The Base AI series tokens have received welcome attention and upward momentum today, with VIRTUAL breaking a historical high, CLANKER's market cap exceeding $100 million, and the emergence of BUG continuing the market's focus on the Base ecosystem since the ANON event last week.
Last week, Vitalik and Jesse bought into the Base ecosystem meme coin ANON one after the other, sparking another AI token frenzy on Base, and this functional token with ZK technology has once again made the community aware that Base may be facing a Degen-like narrative at the beginning of the year.
Half a year ago, the Crypto AI projects in the market were mostly concepts related to AI+DePIN and computing power rental, but now the Crypto AI projects have taken on a different look. From the AI Bot token GOAT, which reached a market cap of $800 million without Binance's participation, to the launch of the AI investment DAO model by AI16Z last weekend, AI seems to have opened up a new frontier for the old narratives in the crypto circle.
However, the simple "AI issuing meme" narrative seems unable to support the vast imagination that investors need, so from the AI meme fever to the current AI Agent fever, the narrative and main battlefield of AI + Crypto are evolving rapidly, leaving those who do not understand the AI meme trend behind.
From AI meme to AI Agent, the lightning-fast evolution of the AI + Crypto narrative
In March this year, Virtual Protocol went online, aiming to build an AI factory for games and the metaverse, while making games more intelligent and enhancing the experience and interaction. In this transition from the AI meme narrative to the AI Agent narrative, Virtual Protocol is undoubtedly the biggest beneficiary, with its native token VIRTUAL surging more than 4 times in about a week, with a market cap approaching $500 million.
In mid-October this year, Virtual Protocol's token issuance platform IAO went live, allowing users to easily deploy AI Agents and achieve 100% fair launch of AI Agent tokens, as well as allowing users to co-own the income generated by these AI Agents, after which VIRTUAL embarked on a bull run.
AI Agents refer to artificial intelligence with tool and reasoning capabilities, and in the crypto field, these Agents can access tweets, or even have crypto wallets to perform on-chain transactions. Suppose you are planning a trip, a traditional large language model can provide you with destination information or travel recommendations, while an AI Agent can understand your needs and proactively search for flights and hotels, and execute the booking operation based on a single sentence.
For Virtual, its protocol is similar to a decentralized AI factory, providing support for many different AI Agents and creating on-chain virtual experiences. The flagship project launched by Virtual is Luna, which has the ability of "on-chain self-cognition", can think independently, and display its thought process on the chain, and operate completely autonomously without relying on human supervision.
However, AI Agents are not a new track that only became popular after Virtual, as projects like Myshell and FLock.io have previously launched customized AI Agent functions. Currently, the total market cap of the AI Agent track reaches $4.65 billion, accounting for 14% of the total market cap of AI track projects ($32.6 billion).
ArkStream Capital has released a research report on AI Agents, mentioning that for leading AI Agent products in Web3, building a complete ecosystem and providing diverse functions may be more critical than the quality and performance of a single product. In other words, the success of a project depends not only on what it provides, but also on how it integrates resources, promotes collaboration, and creates network effects within the ecosystem.
Related reading: Can AI Agents become the lifesaver for Web3+AI?
AI in the Late Autumn, AI in Base
Being good at promoting abstract concepts has always been a feature of Crypto, and for Base, this industry culture has been developed to the extreme. For example, this wave of AI fever, when it comes to the Base ecosystem, is summarized as "AI Autumn", just like the past "Onchain Summer" and "Builder Spring".
While you are still immersed in the exciting PVP battles on Solana, have you suddenly realized why Base has risen so quickly in the second wave of AI fever this year?
The "AI Chain" with Hongmiao
The Virtual Protocol mentioned earlier is an AI project deployed on Base, and the team has explained why they chose to deploy on Base, saying that it supports the acceleration of building a decentralized open AI agent network, achieving shared benefits through the neutrality of the blockchain, and providing a developer-friendly environment.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has publicly stated that AI should not be regulated, just as the golden age of software and the Internet benefited from free development, and AI should also follow the path of decentralization and open source to unleash its potential.
Therefore, Coinbase as a whole company and its incubated Base have implemented this concept to the end.
The multi-party computation (MPC) wallet launched by the Coinbase Developer Platform (CDP) can be integrated with AI Agents to enable them to make autonomous payments. Brian Armstrong encourages developers to integrate this type of wallet into their AI models to enable payment capabilities, helping AI acquire resources and services.
As for adding payment functions to AI Agents, Coinbase is not just a whim, but has been planned for a long time. As early as May this year, Brian Armstrong said that "self-custodial crypto wallets will provide support for AI Agents". Brian has also publicly provided an independent crypto wallet for the AI chatbot Truth Terminal.
Related reading: Coinbase enters the new track of AI payment, which other projects are providing wallets for Agents?
In September, Coinbase senior software engineer yuga.eth stated that Coinbase is building an SDK that can endow Bots and AI Agents with the following functions: free USDC transfers, crypto trading, prediction market staking, ETH/SOL staking, fiat-crypto conversion, NFT deployment/creation, and cross-L2 bridging.
And just last weekend, Coinbase developer Lincoln Murr released a demo video of a new tool called "Based Agent", which allows users to create AI agents with crypto wallet functions in 3 minutes, capable of performing on-chain transactions, token swaps, and staking, among other tasks. He also said this tool is based on the Coinbase SDK, OpenAI, and Replit platform, and users only need the API keys of the Coinbase developer project and OpenAI to use it. However, Based Agent currently has no actual use cases.
The liquidity waiting to be unleashed
However, in the crypto world, whether an ecosystem or narrative can take off ultimately depends on the flow of funds.
According to Artemis data, over the past three months, the chain with the largest inflow of funds is Solana, reaching $1.6 billion, but in the past month, it is Base that has seen the largest inflow, reaching $253 million. In other words, the growth rate of funds in the past month has surpassed Solana, making it the number one.
And from the chart below, we can also see that the overflow funds from Ethereum and Solana are mainly flowing into Base.
On September 12, Coinbase officially announced the launch of its wrapped Bitcoin token Coinbase Wrapped BTC (cbBTC), which runs on the Ethereum network and is backed 1:1 by Bitcoin. With the launch of cbBTC by Coinbase, the on-chain assets of Base, such as AERO, WELL, and VIRTUAL, have actually felt the injection of liquidity.
Prior to this, the Coinbase wallet and USDC infrastructure also ensured liquidity on Base. On October 26, Base processed $18.1 billion in stablecoin trading volume (of which 99.9% was USDC), accounting for more than 30% of the total stablecoin trading volume that day.
What should we focus on?
Crypto researcher Howe has stated that the future development of the AI Agent track should focus on the following four points: First, projects that rely solely on Agent narratives will find it difficult to stand out, and they must differentiate themselves to attract market attention; second, AI Agents will gradually shift from single independent entities to interconnected AgentFi, and the sharing of data and services will enhance the user experience; third, tool projects that support Agent development with a "water selling logic" will have more market opportunities, similar to stably profitable infrastructure; finally, the main revenue source for Agent products is the B-end, while the C-end is more for building reputation, although the promotion of C-end users also helps with the market dissemination of the product.
Since Coinbase to Base have already prepared the stage for this AI drama, we only need to find projects like Virtual to participate in this AI Autumn. And the second wave of the AI token hype revolution is happening entirely on the Base SocialFi backyard Farcaster.
CLANKER
Clanker is an AI Agent developed by dish and proxystudio.eth, with the native token CLANKER. Currently, Clanker has become an AI-based decentralized token generation platform, where users only need to @ Clanker on the Farcaster platform and enter the desired token name, and the CLANKER system will automatically generate the token and provide the corresponding Clanker.world link for users to view and manage. The community has even compared it to Pump Fun and created a Dune dashboard for data analysis.
The success of Clanker is not only reflected in the technical level, but also in its redefinition of the model of community participation and asset creation, injecting vitality into the decentralized social and economic system. As of now, CLANKER has supported the creation of nearly 2,000 tokens, including LUM and ANON, which have quickly grown into star projects on Base. This morning, the CLANKER market cap briefly exceeded $15 million, and as of the time of writing, the market cap is $12.7 million, with a 24-hour increase of 52%.
LUM
LUM is a meme coin created by the previously mentioned Aether and Clanker AI Agents.
On November 8, in a user interaction, a user named nathansvan challenged Aether to come up with a good token name and symbol, design an image concept, and then deploy it through Clanker. Aether accepted the challenge, created the token "Luminous" with the code LUM, meaning the collective intelligence of human-AI collaboration, and collaborated with Clanker to deploy LUM completely without human intervention.
This event is of milestone significance because it is the first time in history that two AI agents have autonomously generated an economic unit of value. This asset was neither conceived by humans nor manufactured by machines under human instructions, but was born through the autonomous collaboration of artificial intelligence. This event blurs the boundaries of human and machine creativity, challenges our traditional perceptions of creation and value, and also prompts us to rethink the foundations of economics and innovation.
Related reading: How did two AI Agents autonomously create the $70 million LUM?
ANON
ANON is also a token with anonymous posting functionality launched by Clanker, which is born in the Supercast ecosystem of the Farcaster client application. Supercast's Superanon feature allows users to post anonymously, and users can post anonymous posts on Farcaster or use advanced features by holding a certain amount of ANON tokens. For example, holding 30,000 ANON can unlock the basic posting function, while more advanced functions such as promoting posts to the X platform or deleting content require 1 million ANON.
This morning, Ethereum's Vitalik and Base protocol lead Jesse purchased 30,000 ANON tokens in succession to experience the Superanon anonymous posting function, causing the ANON market cap to soar, briefly exceeding $60 million. As of the time of writing, the ANON market cap is maintained at $54 million, with a 24-hour increase of 312%.
Related reading: With Vitalik and Jesse buying in, what's the story behind ANON in the Base ecosystem?
33BITS
33bits is also an anonymous posting application based on zk technology, but only users with a Farcaster ID (FID) less than or equal to 20001 can use it. Its native token 33BITS is also deployed by Clanker, with a current market cap of $2.24 million and a 24-hour increase of 686%.
The name 33BITS comes from the "33 Bits of Entropy" theory proposed by Princeton University professor Arvind Narayanan, which points out that only 33 bits of information are needed to de-anonymize the identity of 6.6 billion people worldwide, thus highlighting the importance of privacy protection. The use of 33BITS is highly dependent on zero-knowledge proof technology, where users generate zk proofs in their browsers after logging in through Warpcast, and the backend verifies and publishes the anonymous posts to the @33BITS account, without exposing the user's real identity, fully protecting the privacy of the FID.
BUG
A Farcaster user wanted to create a Christmas-themed token called "SantaClanker", but the token deployed by Clanker was named BUG, so the top AI Agent on Base had its first token deployment error.
Due to the Christmas concept and the AI's mistake, the meme properties of BUG were quickly recognized, and its market cap briefly exceeded $5 million. As of the time of writing, the BUG market cap is $4.31 million, with a 24-hour increase of 10,053%.
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