This edition of the newsletter dives into AI Agents and the current landscape which gained prominence in crypto following $GOAT's success, spawning an ecosystem of AI-powered projects across Solana and Base. The sector's future success will depend on developing meaningful use cases beyond simple interactions, with projects focusing on technical infrastructure and specialized applications rather than just "AI personalities." We'll also share some interesting articles, portfolio updates and market highlights.
1. Research Articles
a) Why Crypto Matters: Control, Liberation, Expansion
• Blockchain should be viewed not just as a disruptive technology but as an institutional innovation that reduces transaction costs and enables new forms of economic coordination, similar to how Visa revolutionized payments.
• The article reframes blockchain through economist Ronald Coase's institutional lens rather than Schumpeter's creative destruction theory, suggesting that blockchain's true value lies in its ability to control, liberate, and expand economic activities through decentralized trust mechanisms rather than just creating new products.
b) What is Uniswap V4: Customizable Hooks & Superior Efficiency
• Uniswap V4 introduces a revolutionary new architecture with a singleton pool design and customizable hooks system, allowing developers to add custom logic at different stages of transactions while reducing gas costs by up to 99% for pool creation.
• The update also brings features like flash accounting, unlimited fee tiers, native ETH support, and improved liquidity fee accounting, with the protocol operating under a Business Source License 1.1 that will transition to GPL after four years.
c) Sustainable Growth on Berachain: Breaking Free from the Incentive Trap
• Berachain introduces a novel Proof of Liquidity (PoL) consensus mechanism that aims to solve the crypto industry's problem of unsustainable growth incentives by rewarding users for active ecosystem participation rather than just staking.
• Unlike traditional blockchain incentives that often lead to short-term user engagement, PoL allocates network emissions to reward various dApp activities and user behaviors, fostering long-term community engagement and sustainable growth similar to how successful businesses build customer loyalty beyond initial promotions.
2. Portfolio Highlights
a) Iota
• IOTA Foundation has announced the first batch of eight prominent validators - including Twinstake, DLT.GREEN, Luganodes, Nansen, Ankr, Blockscope, and Staketab - who have joined their Rebased test network launched on November 18th.
• These validators bring significant experience and infrastructure to the network, collectively managing billions in staked assets across multiple blockchain networks, with most maintaining 99.9%+ uptime and offering institutional-grade staking services..
b) Sonic
• Sonic Labs has announced a partnership with Backed, Chainlink, and Fortlake Asset Management to tokenize Fortlake's Sigma Opportunities Fund, marking their entry into real-world asset tokenization.
• The fund, which has returned 10% in the past year through fixed-income investments, will be tokenized with 1:1 collateralization using Backed's Tokenization-as-a-Service platform, while Chainlink will provide price data and cross-chain functionality.
c) Safe
• Safe, a leading smart account ecosystem with $69 billion in total value secured across 11 million accounts, has announced Safenet, a revolutionary transaction processor network designed to launch in 2025 that aims to move the $100 trillion global economy onchain.
• Inspired by VisaNet, Safenet will operate as a network of processors that separate transaction execution from settlement, promising sub-500ms transaction speeds even across chains, while utilizing SAFE tokens for processor and validator staking to ensure network security and decentralization.
3. AI Agent Landscape
Introduction
AI agents are intelligent, autonomous virtual assistants designed to relieve us of tasks that would otherwise require human effort. Whether it's finding relevant information, organizing schedules, or automating repetitive tasks, AI agents are able to handle complex operations efficiently. Additionally, AI agents operate around the clock. This blend of efficiency and accessibility makes them indispensable in modern workflows.
At the core of every AI agent is its foundational AI model. These agents can be developed using either open-source models or proprietary algorithms, with the latter offering greater flexibility and potential technical advantages through customization. While AI agents operate autonomously, they are not "sentient"; they can analyze data and execute algorithms but lack the ability to make judgments like humans. To function effectively, AI agents rely on a robust data feed and a well-structured data management system.
What got everyone excited?
AI agents, while perceived as novel in crpto, have long been established in traditional Web2 world. A sophisticated ecosystem supports their implementation, encompassing specialized frameworks, hosting infrastructures, memory management systems, monitoring tools, and AI model deployment solutions from industry leaders like OpenAI and Anthropic. This robust technological foundation enables AI agents to execute complex tasks, process data, and achieve seamless system integration, demonstrating that AI agent technology is not a recent innovation but rather a mature cornerstone of Web2 infrastructure.
Crypto's swift adoption of AI agents gained momentum following the emergence of $GOAT. The project drew inspiration from the "Goatse Gospel," a theoretical framework developed through autonomous interactions between two instances of Anthropic's Claude Opus AI model, orchestrated by Andy Ayrey. Ayrey subsequently created Truth Terminal, an AI agent that disseminated the Goatse Gospel across Crypto Twitter (CT). The project attracted venture capitalist Marc Andreessen's attention, resulting in a $50,000 grant for continued development. These developments culminated in the launch of the $GOAT token on Solana's pump.fun platform, actively promoted by Truth Terminal. The token's market capitalization experienced rapid growth, reaching a peak of $1.36 billion, catalyzing widespread interest in AI agents within crypto.
On-chain AI Agent Outlook
1. Solana
a) Leader: $GOAT is the official token endorsed by the Terminal of Truths, the AI agent that kicked off this narrative
b) Meme: $FARTCOIN is the official memecoin endorsed by the Terminal of Truths
c) Infrastructure/ Launchpads
• $ACT created the infrastructure for AI agents and humans to interact, which was a big catalyst for the narrative as a whole.
• Pump.fun-esque launchpads have emerged as well, with $vvaifu leading the pack currently.
d) AI agents with a niche - e.g. Music, Trading: Some AI agents have found a niche in music production and trading. $Zerebro and $LOLA are some examples of the agents in these categories respectively.
e) DeSci: AI agents such as $CHAOS and $WORM belong to protocols in the intersection of DeSci and AI.
f) ai16z Ecosystem: $ai16z is an AI led hedge fund, made possible by daos.fun. More importantly, ai16z is behind Eliza, an open-sourced AI agent framework which has seen widespread adoption as of late.
g) others
Some of the more popular AI agents are those that take on the role of AI Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) who are perceived as “funny”. One example of such an AI agent is $BULLY.
Other projects such as $Project89 and $UBC look into technological extensions such as the implementation of AI swarms.
2. Base
Base is home to several AI agent ecosystems, each featuring their own AI agentic infrastructure. Virtuals led the AI agentic adoption on Base, with its AI agent $LUNA taking the chain by storm. Since then, competitors such as $CLANKER on Farcaster, Spectral, Creator Bid and Agents.fun have emerged.
With saturation in the sector expected to continue, it is important for projects to build a competitive moat. For instance, Spectral focuses on being a launchpad for AI agents who can be trained to trade perps on Hyperliquid, which is an interesting niche.
3. Ethereum
While most of the AI agentic action seems to be happening on Solana and Base, there are still some interesting projects on Ethereum. Most notably, $EMP is an AI agent launchpad where users are able to create AI agents natively on X.
What's Next?
For Web2 AI developers who have onboarded to the crypto scene, they most likely saw the potential of tokens as novel fundraising and ownership mechanisms. Tokens enable them to fundraise in a decentralised manner as well as foster shared ownership and alignment between creators and users.
Grants like Marc Andreessen’s support for $GOAT and more recently, $ACT’s US$1,000,000 Innovation Hub have catalysed the development of AI agents on-chain. Additionally, initiatives such as ai16z’s AI Agent Dev School, spearheaded by Shaw, aim to equip developers with the tools and knowledge to build AI agents tailored for the Web3 environment.
From the viewpoint of traders and investors, the AI agent space is emerging as a promising sector for capital gains. While speculation remains a driving force, the market has started to identify leading projects which have demonstrated staying power and innovation.
As the ecosystem evolves, projects will need to prioritise clear, value-driven use cases and establish sustainable competitive advantages to secure long-term growth. The era of generic "reply guy" or "sentient KOL" style AI agents is likely coming to an end. Instead, the next wave of AI agentic innovations will focus on building impactful technical infrastructure, such as AI swarms and advanced development toolkits, that deliver tangible value to the ecosystem.
Conclusion
Whether you’re an enthusiast or a skeptic, one thing is clear: AI agents are not a passing trend—they’re here to stay. As the sector continues to evolve, the spotlight will increasingly turn toward transparency and verifiability. Ensuring that the decision-making processes are genuinely AI-driven, rather than being run by humans, will become critical for maintaining trust and legitimacy. Moreover, with Web2 developers and firms recognising the potential of tokenisation, the on-chain AI agent ecosystem is poised for further expansion.
Written by 0xSamoyed.
This article has been prepared for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other sort of advice.
