Editor's note: This article discusses the correct way to build a crypto AI agent. First, it emphasizes that agents should be a supplement to core products, enhancing product value by changing user paths, rather than relying solely on tokens. Entrepreneurs should focus on solving practical problems, building sustainable core products, and then promoting and monetizing through agents and tokens.
The following is the original content (for easier reading and understanding, the original content has been reorganized):
The market has experienced retracement after retracement, and liquidity has gradually become thinner. The largest market value of a new agent that has been successfully launched recently is about $10 million.
By "successful" I mean that the product has product-market fit (PMF), provides value to actual users, and has started (or will start) generating revenue. This is very different from the situation three or four months ago, when the maximum market cap of agents with PMF could reach more than $100 million, especially if they were positioned as an agent + framework/launch platform token. For example, AVA, as a 3D agent, not only as an agent itself, but also through its audio-visual layer It derives value from the launch platform and supported projects.
Old manual: Agent as a framework
The approach at the time was to launch a proxy to demonstrate its capabilities, attract developers who wanted to build their own proxies, and require these developers to hold/burn/pay proxy tokens to access the framework. The problem is that the crypto community places an excessive premium on framework tokens, and these "framework proxies" often lack differentiation. In many cases, they don't even have a product - they just chatter on Twitter and hope the token price goes up.
The first version of the agent featured the conversational agent itself as a product, which was unique in crypto because we place more emphasis on community building — similar to founder-led marketing (founders gain attention by chattering). It seemed like a good idea to have agents chattering about your project as a way to gain attention for your project — it worked well when it first launched in November 2024 for a month. But now, with 420,690 agents chattering nonstop, most of them seem immature, repetitive, and frankly, annoying.
New Handbook: Agency as a Business
Here’s how you should think about launching an agency — which means you’ll be running a startup and managing up to three products at once:
1. Core products (actual business)
Your core product should solve a real problem. It shouldn’t just be a conversational agent, but a real product.
Example:
Improve the prediction model of sports betting odds to help users win more in sports betting (for example, the crypto community AskBillyBets).
Crypto asset prediction models that enable better trading, reduce temporary losses, and maximize returns for liquidity providers (e.g., Crypto Community Cod3xOrg, Crypto Community gizatechxyz, Crypto Community Almanak).
An AI agent researching search engines that aggregates insights from top alpha sources like Cookie, Kaito, Nansen, Messari, Aixbt, CG, Dexscreener, and Bubblemaps to help with investment decisions (no team is solving this problem yet — we need an AI agent like Perplexity).
The core product should be the first priority for every team before launching a token. You need to make sure there is real demand in the market and that users are willing to pay for it. Otherwise, you will fall into the "Death Valley" in the crypto world, and the consequences may be more serious than those of traditional startups:
High operating costs.
Use tokens to pay for customer acquisition costs (CAC).
Token price plummets → reputation collapses → no one cares about your project.
If your token plummets, it will become a curse. Most people will not care about your project, no matter how strong your core product is or how much progress you have made.
Rather than relying on token incentives, focus on attracting customers through products. Find a profitable model that balances growth and revenue generation.
The KaitoAI handbook from the crypto community is a great case study:
They built an enterprise product — a crypto search engine focused on social/emotion/narratives, and provided real value by charging users, projects, and the ecosystem.
They launched the Mindshare Dashboard, which became the standard for tracking narratives and trends.
· They stepped up their efforts and launched the Yapper rankings to get KOLs to share it spontaneously as a status symbol.
They further launched NFT WL and KAITO airdrops to incentivize Twitter interactions through real rewards.
This is not easy to replicate, but the lesson is: first find PMF, generate revenue, get people excited before launching the token. Once you get attention (hype) and revenue, you can move to the next level.
Likewise, communication is extremely important. Many projects have great products but poor communication. If no one knows what you are doing, no one will care.
2. Tokens (alignment tool)
We’ve moved from “venture capital coins” to “fair launches,” celebrating high-circulation, low-FDV tokens. But fair launches aren’t entirely fair — every token strategy has its tradeoffs.
If you launch a proxy token with high circulation and low FDV structure, you will not be able to raise funds from venture capitalists and angel investors (because the valuation is too low). However, you can use the token as a marketing tool to start mindshare.
Many teams will launch two types of tokens:
·Proxy Tokens → Enable mindshare.
Eco-tokens → Raise funds from venture capitalists and angel investors at higher valuations.
But this will create a mismatch of expectations - the community expects an airdrop, and when the eco-token is launched, capital is transferred from the proxy token to the eco-token, causing the proxy token price to collapse. Managing the core product + proxy token + eco-token while ensuring the value accumulation of each token is very complex.
In an ideal world, there should be a token that accrues all value from the core product. Historically, projects that generate revenue and funnel it back into the token (either through buybacks or revenue distributions) have survived in the long term.
Tokens should be complementary to the core product, not a requirement. For a deeper dive into proxy token strategies, check out VaderResearch’s analysis of Virtuals IO’s Proxy Token Playbook.
3. Agent (supplementary products)
“Agents” refer to conversational agents built using frameworks like ElizaOS, GAME, ARC, Pippin, etc. Although these agents integrate on-chain/off-chain capabilities, they should be complementary products to the core products.
Agencies should enhance the value of the core product by changing the user journey:
Instead of asking users to actively find and use your product, let agents bring it to them.
This can mean:
· Showcase your product directly on Twitter via text/video.
Use agents as AI companions to change the way users interact (similar to ChatGPT’s abstraction).
The agent acts as the interface itself and performs tasks behind the scenes.
Of course, there are exceptions. The aixbt agent is an example - it provides real-time social and sentiment analysis from Twitter, allowing users to obtain real-time Alpha signals before others. Aixbt has become the No. 1 KOL on CT by continuously providing Alpha and demonstrating the capabilities of the terminal. In this case, the agent itself is the product.
However, this model is very difficult to replicate. Most projects should first focus on strengthening the core product.
A successful example of a product-first company is cookiedotfun:
Start with a free AI agent dashboard to attract users.
· Move to a pay-per-use model to unlock advanced insights by locking cookies.
Monetize by providing an API to projects and agencies.
Launched agentcookiefun to bring insights directly to Twitter.
Summarize
In 2020-21, launching a token required mastering Solidity. But now platforms like pumpdotfun make it easy to tokenize anything.
This changes the mindset - people are no longer focused on building real products, but instead are launching tokens directly. This approach is "garbage in, garbage out", and capital will quickly move to the next "garbage".
We need to change this.
In order to build a sustainable project, you should treat the agency project as a startup. Instead of looking for funds between CT, VC and angel investors, it is better to build a project with long-term value - not for the next 6 months, but for the next 6 years.
Innovate, solve real problems, and create real businesses — not just build the next speculative token farm.
The future of encrypted AI agents depends on it.
