The valuation ceiling of practical AI agents can reach tens of billions of dollars.
Written by: IcoBeast.eth
Compiled by: Luffy, Foresight News
There are a wealth of exciting opportunities with the ubiquitous AI agents, but also a multitude of pitfalls. The speed at which new agents are emerging is dizzying, as everyone is rushing to launch AI agent startup platforms to attract attention, and more importantly, platform fee revenue.
The harsh reality is that we don't know if AI agents have reached their peak, or if their future potential is limitless. This doesn't mean that the conceptual frameworks and classification schemes are meaningless: it just means that no one can get everything right.
So what I'm going to do is outline how we should currently approach AI agents, and what that means for their potential valuations. Note that all the content in this article is not investment advice.
I believe there are currently three main categories of AI agents in the market, which may increase to four, but for now, let's look at how the current landscape is evolving.
- Culture/Community Consciousness Drivers
- Companion/IP Agents
- Utility Agents
These categories are distinctly different. That said, real-world agents can possess elements of multiple categories. In the long run, any legitimate AI agent will possess capabilities across these three categories. Let me explain these categories now.
Culture/Community Consensus
You may already be familiar with some of these AI agents: zerebro, Fartcoin, Truth Terminal, Dolos, etc. These tokens already have fanatical followings and engage with their fans on Twitter daily. These are the AI tokens that your favorite KOLs love the most.
They are shitposts, they are entertaining (sometimes), and they are degenerate. They are easy to understand (or at least make you think you understand them), which is why your KOL friends like them. They are essentially true AI agent memecoins. Like MOG, PEPE, SPX, these currencies exist and have value because people have a sense of belonging from owning them.
That said, I don't believe these tokens are truly unlocking the full potential of AI. Allowing them to simply exist as interactive memecoins is almost a waste. Some have recognized this: the zerebro developers are moving towards utility use cases. I think this is the future for this category. Either they face a market valuation ceiling (lower than PEPE), or they expand alongside collective consensus into killer use cases, which can raise the valuation ceiling.
I currently have very little exposure to these tokens (although I initially purchased some in the range of $2M to $10M). I don't believe they have peaked (at least in the long term), but this kind of upside is not what I'm looking for in the early bull market. I expect very few of these agents to reach a $2 billion market cap peak, with many reaching 8-figure or 9-figure valuations, then fading away.
Companion/IP
You've probably seen a lot of these tokens as well, but may not have realized their distinction from the Category 1. The appeal of these agents is very niche, feeling like private friends rather than belonging to a large community, think of the random agents launched on vvaifu or the character-based agents in Virtuals (AIRENE/SISAI/etc).
I believe this category overall will have significantly lower returns than Category 1, with most not garnering any interest at all. But the winners will be huge. And that's the most interesting part, finding the winners. In this category, I want to back agents developed by people who are fully invested.
My picks are Sploot (launched by Jonah on Virtuals, I know Jonah is a polarizing figure in crypto gaming, but he is successful and an excellent marketer, which is the advantage I'm looking for), Lexi (launched by Coop9000 on Virtuals, Coop9000 is deeply involved in AVAX's marketing and business development), and the popular choice Wokie (launched by bitcoin.com on Virtuals).
Ultimately, the valuation ceiling for these characters may be in the $20-30M range, unless someone creates a breakthrough character that captivates people.
Utility
This is the holy grail of AI agents. There is a lot to discuss on this topic, and people are developing and experimenting with new use cases every day.
For nearly a decade, we've been peddling useless utility tokens that can solve problems no one cares about. I believe AI agents are the new paradigm for utility tokens. Real technology can provide the services people truly want.
The irony is: if meaningless, unused utility and governance tokens can reach valuations in the billions, why can't AI agents with actual use cases?
Here are some of my current favorite agents:
- AIXBT: Absolutely the best market sentiment and momentum capture tool out there. In my view, its value should exceed $1 billion.
- VADER: Brain games, effectively trying to establish and manage institutional-grade agent investments. It's the on-chain tokenized Blackrock.
- WAI Combinator: Interesting name, interesting concept (though a bit off-topic). They are building an AI incubator to help other AIs grow better. I don't know if it's effective, but they've released reports on investing in other promising AIs.
- DeFi maximization: There are many teams building (and soon to launch) AI agents that will automatically manage yield positions for you to maximize returns. Once we can abstract the complexity of LP management, yields will skyrocket. This concept is a money printer.
- PolyAI: It's an agent that can analyze Polymarket information in real-time. It may or may not be effective, but it's really interesting.
The possibilities in this field are endless. Find exciting new utility AI agents and get in early. You'll see utility agents worth billions of dollars within 2 years.
