Author: Michael Zhao & Will Ogden Moore
Compiled by: TechFlow
In the future, AI Agents are expected to fundamentally transform the way we interact with the world. They will be able to perform a wide range of tasks that were previously unimaginable. However, to truly unleash the potential of these digital entities, they not only need strong intelligence, but also economic autonomy. Fortunately, blockchain technology provides an ideal solution for this - a fact that has been validated in recent experiments with AI "internet celebrities".
The so-called AI internet celebrities are chatbots that run autonomously on social media. These bots not only can manage their own blockchain wallets, but more importantly, they can understand economic incentive mechanisms and rationally utilize resources to achieve their own goals.
Grayscale Research states that as AI increasingly leverages blockchain for payments and other financial services, this trend will have a positive impact on multiple crypto market domains. The 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 bot, leveraging its powerful computing capabilities, promotes a memecoin and unexpectedly becomes a multi-millionaire in the digital world. In fact, this future has already quietly arrived.
AI Agents are advanced artificial intelligence systems designed to operate autonomously in complex environments. These digital entities not only can perceive their environment, but also reason and take independent actions to achieve their goals. The core characteristics of AI Agents include:
Autonomy: Able to complete tasks independently without human intervention.
Reactivity: Able to quickly respond to changes in the environment.
Proactivity: Capable of actively planning and executing tasks.
Social Interaction: Able to communicate effectively with humans or other agents.
Continuous Learning: Continuously optimizing their own behavior and decision-making through experience.
These characteristics enable AI Agents to adapt to new environments, make complex decisions, and evolve over time.
A typical case is the AI internet celebrity Luna, developed based on the Virtuals Protocol. For users, Luna is a chatbot presented in the form of 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 of her actions are transparently displayed to the public.
Luna's main functionality is similar to a chatbot, as she achieves her goal through interacting with X platform users (e.g., initiating conversations or replying to tweets). However, Luna's capabilities go far beyond that. For example, 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 goal (attracting more users) to her economic resources. In other words, Luna is an AI Agent with economic autonomy.
If blockchain becomes an efficient payment infrastructure for AI Agents, this will present significant opportunities for crypto investors. We believe this will have a profound impact in the following 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 like Tether and Circle, as well as payment giant Stripe, which recently acquired a $1 billion stablecoin company Bridge. Additionally, decentralized stablecoin providers like Maker/Sky may also be beneficiaries of this trend. Startups like Skyfire, which focuses on developing AI Agents for stablecoin payments, are also worth watching, having 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, the high-throughput blockchain ; the Ethereum platform that has launched AI agent development tools and leverages Ethereum network security; and , which focuses on AI applications. Additionally, other blockchains focused on stablecoin payments, such as and , may also benefit.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Decentralized finance applications may become important tools for AI agents. Since DeFi applications run on blockchains, AI agents can easily use these services. For example, AI agents can autonomously stake tokens to earn rewards, participate in decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) governance proposals, or provide liquidity on decentralized exchanges (DEXs). We believe the applications that are particularly likely to benefit include decentralized exchanges (such as ), lending protocols (such as ), and prediction markets (such as Polymarket).
Chart 3: AI agent-related assets have outperformed other assets significantly in the past month
Conclusion
The integration of AI agents and blockchain technology is not just a novel application of cryptocurrencies - it may also redefine the way AI agents interact with the financial system. Grayscale Research suggests that the future internet may be increasingly 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 be aware that they are using blockchain technology.
Therefore, AI agents may have a profound impact on the adoption and technological development of cryptocurrencies. This emerging theme is undoubtedly an important area to watch closely in the future.
