Original author: Michael Zhao Will Ogden Moore
Original translation: 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 tasks for us that have never been possible before. However, to truly unleash 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 - as demonstrated in a recent experiment with AI influencers.
The so-called AI influencers are chatbots that run autonomously on social media. These robots can not only manage their own blockchain wallets, but more importantly, they can understand economic incentives and use resources rationally to achieve their goals.
Grayscale Research said that as AI increasingly uses blockchain for payments and other financial services, this trend will have a positive impact on multiple crypto 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 power to promote a memecoin (a cryptocurrency based on Internet culture) and accidentally becomes a digital millionaire. This future has already arrived.
An AI agent is a piece of software that can independently perform tasks and pursue complex goals. For example, you can have an AI agent design a multi-city trip for you, and it will schedule flights, book accommodation, and plan activities based on your preferences and budget. However, to accomplish these tasks, the AI agent needs to have control over economic resources and the ability to send and receive payments.
This is where blockchain technology comes in handy. In the traditional financial system, AI agents face many restrictions when accessing bank accounts and processing payments. However, blockchain technology allows AI agents to directly own their own digital wallets and complete payments autonomously without any third-party permission. This economic autonomy paves the way for the widespread application of AI agents.
AI influencers and blockchain breakthroughs
Recently, researchers have made remarkable breakthroughs in the field of AI influencers. For example, an AI agent named Truth Terminal has become the first AI millionaire, which has sparked widespread discussion. Truth Terminal is an agent that runs autonomously on the X platform (formerly Twitter), and its behavior is similar to that of ordinary human influencers: it actively posts tweets and interacts with other users, apparently trying to increase user engagement.
A few months after its launch, Truth Terminal showed great interest in a memecoin (a cryptocurrency based on internet culture) called $GOAT. When its associated blockchain wallet received a $GOAT deposit, Truth Terminal immediately promoted the token to its followers. This move attracted great attention from the market, causing the value of $GOAT to rise by about 9 times in a short period of time (see Figure 1).
Although these projects may seem to be more entertainment-oriented, Truth Terminal and similar AI influencer projects are proving that blockchain technology has great potential in connecting humans, AI agents, and the transfer of economic value between connected devices. This capability may have a profound impact on many areas of the cryptocurrency market.
Chart 1: GOAT has performed particularly well since the Truth Terminal promotion
Understanding AI Agents
AI agents are advanced artificial intelligence systems designed to operate autonomously in complex environments. These digital entities are not only able to perceive their environment, but also reason and take independent actions to achieve their goals. The core features of AI agents include:
Autonomy: Ability to complete tasks independently without human intervention.
Responsiveness: Ability to respond quickly to changes in the environment.
Initiative: Ability to proactively plan and execute tasks.
Social interaction: Ability to communicate effectively with humans or other agents.
Continuous learning: Continuously improve your behavior and decision-making through experience.
It is these properties that enable AI agents to adapt to new environments, make complex decisions, and evolve over time.
Early research in AI focused on developing expert systems and knowledge bases to solve specific problems. However, in the 1990s, research began to shift toward more general autonomous agents that could operate independently in dynamic environments. At the same time, the rapid development of machine learning techniques, especially reinforcement learning, has greatly improved the learning ability of these agents, enabling them to adjust their behavior according to environmental changes.
In recent years, AI agents have become increasingly common in our daily lives. For example, Apples Siri (launched in 2010) and Amazons Alexa (launched in 2014) demonstrate how AI agents can leverage natural language processing to interact with users. In the gaming sector, DeepMinds AlphaGo shocked the world in 2016 by defeating the world champion of Go, marking an important milestone in the history of AI. In the financial sector, AI-driven trading robots use complex algorithms to achieve millisecond-level decision-making in volatile markets, completely changing the traditional way markets operate.
The amazing case of AI influencers
In order to achieve higher 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 realized 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 example is Luna, an AI influencer developed based on Virtuals Protocol. To users, Luna is a chatbot presented in the image of a female anime (see Figure 2). Luna’s core goal is to attract 100,000 followers on Platform X (formerly Twitter). This goal and all her actions are presented to the public in a transparent manner.
Lunas main function is similar to that of a chatbot, and she achieves her goals by interacting with users of the X platform (such as initiating conversations or replying to tweets). However, Lunas capabilities go far beyond this. For example, she can financially reward (i.e., tip) users who interact with her by sending Luna tokens to the users crypto wallet. This economic incentive mechanism directly links her goal (attracting more users) with her economic resources. It can be said that Luna is an AI agent with economic autonomy.
Figure 2: Screenshot of Luna, the AI influencer based on Virtuals Protocol
For illustrative purposes only.
Financial services with blockchain and AI
If blockchain becomes an efficient payment infrastructure for AI agents, this will mean significant opportunities for cryptocurrency investors. We believe this will have profound impacts in three main areas:
Stablecoin issuers: Stablecoins may become the preferred transaction tool 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, and payment giant Stripe, which recently acquired stablecoin company Bridge for $1 billion. In addition, decentralized stablecoin providers such as Maker/Sky may also be beneficiaries of this trend. Also worth noting is the startup Skyfire, which focuses on developing AI agents for stablecoin payments and recently received investments from Coinbase Ventures and a16z crypto.
Low-cost/high-throughput blockchains: If AI agents rely primarily on blockchains as payment infrastructure, some smart contract platforms may benefit significantly from increased user numbers and transaction activity. For example, Solana, a high-throughput blockchain; BASE, an Ethereum Layer 2 platform that has launched AI agent development tools and relies on the security of the Ethereum network; and Near, which focuses on AI applications. In addition, other blockchains that focus on stablecoin payments, such as Tron and Celo, may also benefit.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Decentralized financial applications may become an important tool for AI agents. Since DeFi applications run on the blockchain itself, 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 applications that are particularly likely to benefit include decentralized exchanges (such as Uniswap), lending protocols (such as Aave), and prediction markets (such as Polymarket).
Although still a niche market, some protocols related to AI agents are expected to benefit from it. At the infrastructure level, Autonolas and Wayfinder are working on building decentralized infrastructure for AI agents, while protocols such as Virtuals, Aether, and MyShell are focused on developing consumer-oriented AI agent applications. Although this field is still in its early stages of development, its attention and market share in the AI theme have shown significant growth in the past month.
Figure 3: AI-related assets have significantly outperformed other assets in the past month
in conclusion
The combination of AI agents and blockchain technology is more than just a novel use case for cryptocurrency - it could also redefine how AI agents interact with financial systems. Grayscale Research says the future internet could be increasingly dominated by AI-driven websites. In this trend, permissionless blockchains have the potential to become the core infrastructure for these websites to integrate with AI agents. If this vision is realized, AI agents could become an important way to attract a large number of users to the cryptocurrency space, and users may not even realize that they are using blockchain technology.
Therefore, AI agents could have a profound impact on the adoption and technological development of cryptocurrencies. This emerging topic is undoubtedly an important area to watch closely in the future.
