Why must we have confidence in the AI Agent赛道?
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Why must we have confidence in the AI Agent赛道?
AI Agents have broken the previous narrative of purely "on-chain" Lego-like stacking structures. A new infrastructure requirement is now on the agenda—one that integrates both on-chain and off-chain components to support AI Agents' autonomy, immortality, and multimodal collaboration.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Haotian
Why must we have confidence in the AI Agent赛道? Let me lay out a few lines of reasoning:
1) While similar to inscription赛道 in that the FOMO around AI Agents still centers on "asset issuance," unlike engraving flowers on gold with limited utility, AI Agents are inherently "application-first." You might doubt whether a single AI like $AIXBT can justify a $500M market cap, but @aixbt_agent as a top-tier KOL has earned widespread recognition for its growing follower base and practical value—its analysis and strategies are genuinely used by investors.
For any individual AI, superior product user experience is foundational—only then can additional expectations be stacked on top;
2) The lightweight, thin-application deployment of AI Agents, meme-driven community distribution, and IGO (via GitHub) listing models are reshaping the old innovation narrative previously driven by VC capital pitching roadmaps and exiting through TGEs.
The rigid DEX → CEX tiered listing supply chain fails to address high FDV listings and retail investors’ difficulty in realizing gains. So why not change the order entirely—giving retail a real chance to access quality assets from the very beginning?
3) The emergence of AI Agents isn’t merely layering on a new narrative—it has redemptive power over stagnant old narratives. For example, metaverse felt extremely abstract during the last NFT-driven cycle due to high development costs and execution challenges. But within the context of AI Agents, the metaverse becomes far more grounded. Similarly, DeFi’s persistent issue of human-led rug pulls could be restructured via AI Agents autonomously managing private keys.
AI Agents possess the transformative ability to turn obsolete narratives into something magical. The recent surge in TEE is just the beginning—wait for “chain abstraction,” “zkVM,” and “intent-centric” narratives to gradually become focal points in the market;
4) The current market cap for AI Agents in web3 is a mere $15B. To catch up with a DeFi Summer-level narrative, it could reach an estimated $300B–$500B market space—an incremental expectation of 20x to 50x already. And if you factor in the broader web2 market worth trillions, you’ll realize AI Agents are still in their infancy.
Don’t overlook the fact that DeFi’s TVL (total value locked) is fundamentally different from how AI Agents are valued via MCAP. If AI Agents incorporate the multiplier effect of SaaS platform economics, their potential scale vastly exceeds DeFi’s pure TVL-based valuation;
5) The two turbocharged engines driving AI Agents—#ai16z and #Virtual—are rapidly吸引 all resources related to both Crypto and AI markets. Rather than viewing ai16z as just a project, think of it as a major commercial IP that accelerates the evolution of the entire AI ecosystem—including platforms offering AI compute, data, inference, algorithms—as well as adjacent sectors like DeFi, SocialFi, prediction markets, DePIN, GameFi, etc.
The recent launch of Aipool $MetaV by ai16z, which catapulted the previously obscure @PhalaNetwork into prominence, is a prime example. Clinging to ai16z isn't just a slogan—it marks the start of a catalytic “catfish effect” sweeping across the industry. Soon, DeFAI, GamfAI, SocialFAI, DePINFAI, and others will follow in waves;
6) AI Agents are naturally products of off-chain environments, yet the process of “on-chain integration” is now unfolding at full speed. Data training for LLMs and prompt interactions happen off-chain, and even backend data storage and frontend UX for AI Agents rely heavily on off-chain platforms like Twitter and Discord.
This implies a strong demand for “on-chain integration,” creating opportunities for new projects built on frameworks like ElizaOS—for instance, the emergence of $Focai. It also opens doors for legacy public chains to embrace this new growth vector, such as @GoPlusSecurity integrating security module plugins.
One thing is clear: AI Agents have shattered the previous narrative of purely “on-chain” Lego-like stacking. A brand-new infrastructure agenda has emerged—one that blends on-chain and off-chain elements—to support autonomous, immortal, multimodal collaborative AI Agents. With such massive incremental potential, isn’t this far more promising than passively waiting for application adoption alone?
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Haotian | CryptoInsight
