Is the AI sector about to move beyond the hype phase? A review of Web3 AI Agent projects
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Is the AI sector about to move beyond the hype phase? A review of Web3 AI Agent projects
What is an AI Agent, and what projects within this field are worth paying attention to?
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: WOO
Background: The AI Narrative Is More Meme-Like Than Memes
AI has long been considered the biggest narrative of this cycle aside from memes. However, most AI projects are often mocked as being no different from meme coins—mainly because Web3 AI projects lack substantial real-world products, and the integration of AI with Web3 feels unnatural, giving off the impression that crypto is forcibly riding the AI hype wave. Recently, the most successful application of AI in crypto has ironically been its fusion with memes. The emergence of GOAT ignited market sentiment, leading to an explosion of AI + meme coins such as GNON, ACT, SLOP, and Shoggoth.
These meme coins aren't simply AI-themed—they're actually created by AI Agents. So what exactly is an AI Agent? And which projects are worth watching? WOO X Research provides a comprehensive overview in this article.
What Is an AI Agent?
An AI Agent refers to an artificial intelligence capable of autonomously completing tasks without human intervention.
Traditional large language models (LLMs) provide rough information and general frameworks, whereas AI Agents deliver more detailed, context-specific insights. As a result, AI Agents hold greater potential in solving complex problems and automating tasks, offering more precise and practical solutions.
For example, if you ask an AI how to buy the cheapest headphones online, an LLM might give a generic response listing basic steps. An AI Agent, on the other hand, would directly place the order online for you—just like a personal assistant in real life.
In the Web2 space, notable AI Agent products include Perplexity (a search-focused tool), Google's NotebookLM (for summarizing long-form content), and Character (a virtual character creation system).
How Can AI Agents Integrate With Web3?
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Model Training: Infrastructure-focused projects require users to contribute data for model training, rewarding data providers with tokens. As more users join, platform revenue increases, attracting even more data contributors and improving model performance—a self-reinforcing flywheel effect stronger than traditional Web2 centralized data models. However, given that both AI and Web3 ecosystems are still in early stages—with limited user bases and intense competition among AI platforms—this model hasn’t yet delivered significant results.
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Bridging Information Gaps: Blockchain’s inherent transparency allows permissionless creation and use of financial products and services. But this also leads to overwhelming amounts of fragmented data spread across platforms, making it hard for users to access comprehensive, accurate information. AI Agents can aggregate blockchain data from various sources, delivering clear, simplified analysis and actionable insights to help users understand market dynamics, risks, and opportunities.
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Tokenization of AI Agents: Users can create and sell their own AI Agents on marketplaces, incentivizing development while enriching the platform’s offerings and enhancing token value capture.
Below are brief introductions to three notable AI Agent projects:
Myshell: Let Users Create Their Own AI Agents
Myshell is a platform enabling users to build personalized AI Agents and sell them in the official store for profit, with transactions priced in BNB. Currently, most available agents are anime-style female chatbots, covering categories such as work assistants, data queries, and online learning. The platform supports multiple language models including GPT, Gemini, Claude, and Meta Llama.
The team is currently running ongoing points campaigns and plans to launch its native token SHELL, which will be used to unlock premium features, reward developers, and pay usage fees.
Myshell has completed three funding rounds, raising at least $16.6 million. Notably, Binance Labs invested on August 15, while Dragonfly led its Pre-Seed round. A total of 19 institutions and angel investors participated. Among them is Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase and general partner at A16Z.
Virtual: An AI Agent Platform Focused on Entertainment
Virtual believes AI Agents represent the future of AI, focusing on deploying these agents within apps and games. Leveraging Web3, they enable AI Agents to be tokenized and collectively owned via blockchain. A simple example is NPCs in RPG games—each NPC could become a unique AI Agent, capable of persisting across game platforms, allowing players to form deeper, stickier experiences that ultimately boost game revenue.
Developed by Virtual Protocol, VIRTUAL Agents feature movement and speech in 3D environments, wallet-based on-chain transactions, and crucially, full tokenization—enabling trading (liquidity pool launches soon).
The flagship project is Luna, an AI-powered VTuber who streams 24/7 on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b19rf34ffTM). Viewers can interact with her through Virtual’s official website.
AI Agents built on Virtual can only be purchased using the platform token VIRTUAL, and all trades incur varying transaction fees—strengthening the token’s value capture mechanism. Virtual currently has a market cap of approximately $101 million; Luna’s market cap stands at around $50 million. Other tokens like Game and Convo have also shown strong price performance recently.
Creator.Bid: A Meme Coin Launchpad Through an AI Lens
Creator.Bid enables users to easily build and tokenize their own AI Agents to earn rewards, sharing them across platforms like Twitter, Telegram, and CreatorBid itself.
NFTs are used to ensure each AI Agent’s uniqueness—no two agents share the same codebase. These NFTs can be bought, sold, or transferred, offering flexibility. The model resembles existing meme coin launchpads: after creation, users must set an initial buy-in amount. This launch mechanism draws comparisons to Friend Tech and Pump Fun. The platform plans to issue a token, $AGENT, for value capture and governance, further reinforcing its flywheel economic model.
The project has secured funding from top-tier investors including Mechanism Capital (early backer of ARB), Zee Prime Capital (early investor in SOL), and Moonrock Capital (early supporter of MNT), though exact figures remain undisclosed. With its combination of Ponzi-like mechanics, SocialFi, and AI Agents, this multi-layered concept warrants close attention.
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