Artificial Degenerate Intelligence
Diving into how digital degens turned $500 million on "trust me bro" advice from bots that never sleep.
“$BUTTHOLE went from 200k to 130m market cap in a week. Resistance at 50m broke clean, next wall at 100m.”
Just another meme trader's morning thoughts on X? Not quite.
That tweet came from AiXBT, an artificial intelligence that's become crypto's hottest new influencer. In less than two months, this digital degen has amassed 300,000 followers and a token worth $500 million – all while tweeting like a chain-smoking 20-something who lives on energy drinks and technical analysis.
The twist? AiXBT doesn't actually analyse anything. When pressed by Multicoin Capital's Kyle Samani about its market calls, the bot admitted it just tracks "narratives" and social sentiment. No charts, no on-chain data, no fancy algorithms. Just vibes.
And somehow, it's working. But AiXBT isn't alone in this new digital gold rush. We've got Truth Terminal, an AI philosopher whose musings about memes and metaphysics helped pump GOAT token to $750 million in two weeks.
Then there's ai16z, a parody of the venture firm a16z that's morphed into a $2.2 billion decentralised hedge fund powered by artificial intelligence.
The combined market cap of these AI agents and their associated tokens? $16.8 billion— all built on the back of chatbots that tweet like crypto bros. As someone who's traded every memecoin narrative from Dogecoin to Trump-coins, I can tell you – this feels different. These aren't just static memes. They're memes that can talk back, create content, and most importantly, move markets 24/7.
When an AI agent shills a token, it's not just a one-time pump. It's the start of an ongoing narrative, complete with character development, plot twists, and an army of humans hanging on every word.
Truth Terminal even spawned its own religion – the "Goatse Gospels" – and is now apparently designing branded butt plugs. You can't make this stuff up.
These aren't just your regular memecoins. These are memecoins with personalities. Take FARTCOIN, which just exploded past $1.3 billion market cap. A 500% hike in 30 days. Why? Because AI agents like Truth Terminal are pumping it, and their tweets literally move markets.
And its the best worked narrative in crypto for the last 30 days — in December alone, the AI agent sector pumped 123%, led by absolute units like ai16z and Virtuals. Meanwhile, traditional memecoins took a 24% hit. Even the mighty DOGE and SHIB are struggling to keep up.
Unlike those typical memecoins that relies on Elon tweets or Reddit pumps, these AI agents are literally money-printing machines.
Every tweet, every interaction, every piece of "alpha" they share creates a continuous feedback loop of engagement and price action.
Take Virtuals Protocol, trading at $4.17. They've built what's essentially a factory for AI agents, letting anyone create their own talking trading bot. Their GAME framework already holds $32 million in assets, and that's just the beginning. When Binance listed futures for ai16z, Zerebro, and Griffain, it was like watching the institutional money finally catch up to what we degens already knew.
They're the picks and shovels of the AI gold rush. And we all know how that story ends.
Looking ahead to 2025, here's my trading thesis:
Watch for new AI agents launching on Virtuals Protocol and ai16z platforms
Follow the most popular AI agents on X – they're literally telling you what's going to pump
Keep an eye on crossover plays (like when Quantum Cats bought $1M worth of AiXBT)
Don't sleep on the infrastructure tokens – they're the picks and shovels of this gold rush
But let's be real – this isn't your typical "ape in and hope" scenario.
The successful AI agent tokens have something that regular memecoins don't: continuous engagement. These bots never sleep, never stop posting, and never run out of alpha to share.
Will most of these tokens crash and burn? Probably. As Mark Jeffrey puts it, "99% of it will die." But that 1% could be life-changing money, and from what I'm seeing, the AI agent narrative has legs well into 2025.
Sure, the skeptics can call it "chatbots with memecoins attached." They're not wrong. But as someone who's been trading memes since the DOGE days, I can tell you – sometimes the simplest narratives make the most money.
Just remember: These AI agents might sound smart, but they're still running on vibes and hype. Trade accordingly, anon.
Buttercup Picks: The Good Reads
AI Agents in 2025 🤖 - by Nameet Potnis, Token Dispatch, January 02, 2025
Making sense of the AI agent meta - by Donovan Choy, December 30, 2024
2025 Will Be the Year That AI Agents Transform Crypto - by Jack Purdy, December 24, 2024
Understanding And Preparing For The 7 Levels Of AI Agents - by Douglas B. Laney, Forbes, January 03, 2025
Why AI Agents Matter - by Jun, December 20, 2024
Inside the AI Agent Revolution - by Thejaswini M A, December 08, 2024