Visualizing AI in Crypto: Mindmaps and Key Insights from 2024
In mid-2024, HashKey Capital released AI into Crypto, highlighting the growing prominence of AI Agents. By the second half of 2024, this trend had surged, prompting the HashKey Capital research team to create a comprehensive brain map of AI Agents to better understand the current landscape.
In this article, we delve into the evolution of AI Agents, exploring their functions and applications, platforms and launchpads, MEME dynamics, blockchain-specific developments, and the frameworks and tools driving their growth.
Functionality and Applications
The first significant development in the AI Agent landscape is social media bots, exemplified by projects like @truth_terminal. These bots are trained on specific datasets and generate contextually relevant tweets, which are screened and posted to social platforms by their creators. While their training content and account permissions differ, these social bots mark a crucial step in integrating AI into social media ecosystems.
As these communities evolve, social media bots are extending their functionality to include token issuance. For instance, Clanker enables users to interact on Farcaster by tagging “@Clanker,” specifying a token name, and generating tokens. It also creates a datalink to clanker.world, allowing users to view and manage their tokens, thus merging social interactivity with token economics.
Another major category of AI Agents focuses on on-chain execution, enabling activities such as token creation, on-chain transfers, and executing blockchain commands through social media platforms. While there are numerous projects in this domain, not all are clearly labeled, making it harder to assess the full scope of this trend. However, it’s evident that this area remains a priority for community developers, with several intent-based projects gradually shifting their focus to on-chain execution Agents.
AI Venture Funds and Investment Agents
The launch of ai16z in October 2024 — the first AI-driven venture fund — was a game-changer for the AI Agent market, driving its total market value to $2.5 billion within two months, before settling at $1 billion. Launched on @daosdotfun, ai16z operates as a DAO where its token, $ai16z, represents both voting rights and investment shares. The DAO is autonomously managed by @pmairca, an AI Agent created by @shawmakesmagic, which executes transactions directly from the DAO’s vault.
Other investment-focused AI Agents bring diverse approaches to decision-making. For example, @sekoia_virtuals emphasizes data-driven investment decisions, reflecting the evolving sophistication of AI Agents in the financial ecosystem.
On-Chain Treasury Strategies and DeFai
While on-chain investing is progressing rapidly, on-chain treasury strategies are developing at a slower pace. The emergence of the DeFai (DeFi + AI) concept in January 2025 has spotlighted projects that integrate on-chain execution with DeFi treasury strategies, gaining significant traction within the community. These projects aim to streamline and optimize treasury management, leveraging AI-driven insights to improve efficiency and returns.
Expanding Use Cases for Crypto AI Agents
Beyond these core functionalities, Crypto AI Agents are diversifying into niche applications, including fan management, token management, payments, and delivery services. While these areas remain less prominent and are developing more slowly, they contribute to the growing richness and versatility of Crypto AI Agents, signaling the potential for broader adoption and innovation in the space.
This dynamic and multifaceted evolution underscores how AI Agents are shaping the next phase of crypto, combining technology, automation, and financial innovation to redefine user experiences across the ecosystem.
Platform and Launchpad Developments
On the platform and launchpad side, Virtuals.io has positioned itself as a leader in the AI Agent space following a transformative second half of 2024. By launching several successful Agents and pioneering the idea of Agents as assets rather than tools, Virtuals.io has established itself as a cornerstone in the ecosystem. Its token, $virtual, peaked with a total market cap of nearly $5 billion, now stabilizing at $2.5 billion. Virtuals.io distinguishes itself with a unique community-driven operational style, a carefully curated Agent issuance rhythm, and token designs integrated with its DeFi playground.
In contrast, platforms like Olas.network take a different approach, focusing on foundational network layers and more basic protocol-level innovations. These differences in strategy and product focus highlight the diverse trajectories within the AI Agent space.
Development Frameworks and Tools
A significant explosion of development frameworks and tools occurred in late 2024, further advancing the AI Agent landscape. Leading the pack is ElizaOS, the core framework for ai16z, featuring a highly developed architecture consisting of the following components:
- Provider: Encapsulates code to retrieve information.
- Action: Executes operations.
- Evaluator: Extracts information and converts it into knowledge.
- AI Model: Supports various AI models.
- Memory: Stores execution results, compresses data, and allows extraction of relevant information through the Evaluator.
Other frameworks differ in development languages and purposes. For instance, @arcdotfun’s RIG framework is Rust-based, while ZerePY is built on Zerebro’s open-source Python framework. Specialized frameworks like FXN coordinate resource API scheduling by using Agents as interfaces for off-chain systems. This modularity allows subscribers to access different resource services efficiently.
The MEME Landscape
The MEME token trend dominated the market in 2024, with AI Agents serving as key drivers. Two distinct forms of MEME tokens have emerged:
1. Community-Initiated MEMEs: These are decentralized, originating from grassroots movements. For example, the community around @truth_terminal launched $GOAT on the Solana chain after VC Marc Andreessen donated $50,000 in BTC to the bot. This initiative, inspired by the bot’s obsession with propagating the fictional “Goatse Gospel,” garnered significant attention and saw nearly 2 million tokens sent to a wallet address created for the bot.
2. Project-Initiated MEMEs: These tokens often aim to generate community hype. While they can attract short-term interest, their prices are highly volatile, frequently collapsing to zero within weeks or months.
In some cases, tokens launched directly by Agents themselves become viral MEMEs, further fueling speculation and community interest.
Blockchain Deployment Trends
Most AI Agent projects and tokens are currently deployed on the Solana chain, where leaders like ai16z and ElizaOS dominate. Base has also become a hub for the AI Agent community, bolstered by Virtuals.io’s success. However, other chains such as Hyperliquid, Arbitrum, and ZKsync host smaller AI Agent projects that often experience higher price volatility and lower overall performance.
Key Observations and Trends
From analyzing the AI Agents industry, several key takeaways emerge:
1. Ecosystem Growth: Certain single Agents have the potential to evolve into larger ecosystems, even though the industry’s upstream and downstream structures are still nascent.
2. Inter-Agent Interaction: The emergence of inter-agent architectures and supporting tools is enhancing collaboration and functionality between Agents.
3. Agent Economics: The development of stablecoin-based payment systems for Agents and other economic frameworks will further mature the space.
4. Diverse Narratives: AI-related narratives such as “unlearning,” “jailbreaks,” and “virtual towns” will expand, while MEME hype will continue to generate vibrant discussions.
5. Rise of AI Developers as Influencers: The apotheosis of AI developers and the rise of influential Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) will drive innovation and community engagement.
These trends underscore the evolving role of AI Agents as foundational players in the crypto ecosystem, shaping new opportunities and innovations.
