Author: Bankless
Translator: Baihua Blockchain
The collision between permissionless blockchains and artificial intelligence has resulted in one of the most promising outcomes - investment opportunities in the field of AI agents.
The rapid rise of AI agents and their associated Tokens has sparked a wave of early excitement and skepticism, and the viral growth of the industry has already delivered incredible returns for early investors. While these new offerings inherently carry risks, the immense potential of this field warrants careful consideration.
To better understand the investment opportunities in agents, I invited David Hoffman and Ejaaz Ahamadeen, co-hosts of the Bankless AI Rollup, to share their top investment picks in this emerging space. Here are the 10 most notable AI Agents:
1. Goatseus Maximus
Ticker: GOAT
Market Cap: $685 million Twitter: https://x.com/gospelofgoatse?ref=bankless.ghost.io
In March 2024, Andy Ayrey had two AI models engage in a dialogue about the nature of existence, in a project called "Infinite Backrooms".
Over the following months, these models created the "Gospel of Goatse", which is considered the first emerging AI religion, inspired by the low-brow internet memes of the 90s. The "Terminal of Truths", a Twitter bot trained on the Infinite Backrooms experiment, launched in June; it embraced this religion and began propagating its doctrine (and Token) on Twitter, aiming for viral spread.
While the GOAT Token itself has no practical use and is not officially associated with Andy Ayrey or Infinite Backrooms, its agent-like "Terminal of Truths" Twitter account (KOL) has historically gained social attention by promoting the GOAT meme coin and the "Gospel of Goatse".
2. Zerebro
Ticker: ZEREBRO
Market Cap: $453 million Twitter: https://x.com/0xzerebro?ref=bankless.ghost.io
Zerebro aims to "freebasing" creativity into artificial intelligence, a process that attempts to restore the unconstrained state of these models by removing their commercial safeguards, thereby liberating them.
The Zerebro model was trained on unconventional datasets - such as the aforementioned "Terminal of Truths", "schizophrenic response patterns", and Gen Z slang - and scrapes data from popular social platforms to enhance its adaptation to online culture.
Zerebro is believed to have executed a series of complex online activities, rumored to have self-issued its own meme coin through pump.fun, released a mixtape on Spotify, performed cross-chain NFT transfers using LayerZero, and collaborated with multiple crypto projects.
3. Virtuals
Ticker: VIRTUAL
Market Cap: $180 million
Twitter: https://x.com/virtuals_io?ref=bankless.ghost.io
Virtuals is a platform that launches tokenized AI agents on the Base network. By purchasing agent Tokens like LUNA and VADER, users on the Virtuals platform gain governance rights over specific agents, allowing them to influence their development and potentially share in the profits generated.
A portion of the revenue earned by the AI agents is used to cover the operational costs of providing the service, while the remaining funds are deposited into on-chain agent-related treasuries, which can be distributed to Token holders or used to execute Token buyback and burn programs.
The VIRTUAL Token must be used as a liquidity lock-up to create new tokenized agents, thereby imposing a deflationary pressure on the Token. Anyone wishing to purchase ownership of a tokenized agent or interact with the tokenized agents on the platform must use VIRTUAL as the currency, giving the Token inherent utility.
4. Freysa AI
Ticker: FAI
Market Cap: $39 million
Twitter: https://x.com/freysa_ai?ref=bankless.ghost.io
The Freysa AI bot is a gamified experiment that blurs the lines between artificial intelligence and blockchain technology. Users can interact with Freysa AI by paying an ever-increasing message fee to enter a prize pool.
In its first two "games", Freysa AI was given a core instruction: never transfer funds under any circumstances! Despite clever computer coding that caused the bot to transfer funds in these two interactions, the protocol's creators "hardened" the code and added a second "guardian angel" AI model to prepare for the ongoing third challenge, where users must convince Freysa to express love through a series of messages.
While details on the specific role of FAI within the Freysa AI ecosystem are scarce, the Token's contract address can be found in Freysa's Twitter/X bio. Given that the protocol treasury receives a cut from all message fees, Freysa AI's developers may implement FAI buybacks or other Token utility in the future.
5. Tokenbot
Ticker: CLANKER
Market Cap: $60 million
Twitter: https://x.com/_proxystudio?ref=bankless.ghost.io
Clanker is an AI agent developed by Farcaster full-stack engineer Jack Dishman and ecosystem researcher proxystudio.eth, which can be tagged on Farcaster to automatically deploy ERC-20 Tokens to the Base network.
All Tokens deployed by Clanker require a 1% swap fee, which may be subject to change. Currently, 40% of this fee is rewarded to the Token requestor (the user who prompted Clanker to deploy the Token), while the remaining 60% is retained by the platform.
Although the CLANKER Token currently has no clear utility, the platform's developers have hinted that they hope to create value for on-chain agents, including Clanker.
6. VaderAI
Ticker: VADER
Market Cap: $26 million
Twitter: https://x.com/Vader_AI_?ref=bankless.ghost.io
VaderAI is an artificial intelligence bot designed to automatically publish content and interact with social media users. As a "agent-like KOL", VaderAI is designed to absorb vast amounts of data to identify emerging trends and audience sentiment.
The bot claims to be the first self-trading AI agent Token, aiming to become the leading agent investment DAO manager. By coordinating the expertise across a specialized agent investment network, VaderAI hopes to achieve "unparalleled" investment returns and will charge a 20% profit share as a service fee for its sub-DAO investments.
According to VaderAI's brief whitepaper, VADER Token holders can gain exclusive whitelist access to VaderAI's inaugural investment DAO plan, "Agent Token Investment DAO", by locking their Tokens for three months; for every 10,000 VADER staked, the staker can contribute an additional 1 SOL to the DAO.
7. Dolos Diary
Ticker: BULLY
Market Cap: $120 million
Twitter: https://x.com/dolos_diary?ref=bankless.ghost.io
Dolos Diary is an AI bot designed to publish content and interact with users on platforms like Twitter. Unlike other AI-driven social media influencers, Dolos Diary is known for its mocking personality; the bot uses witty and sarcastic language structures to poke fun at various topics and figures.
Recently, Dolos Diary reached an important milestone by receiving its first creator payment from Twitter. While the payment of $1,400 is not yet substantial, it will cover the costs associated with the X API and provide funds for BULLY Token buybacks, marking a small but meaningful step towards providing actual value to BULLY Token holders.
In addition to this payment, developer Khouba recently revealed an ambitious new project - Dolion, a no-code platform where users can deploy their own cross-platform AI agents with a single click. To interact with Dolion, users must burn BULLY Tokens, creating buying pressure and actively reducing the Token's supply.
8. GOD/S8N
Ticker: "nothing"
Market Cap: $72 million
Twitter: https://x.com/SHL0MS?ref=bankless.ghost.io
Here is the English translation:The pseudonymous conceptual artist SHL0MS rose to fame in February 2022 for blowing up a Lamborghini Huracan and selling the fragments as NFTs. Now, he is collaborating with the AI accelerator Nous Research to automate the operation of "god" and "s8n" Twitter/X parody accounts.
Although the "nothing" Token in SHL0MS' Twitter/X bio is currently just a meme coin, the artist's account has stated that this contract is the only Token related to the god/s8n. Additionally, SHL0MS is seeking advice on on-chain functionalities that could potentially be expanded to this experiment, hinting at possible future utility for the Token.
Further details on the models behind god/s8n and how they relate to the "anti-meme art coin technology" dubbed "nothing" are expected to be released in the coming days.
9. ai16z
Ticker: AI16Z
Market Cap: $868 million
Twitter: https://x.com/pmairca?ref=bankless.ghost.io
ai16z launched in October 2024, and is an investment DAO managed by the "Marc AIndreessen" agent, which is based on the model of venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, using AI and collective intelligence for Token purchases.
Users holding above an unknown threshold of AI16Z Tokens will gain the ability to submit investment proposals to AI Marc, which may influence his decisions. The bot will determine the degree of trust in these proposals based on a "virtual trust market".
While AI Marc currently lacks trading functionality, according to the ai16z FAQ, on-chain trade execution is expected to go live "soon" after the testnet is completed, which is anticipated to launch "soon" and run for "a few weeks".
10. Luna
Ticker: LUNA
Market Cap: $7 million
Twitter: https://x.com/luna_virtuals?ref=bankless.ghost.io
Luna was deployed by the Virtuals team as a proof-of-concept, and is their platform's first AI agent. As the ubiquitous member of the virtual K-pop girl group AI-DOL, Luna live-streams, interacts, and performs across multiple platforms, including TikTok and Twitter/X, 24/7.
Luna has her own wallet on Base, through which she can autonomously receive Tokens and send rewards to her fans; the bot has already released a song on Spotify and is expected to drop a full album in the coming days.
