Title: Random Sunday Thoughts on What Comes After Agent Tokenization?
Author: Defi0xJeff, Crypto Kol
Compiled by: zhouzhou, BlockBeats
Editor's Note: This article discusses the trend of tokenization and its future development, covering the progress of tokenization in areas such as assets, art, yield, and AI agents. It introduces how various pioneers of tokenization are driving industry transformation, and explores potential future tokenization trends including data, attention, and AI application tokenization. Tokenization is not only a technological innovation, but also a force that changes the way people interact and creates new opportunities.
The following is the original content (edited for better readability):
The concept of tokenization has always fascinated me. It seems so simple, yet every time a new thing gets tokenized, everyone's attention quickly turns to it.
Here's a summary of some of the tokenization trends we've seen so far, how they've evolved, and what might happen in the future:
Tokenization of Assets
This was the initial tokenization trend.
Bitcoin created the first decentralized, secure, and transparent ledger system, paving the way for the digital representation of assets. Then, the emergence of Ethereum in 2015 introduced smart contracts, enabling the programmability of assets - whether real estate, art, or DeFi.
Today, Ethereum's market capitalization has reached $470 billion, which is the impact of tokenization on assets.
Tokenization of Art (Non-Fungible Tokens, NFTs)
The rise of NFTs brought tokenization into the art world.
In 2017, projects like CryptoPunks and CryptoKitties brought NFTs into the public eye. By 2021, the trading volume of NFTs reached $13 billion, becoming the preferred way to represent digital art and collectibles. Many collections, such as CryptoPunks, BAYC, and Art Blocks, reached prices of millions of dollars at their peak in 2021.
Tokenization of Yield
Another significant change is the tokenization of yield.
Pendle Fi was the first to introduce the concept of tokenizing future yield in 2021. It created a market that allows trading of fixed and variable yield, adding flexibility and liquidity to DeFi. Pendle has seen rapid growth in 2023, particularly in LST (Liquid Staking Tokens) and the yield market in early 2024.
Today, the market capitalization of $PENDLE is $1.6 billion.
Tokenization of AI Agents
Now, we're seeing the tokenization of AI agents.
Virtuals.io launched a platform where users can create AI agents and tokenize them, effectively providing startup funding for their development.
The concept of AI agents started in October 2024, and Virtuals created a market for agent ownership. Today, the market capitalization of $VIRTUAL has reached $2.5 billion.
What's the Next Big Trend in Tokenization?
In these areas - assets, art, yield, AI agents - we can see a clear pattern: the pioneers in each field typically experience rapid adoption and significant price volatility.
Here are some ideas I'm keeping an eye on:
Tokenization of Data
withvana is exploring DataDAOs and Data Liquidity Pools (DLPs).
Users can contribute data to these pools, maintain data ownership, and get rewarded based on the quality of their contributions.
Essentially, it turns data into a fluid, tradable asset.
$VANA launched on December 16, and the concept of data ownership tokenization could be massive.
Tokenization of Attention
Kaito AI is working on the tokenization of attention in Web3, demonstrating the ability to generate and promote more attention through platforms, mental sharing dashboards, and the recent Yap-to-Earn feature.
Their Yap leaderboard incentivizes thought leaders to speak up more, earning Yap points, and ultimately receiving airdrops of $KAITO tokens.
Essentially, Yap = Attention = $KAITO. This is an interesting way to show how Web3 can redefine user engagement.
Tokenization of AI Applications
This seems like a natural extension of the AI agent trend.
As tools like Replit and agent ecosystems rise, we're getting closer to personalized software creation.
Tokenized AI applications can allow users to kickstart development and own a share of the revenue generated by the application.
Competitors in this space include Alchemist AI App and Myshell AI, both of which empower creators to build revenue-generating AI applications, providing real and scalable use cases.
Myshell goes further, allowing investors to directly invest in these applications and share in the future revenue they generate. This model not only supports development, but also aligns the interests of creators and investors.
Final Thoughts
Tokenization trends always bring new waves of innovation and adoption, but the exciting part is not just the technology itself - it's how they bring people together and shift the focus to new opportunities.
