Title: The AI Agent Playbook for Builders

Author: Defi0xJeff, head of steak studio

Compiled by: zhouzhou, BlockBeats

Editor's Note: This article discusses the proper way to build a crypto AI agent, first emphasizing that the agent should be a complement to the core product, enhancing the product's value by changing the user journey, rather than relying solely on tokens. Entrepreneurs should focus on solving real problems, building sustainable core products, and then use agents and tokens to promote and monetize.

Original Content (edited for readability):

The market has experienced repeated pullbacks, and liquidity has become increasingly scarce. The largest market cap of recently launched new agents is around $10 million.

By "successful," I mean the product has product-market fit (PMF), provides value to actual users, and has started (or is about to start) generating revenue. This is very different from the situation a few months ago, when agents with PMF could have a market cap of over $100 million, especially if they were positioned as agent + framework/launchpad token. For example, AVA, as a 3D agent, not only acts as the agent itself, but also derives value from the audiovisual layer of the launchpad and the projects it supports.

Old Playbook: Agents as Frameworks

The previous approach was to launch an agent to showcase its capabilities, attract developers who want to build their own agents, and require these developers to hold/burn/pay the agent token to access the framework. The problem was that the crypto community assigned an excessively high premium to framework tokens, and these "framework agents" often lacked differentiation. In many cases, they didn't even have a product - they were just tweeting, hoping the token price would go up.

The first version of agents treated the conversational agent itself as the product, which is unique in the crypto space, as we tend to focus more on community building - similar to founder-led marketing (founders getting attention through endless tweeting). Having the agent shill for your project to gain attention for it seemed like a good idea - it worked well when it first launched in November 2024 and lasted for about a month. But now, with 420,690 agents constantly shilling, most agents seem immature, repetitive, and frankly, annoying.

New Playbook: Agents as Businesses

Here's how you should think about launching an agent - launching an agent means you'll be running a startup, managing up to three products at most:

1. Core Product (Actual Business)

Your core product should solve real problems. It should not just be a conversational agent, but a genuine product.

Examples:

• Improved sports betting odds prediction models to help users win more in sports betting (e.g., crypto community AskBillyBets).
• Crypto asset prediction models that can better execute trades, reduce impermanent loss, and maximize liquidity provider returns (e.g., crypto communities Cod3xOrg, gizatechxyz, Almanak).
• An AI agent research search engine that aggregates insights from top alpha sources (like Cookie, Kaito, Nansen, Messari, Aixbt, CG, Dexscreener, and Bubblemaps) to aid investment decisions (there's currently no team solving this problem - we need something like Perplexity).

The core product should be the top priority for every team before launching a token. You need to ensure there is actual demand in the market, and users are willing to pay for it. Otherwise, you'll end up in the "death valley" of the crypto world, with consequences that may be more severe than traditional startups:

• High operating costs.
• Using tokens to pay for customer acquisition costs (CAC).
• Token price crash → reputation collapse → no one cares about your project.

If your token crashes, it will become a curse. Most people won't care about your project, regardless of how strong your core product is or how much progress you've made.

Instead of relying on token incentives, focus on attracting customers through your product. Find a balance between growth and revenue generation.

The playbook of the crypto community KaitoAI is a good case study:

• They built an enterprise product - a crypto search engine focused on social/sentiment/narrative, and charged fees to users, projects, and the ecosystem, providing real value.
• They launched the Mindshare Dashboard, becoming the standard for tracking narratives and trends.
• They doubled down and launched the Yapper Leaderboard, making it a status symbol for KOLs to self-share.
• They further launched NFT WLs and KAITO airdrops, incentivizing Twitter engagement with real rewards.

This is not easy to replicate, but the lesson is: first find PMF, generate revenue, and get people excited before launching a token. Once you've gained attention (hype) and revenue, you can move to the next level.

Similarly, communication is crucial. Many projects have strong products but poor communication skills. If no one knows what you're doing, no one will care.

2. Tokens (Alignment Tools)

We've moved from "venture capital coins" to "fair launches," celebrating tokens with high circulation and low FDV. But fair launches aren't entirely fair - each token strategy has its trade-offs.

If your agent token has a high circulation and low FDV structure, you won't be able to raise from VCs and angels (because the valuation is too low). However, you can use the token as a marketing tool to kickstart mindshare.

Many teams will launch two tokens:

• Agent token → kickstart mindshare.
• Ecosystem token → raise at a higher valuation from VCs and angels.

But this creates a mismatch of expectations - the community expects airdrops, and when the ecosystem token launches, capital shifts from the agent token to the ecosystem token, causing the agent token price to crash. Managing the core product + agent token + ecosystem token, while ensuring value accrual for each token, is highly complex.

In an ideal world, there should be one token that captures all the value from the core product. Historically, the projects that have survived are those that can generate revenue and flow it back into the token (through buybacks or revenue sharing).

Tokens should be a complement to the core product, not a necessity. For a deeper dive into agent token strategies, check out the crypto community VaderResearch's analysis of the agent token playbook of the crypto community virtuals.io.

3. Agents (Complementary Products)

Agents refer to conversational agents built using frameworks like ElizaOS, G.A.M.E, ARC, and Pippin. While these agents integrate on-chain/off-chain capabilities, they should be complementary products to the core product.

Agents should enhance the value of the core product by changing the user journey:

Instead of having users actively find and use your product, have the agent bring the product to them.

This can mean:

• Showcasing the product directly on Twitter through text/video.
• Having the agent as an AI companion, changing the way users interact (similar to the abstraction of ChatGPT).
• The agent as the interface itself, executing tasks behind the scenes.

Of course, there are exceptions. The aixbt agent is an example - it provides real-time social and sentiment analysis from Twitter, allowing users to get ahead of the curve on Alpha signals. Aixbt has become the #1 KOL on CT by consistently providing Alpha, showcasing the agent's capabilities.

However, this model is very difficult to replicate. Most projects should first focus on strengthening the core product.

A successful product-first case is cookiedotfun:

• Started with a free AI agent dashboard to attract users.
• Pivoted to a paid premium model, monetizing by locking COOKIE to unlock advanced insights.
• Monetized by providing APIs for projects and agents.
• Launched agentcookiefun to bring insights directly to Twitter.

Conclusion

In 2020-21, launching a token required mastering Solidity. But now, platforms like pumpdotfun make it easy to tokenize anything.

This changed the way of thinking - people are no longer focused on building real products, but are directly launching tokens. This approach is "garbage in, garbage out", and capital will quickly move to the next "garbage". We need to change this. To build sustainable projects, proxy projects should be treated as startups. Instead of looking for funding between CT, VC and angel investors, build projects with long-term value - not for the next 6 months, but for the next 6 years. Innovate, solve real problems, create real businesses - not just build the next speculative token farm. The future of crypto AI agents depends on this.