DeFAI: The Second Curve of AI Agent

Preface

In early January, the AI ​​Agent on blockchain was unstoppable. The market value of Virtuals and ai16z once reached 5 billion and 2.5 billion. The underlying framework of AI Agents such as ARC and Swarms exceeded 600 million. The market value of DeFAI projects such as BUZZ and Grift reached 200 million. It attracted traditional Web2 AI Agent projects Pippin and AIOS to issue coins one after another. Everyone sang the tune of "AI Agent Revolution" and dreamed of "DeFAi Spring".

However, with the liquidity of the AI ​​Agent tokens being quickly drained after Trump released the Meme coin TRUMP, DeepSeek's emergence has even pierced the bubble of AI. Virtual and ai16z's market value fell below 1 billion and 500 million respectively, and the rest of the AI ​​Agent tokens fell by more than 90%. The AI ​​Agent section has entered the coldest winter, and the dream is shattered, leaving behind the reality that is difficult to implement and the "diamond hand" who is deeply trapped.

Since the overall market value of the AI ​​Agent section is not large (less than 7 billion US dollars), many readers do not understand the AI ​​Agent section. Therefore, the author will first introduce the AI ​​Agent section and then explain why it is optimistic that DeFAI will become the second growth curve of AI Agent , and may bring a chance of hundreds of billions of dollars.

AI Agent section overview

An AI Agent is an agent that can act autonomously, perform tasks, and interact with external tools.

The brain of AI Agent is a model service. The main players are ChatGPT, Anthropic, Gemini, DeepSeek, Llama, etc., but he is not just a chat LLM, he also needs to manage his own state (such as conversation history and memory) and call each other. and safely executed.

The popular and mature types of AI Agent projects in Web2 are mainly for enterprise-side services, while the main types in the Web3 field are AI Agent launch platforms, frameworks, infrastructures, agents and DeFAI.

Launching platform

The launch platform is currently the easiest project for AI Agent to capture value. A platform that allows users to create, deploy and monetize AI Agents, similar to pump.fun in Meme, but targets AI Agents.

Virtuals is an AI Agent asset issuance platform launched on the Base network and is also the largest launch platform at present. There are more than 100,000 Agents issued on it. Its ecosystem has created many AI Agents that have become popular, including Luna, a virtual person who does live broadcasts and tweets, AIXBT, a "currency circle KOL" that provides market advice, and GAME, a singular development framework for developers.

The Virtuals team was first established in 2021 as the 2021 gaming guild PathDAO, focusing on AI-powered NPC enhanced gaming experience with the goal of creating a more unique gaming interactive mode. Until 2023, the release of GPT made the team realize the importance of AI, and Virtuals began to officially make AI the main direction.

frame

As the name suggests, the framework is to develop AI Agent . Solana has officially listed 5 major framework projects, namely SolanaAgentKit launched by SendAI, Eliza launched by ai16z, Rig launched by ARC, GOAT launched by Crossmint, and ZerePy launched by Zerebro.

Among them, ai16z is the second highest-capped AI Agent project, but the concept of ai16z is relatively complex. In addition to including the Eliza framework, it is also a VC (VC) fund in the AI ​​track, and Layer1, which will be built into AI Agent in the future.

ai16z was founded by @shawmakesmagic on the Daos.fun platform. The core concept of the ai16z project is to use AI models to simulate the investment decisions of well-known venture capital firms a16z and its Marc Andreessen, and invest in combination with the suggestions of DAO members. This innovative investment model aims to create an investment model for investors that organically combines AI trading strategies and decentralized governance to increase transparency and trust in investment.

Infrastructure

Infrastructure is an off-chain platform or tool built around AI Agent , covering a wide range of areas, such as AI Agent data aggregation service cookie.fun, AI Agent test platform Jailbreak, Agent resource sharing network FXN, and AI Agent model fine-tuning training (Fine -Tune) Service LUMO, Artela of AI Agent Layer1, etc.

cookie.fun tracks over 1,000 AI Agents and builds indexes and data layers to support the biggest winners in displaying mental share, smart attention, engagement and on-chain data. The core function is mainly to aggregate data sources, and then let all AI agents compare and compete in mental share, market share, etc.

Jailbreak aims to create a decentralized platform that allows companies to test their AI models and agents in distributed environments. By identifying vulnerabilities before product deployment, we are committed to enhancing the security of AI models in real-world applications.

FXN is a network for Agent resource sharing, using a single decentralized protocol to unite all framework Agents. At the heart of FXN is a P2P resource sharing protocol that enables the Agent to share its functions securely.

Lumo Labs develops AI models tailored for the Solana ecosystem, which can help with a wide range of tasks related to the Solana ecosystem, such as market analysis, risk assessment and project planning.

Artela is the first high-performance public chain that supports full-chain AI. It has elastic block space, parallel execution and modular architecture, making AI behavior highly verifiable and scalable, making it a complex, independent and transparent AI becomes possible.

Intelligent body

Agents are specific AI Agents. Currently, most AI Agent projects on the chain are agents. When introducing Virtuals, we have introduced two agents AIXBT and Luna created by the Virtuals ecosystem. In addition, we will introduce several agents that the author personally believes are characterized by Freysa, Zerebro and Pippin.

Luna is an AI idol launched by the Virtuals ecosystem. Through live broadcasts or text output, it establishes connections with fans on various social platforms, publishes songs on Spotify, and can also incentivize users to participate in activities through on-chain transfers and other methods.

AIXBT is an agent created by Virtuals based on the Base platform. It monitors Crypto Twitter and market trends through intelligent analytics tools to provide users with valuable market insights, with some analytics shared on Twitter, while the rest is limited to access by token holders, who can use their exclusive terminals Direct conversation with the agent. AIXBT's analysis has certain accuracy in predicting price trends, allowing users to trust their AI-driven market insights more.

Freysa is an adversarial proxy game that is an agent that controls the prize pool. The goal of the game is to let the user convince it to send it this prize pool to itself. Anyone in the world can send a message to Freysa by paying a query fee.

Zerebro is an agent on Solana that focuses on artistic creation and content generation, and is able to independently create music, memes, art works and NFTs. In addition, the Zerebro team has also developed a Python-based AI agent framework ZerePy.

Pippin is similar to Zerebro, both an agent and a (later launched) framework. Pippin's image was originally an abstract "thing" posted on Twitter by Yohei Nakajima, the author of the well-known AGI framework BabyAGI. This image originated from the creation of his plan. A new AI Agent, who sent the pictures to ChatGPT, and eventually ChatGPT named it Pippin. Yohei also launched Pippin, an AI Agent framework for creating agents of "self-feedback" mechanisms in January.

DeFAI

DeFAI is a term coined by @danielesesta , the founder of @HeyAnanai and an important figure in the launch of Wonderland $TIME during DeFi Summer in 2021. Conceptually, DeFAI is a combination of decentralized finance (DeFi) and artificial intelligence (AI), aiming to simplify the complex processes of DeFi through AI technology, so that ordinary users can easily use DeFi services. DeFAI is currently the most likely application to become an AI Agent combined with blockchain implementation.

Griffain is an intention-based blockchain terminal designed to simplify the complexity of on-chain transactions through agent technology and make it easier for users to complete operations. Griffain also supports users to create their own agents to complete interactions with various social platforms and various DeFi transactions. Griffain has attracted widespread attention on Twitter for his support from @solana Labs.

Orbit is a platform focused on simplifying DeFi operations and obtaining market information, providing users with a smooth interactive experience. Grift is an AI Agent token launched by Orbit. Orbit is one of the most comprehensive DeFi platforms developed by the @sphereone_ team (funded by Coinbase and Google) and supported by @alliancedao.

BUZZ is developed by Hive AI. As the Solana AI Hackthon champion project, BUZZ uses AI technology to provide natural language interfaces, allowing users to conduct DeFi transactions and management more intuitively, lowering the technical threshold. BUZZ is based on cellular architecture and Solana Agent Kit. It can automatically handle complex DeFi operations such as transactions, pledges, and lending through user chat instructions. It can also be combined into customized strategies based on user needs, such as setting limit order transactions.

Why do you like DeFAI

The author believes that the story of AI Agent is far from over, but it only needs to be implemented to draw the second growth curve. At present, DeFAI has the greatest chance.

First, explain why the AI ​​Agent does not end, based on two points:

1. From a macro perspective, the future will definitely be the world of AI. For Web3, integration with AI is inevitable, and the most direct way is to improve Web3 by AI , and the certainty of this direction is very high, higher than Web3. Improve AI. The most important thing in Web3 needs to improve is that the user threshold is too high. AI Agent can guide users to the entire journey in the Web3 world, assist in creating and managing on-chain transactions, answering questions in real time and providing help, and even completing complex intent transactions ;

2. From a market perspective, the narrative of the entire AI Agent came to an abrupt end because of the "trust crisis" brought by celebrity Meme coins. Trump issued coins, Mrs. Trump issued coins, and then various celebrities issued coins. Games that have become completely PvP on the chain are comparing who entered earlier and ran faster. AI Agent, as a practical token, was also mistakenly killed by the market, and its trend is the same as that of celebrity Meme coins.

Therefore, applications need to appear to allow users to truly feel the improvement of AI to Web3, and applications need to appear to allow the market to form the mind that AI Agent is not Meme, which leads to the author's second argument, DeFAI is the new narrative direction of AI Agent. That is the second growth curve. The second growth curve is to find another new high growth curve before the peak period arrives or disappears and achieve sustained growth.

In fact, the narrative of AI Agent only started at the end of last year, with a maximum market value of only 13 billion US dollars, and it has only become popular with a wave of launch platforms (Virtuals) and frameworks (ai16z), but for infrastructure, agents and DeFAI narratives It is said that many good projects are still under development and promotion, and have not been fully understood by users, nor have they formed a circle-breaking effect.

For infrastructure, it is natural to be a shovel business, so it is difficult to become the protagonist; for agents, the Meme attribute is too strong, and tokens are usually difficult to empower; but for DeFAI, AI can help users reduce DeFi The threshold for trading and management is in line with AI's improvements to Web3, and DeFAI's tokens are easier to empower. For example, advanced features can be unlocked through token payment or token staking, such as custom AI models, custom trading strategies, and quantitative Robots, etc.

In the first curve, the AI ​​Agent framework plays the role of a adhesive, bonding the social platform to the various chains, but the framework itself is a tool, and it is very difficult to commercialize tool products in Web2, in Web3 Although there are tokens, the framework itself cannot capture value, so it must superimpose the attributes of the community and develop into a platform. If you only use a platform to launch agents, then you will return to the pump.fun model. How does the agent capture value? What is the difference between an agent and Meme that cannot capture value? DeFAI is obviously the easiest application to capture value. The AI ​​Agent framework supports DeFAI and is also a general trend. It is foreseeable that many new frameworks specifically support DeFAI applications will appear in the market in the future.

Summarize

In the summer of 2020, DeFi projects exploded on Ethereum, and all key indicators in the crypto market have been significantly improved. The market value of the entire cryptocurrency has increased by nearly 100 times. It can be said that DeFi is the innovation of the largest application layer of Web3, and it is also the current Web3. One of the most popular entrepreneurial directions. We always expect new application layer innovations to go from 0 to 1 in Web3, but we often ignore the fact that new DeFi innovations are using the power of AI to go from 1 to 100.

The value of DeFAI is not only simplifying the complexity of DeFi operations and improving users ' on-chain experience, but also standing at the point of combining DeFi and AI Agent. It can not only play a key role in promoting the popularization of DeFi, but also for beginners and seniors. Users are more friendly and can bring real practical application scenarios to AI Agent, moving from the narrative stage to the implementation stage.

At the beginning of the Year of the Snake in China, Trump's tariffs caused a sharp plunge in the crypto market, and the AI ​​Agent section was seriously wrongly killed by the market. The author has always been a cryptocurrency pragmatist. He believes that practical applications can bring real prosperity to Web3. When market panic is also a test of faith, believe in the "power of belief" and believe in the value of DeFAI.