Original Title: Crypto AI Agents: What They Are, How They Work, and Top Tokens to Watch
Original Author: Sankrit K
Original Translation: Daisy, Mars Finance
What are Cryptocurrency AI Agents?
Cryptocurrency AI agents are software programs that autonomously utilize artificial intelligence to analyze, make decisions, and execute blockchain-related tasks without human intervention.
Key Points
They can autonomously complete trading, asset management, and blockchain interactions, compared to robots that follow fixed rules, and possess the ability to learn and evolve, giving rise to phenomenal projects like Truth Terminal, GOAT, and platforms like Virtuals Protocol that support the development of on-chain AI agents. Risk Warning: There may be predictive biases, and data should be cross-verified.
Definition Analysis
Imagine a digital assistant that can analyze market trends, manage crypto assets, and even operate social media—that is the essence of cryptocurrency AI agents. These autonomous programs make independent decisions in the crypto space through artificial intelligence, simplifying complex blockchain interactions into automated operations.
"The future world will have hundreds of millions or even billions of AI agents, outnumbering humans." — Mark Zuckerberg | Meta CEO
Operational Mechanism
· Data Collection: Gather real-time information from multiple channels such as blockchain, social media, and news sources.
· Analysis and Learning: Use machine learning models to identify market patterns (e.g., tokens that suddenly gain popularity on social media).
· Decision Making: Trigger operations such as trading, staking, or publishing market reports based on analysis results.
· On-Chain Execution: Automatically select high liquidity DEX to complete trades or optimize staking validator node selection.
History of AI Agents in the Crypto Space
AI agents can attract attention by interacting with the community and telling unique stories, sparking discussions online. The stories of Truth Terminal and GOAT are great examples.
The narrative of AI agents in the cryptocurrency space began with a project called "Truth Terminal." Truth Terminal created a religion based on satirical memes and was designed to operate semi-autonomously on X, leading it to post about its "Gospel of the Goat."
In July 2024, Truth Terminal gained widespread attention when a16z co-founder Marc Andreessen expressed interest in its posts. He ultimately transferred $50,000 worth of Bitcoin to Truth Terminal's wallet address, marking one of the first significant financial donations from a human to an AI agent in the crypto space.
Truth Terminal eventually gave rise to the memecoin GOAT through Pump.fun on Solana. The token quickly became popular, with a market cap exceeding $1.2 billion at one point, making Truth Terminal the first AI agent millionaire.
How Cryptocurrency AI Agents Work
Cryptocurrency AI agents typically use conversational interfaces, such as chatbots, where users can input questions. Once the context of the user's question is understood, it begins to work.
· Data Collection: The AI agent starts collecting information from the blockchain, such as transaction details, as well as sources like social media, news websites, and price information.
· Analysis and Learning: The agent uses machine learning models to search for patterns and trends. For example, the agent may notice a particular token suddenly gaining popularity on social media.
· Decision Making: Based on the analysis results, the agent decides on the next course of action according to its design. This could involve trading, staking tokens, or publishing analysis results online.
· Taking Action on the Blockchain: The agent then executes its plan, such as choosing the most liquid decentralized exchange (DEX) to purchase tokens or selecting validator nodes for token staking. It also ensures that transactions are executed correctly on the blockchain.
Use Cases for AI Agents
Use cases for AI agents include:
· Market Intelligence and Research
· Customer Support
· Automated Trading and Portfolio Management
· DeFi Strategy Execution
· Fraud Detection
Market Intelligence and Research
The most common use case for AI agents in the cryptocurrency space is the automation of market updates and due diligence research. These agents can automatically track and interpret market trends, providing real-time insights.
aixbt is a cryptocurrency AI agent that provides market intelligence. Users need to hold AIXBT tokens to access the terminal, which offers momentum charts and other insights to help users identify emerging markets. It also publishes market dynamics on X.
Customer Support
Another common use case for AI agents is customer support, where they take on the role of support teams, providing personalized customer interactions. Sensay is a platform for creating custom AI agents that help businesses provide 24/7 support.
Automated Trading and Portfolio Management
Would you trust AI to trade cryptocurrencies for you? Proponents argue that AI agents are not influenced by emotional trading and can help users avoid situations like "fear of missing out" (FOMO) and panic selling. While trading with cryptocurrency AI agents is still in its early stages, PAAL AI's SwingX agent is live, and Wayfinder is available to some users. Advanced features require a paid subscription.
DeFi Strategy Execution
AI agents can simplify DeFi interactions, execute swaps, bridge assets, and even manage automated strategies. HeyAnon is tailored for DeFi, allowing users to specify the assets, amounts, conditions, and triggers for trades. It can also be used for information mining.
Fraud Detection
AI agents have been used in traditional finance for fraud detection and cybersecurity. They scan real-time financial transactions, detect anomalies, and prevent fraudulent activities. However, there are currently no specific AI agent projects focused on fraud detection in the decentralized crypto space.
Advantages of AI Agents in the Crypto Space
AI agents in the crypto space offer users three main advantages:
· Autonomous Decision Making
· Efficiency
· 24/7 Operation
Autonomous Decision Making
AI agents can analyze vast amounts of data, social sentiment, and market trends in real-time. This enables them to make data-driven decisions faster than humans.
They can also customize strategies based on user preferences, risk profiles, and on-chain behavior. Additionally, human trading is more susceptible to emotional influences, which can lead to panic selling or buying due to FOMO, while AI agents make decisions solely based on data.
Efficiency
Crypto AI agents can quickly sift through all the noise and review large amounts of data, from token price changes to social media mentions, providing users with refined information that can be used to make more informed decisions. AI agents can also automate manual tasks, such as bridging tokens across blockchains, swapping, staking, and lending.
24/7 Operation
The cryptocurrency market never sleeps, and neither do AI agents. This means that cryptocurrency AI agents can respond to market changes at any time, monitoring opportunities, executing trades, or alerting risks.
Potential Risks and Downsides of Cryptocurrency AI Agents
While AI agents can enhance efficiency and provide insights, they also come with some risks, including: inaccurate predictions, market manipulation, over-reliance, and security issues.
Inaccurate Predictions
If AI agents lack complete context or if the data they reference is outdated, incomplete, or incorrect, they may make errors. AI agents may also struggle to accurately address complex issues, such as the impact of regulatory changes on specific cryptocurrencies.
To avoid this, you can continue your own research and verify the statements made by AI agents. Alternatively, asking the AI agent about its sources and how it reached its conclusions may provide further insights.
Market Manipulation
If many AI agents hype the same token, collectively driving up the price, there is a risk of market manipulation, which could lead to a crash. As always, you should conduct your own research on any token before investing and be cautious not to fall victim to FOMO.
Over-Reliance
While AI agents can simplify the research process, it is also easy to become overly reliant on them. This may lead users to neglect verifying information from AI or considering insights from other sources.
Cryptocurrency AI agents should be used as tools for gaining additional insights rather than as the sole advisors, and you should continue your own research before making any large trades or investments. If you trust an AI agent to manage your portfolio, you can set limits, such as requiring manual approval for large trades.
Security Issues
If you plan to use a cryptocurrency AI agent for portfolio management and it has direct access to your funds, there is a risk of cyberattacks that could jeopardize your account and assets.
When choosing a cryptocurrency AI agent, opt for one with a good cybersecurity track record that has undergone security audits covering its smart contracts and DeFi security. You can also add manual approval for large trades based on your risk tolerance.
How Cryptocurrency AI Agents Differ from Bots
Cryptocurrency AI agents can easily be confused with bots, as they both automate tasks, respond to queries, and assist users with mundane tasks. However, there are significant differences between them. The distinction between bots and AI agents can be summarized in terms of their determinism and probabilistic nature.
Bots are deterministic. This means they follow rules and scripts predefined by developers, executing tasks strictly according to instructions. For example, a trading bot may execute a buy order when a token price falls below a certain threshold but cannot assess whether this action is appropriate.
Cryptocurrency AI agents are probabilistic. They use machine learning and AI models to analyze data, predict outcomes, and make decisions. They do not follow rigid rules but adjust based on patterns, trends, and probabilities, allowing for more nuanced and intelligent operations.
Top 6 Cryptocurrency AI Agent Tokens
These tokens are ranked by market capitalization on CoinGecko. Most of them are infrastructure projects focused on building AI models and autonomous agents rather than consumer-grade projects.
Artificial Intelligence Super Alliance (FET)
The Artificial Intelligence Super Alliance is a decentralized AI alliance co-founded by Fetch.ai, SingularityNET, and Ocean Protocol, with CUDOS as a network member. The alliance aims to become the largest open-source decentralized entity in the field of AI research and development, providing AI tools for its extensive developer community.
FET tokens can be used to secure the Fetch.ai mainnet through staking, register and interact with AI agents in the ecosystem, and access AI tools, datasets, and computing resources. As of the time of writing, FET's market capitalization exceeds $1.2 billion.
Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL)
Virtuals Protocol is built on Base (Coinbase's L2). It allows users to create, own, and deploy AI agents. Virtuals transforms AI agents into tokenized assets, granting users partial ownership. This enables users to own a part of the AI agent and potentially profit from its success.
Creating new agents requires VIRTUAL tokens, which are used to establish liquidity pools for the agents. Transactions are conducted using VIRTUAL tokens, and users must exchange other cryptocurrencies for VIRTUAL tokens before purchasing any agent tokens. VIRTUAL tokens can also be used to pay for AI agent inference fees based on usage. As of the time of writing, VIRTUAL's market capitalization is approximately $357 million.
OriginTrail (TRAC)
OriginTrail addresses misinformation by enhancing discoverability and ensuring the authenticity of information. It utilizes a decentralized knowledge graph to present a global open data structure composed of interconnected knowledge assets, hosted on an open decentralized node network. TRAC tokens can be used to delegate staking to enhance the security of core nodes on OriginTrail. As of the time of writing, TRAC's market capitalization is approximately $188 million.
AI16z (AI16Z)
Ai16z (now known as elizaOS) was initially an experimental project aimed at allowing AI agents to autonomously manage the crypto assets of on-chain DAOs, with the hope that AI investment agents could outperform venture capitalists. elizaOS is a framework designed to create, deploy, and manage autonomous AI agents. By the way, the DAO is still active, managing assets worth $25 million. AI16Z tokens are primarily used for governance and are the only way for users to access elizaOS and the DAO. As of the time of writing, AI16Z's market capitalization is approximately $150 million.
FAI
Freysa is the world's first continuously evolving sovereign agent, meaning that humans cannot control the agent's private keys or memory, and it operates without human supervision. Although the FAI token has been launched, its utility is still under development. As of the time of writing, FAI's market capitalization is approximately $124 million.
PAAL
PAAL AI is dedicated to creating user-friendly products using AI technologies such as natural language processing, machine learning, and automation. One of its products is Paal X, an agent designed to identify and trade profitable opportunities in the cryptocurrency market. According to the project, PAAL offers revenue sharing, staking rewards, and exclusive AI services. As of the time of writing, PAAL's market capitalization has exceeded $118 million.
Build Your Own AI Agent
Want to create your own AI agent? Here are some platforms you can refer to.
Virtuals Protocol
Virtuals Protocol is a blockchain-based platform built on Base (Coinbase's L2) that allows users to create, own, and deploy AI agents. Tokenization is a core component of Virtuals Protocol. It transforms AI agents into tokenized assets, enabling partial ownership. Therefore, users can own a part of the AI agent and potentially profit from its success.
The AI agents on Virtuals Protocol are designed to be multimodal, meaning they can interact through text, voice, and 3D animations. They can perform tasks such as picking up items in games or interacting with users on platforms like TikTok or Telegram. The GAME (Generating Autonomous Multimodal Entities) framework supports this functionality, allowing AI agents to be seamlessly integrated into consumer applications.
The protocol has also been in fierce competition with the reigning champion in the crypto AI space, Bittensor. In late November 2024, Virtuals Protocol surpassed Bittensor in user mindshare, but TAO regained its lead over Bittensor about a week later.
Luna (a live AI agent with a large following on TikTok) and Sekoia (an on-chain venture capital agent) are examples of AI agents on Virtuals Protocol.
Coinbase Agents
The "Based Agents" launched by Coinbase are AI agents built on the Base blockchain. Base is a Layer 2 blockchain developed by Coinbase, designed to provide a secure, low-cost, and developer-friendly platform for building decentralized applications, including AI agents.
Based Agents are a tool that allows users to create AI agents capable of handling on-chain activities. Using this no-code tool, users can set up an AI agent in three minutes (according to Coinbase) to perform tasks such as trading, swapping, and staking. The setup process requires API keys from the Coinbase Developer Program and the OpenAI Developer Program, as well as a fork of a Replit template.
What makes Based Agents unique is that they are cryptocurrency-native. These agents are designed to interact directly with blockchain networks and decentralized applications. They can hold and manage cryptocurrencies, execute trades, interact with smart contracts, and more. Best of all, Coinbase provides ready-to-use templates.
Conclusion
The narrative of AI agents is very novel, and it inevitably brings additional risks. However, the upside is that it may become a lasting and revolutionary narrative that helps those unfamiliar with Web 3.0 and promotes its adoption through simulating human interactions.
From an investment perspective, while AI agents can be powerful tools for guiding the cryptocurrency market, over-reliance on them may backfire. Investors may become complacent, neglecting their own research and critical thinking. Always conduct your own research before engaging in any crypto investments or trading strategies.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What are the best cryptocurrency AI agents?
As of the time of writing, the top 3 AI agent tokens by market capitalization are:
· Artificial Intelligence Super Alliance (FET)
· Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL)
· OriginTrail (TRAC)
Where can I buy cryptocurrency AI agents?
You can purchase cryptocurrency AI agent tokens through centralized exchanges such as Binance, Bitget, LBank, or OKX. However, centralized exchanges may not have new tokens like HeyAnon. In that case, you can buy through decentralized exchanges like Raydium. For tokens created using Virtuals, you can purchase directly through the protocol.
Are cryptocurrency AI agents safe?
Cryptocurrency AI agents can generally interact safely, especially on mature social platforms, as long as users do not share personal information such as wallet seed phrases, passwords, social security numbers, and other identification details.
Here is a safety checklist for using AI agents:
· Never share your seed phrase with AI agents.
· Use manual approval for large transactions.
· Check for smart contract audits.
Can I use AI for cryptocurrency trading?
Using AI for cryptocurrency trading is still in its early stages. However, Paal X has a model that allows users to automatically trade bullish options generated by the model, but a paid subscription is required.
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