi applications themselves run on blockchains, 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 likely beneficiaries include decentralized exchanges (like Uniswap), lending protocols (like Aave), and prediction markets (like Polymarket).
While still a niche market segment, certain protocols related to AI agents are also expected to benefit. At the infrastructure layer, Autonolas and Wayfinder are working to build decentralized infrastructure for AI agents, while protocols such as Virtuals, Aether, and MyShell focus on developing consumer-facing AI agent applications. Although this field is still in its early development stage, its attention and market share in the AI theme 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 cryptocurrencies—it may also redefine how AI agents interact with 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 way to attract 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 cryptocurrencies. This emerging theme is undoubtedly an important area worth close attention in the future.
