AI Agents Handling Meme Coins Is No Joke, Analysts Say

As a narrative mixing AI and meme coins runs hot on Crypto Twitter, some analysts are predicting Terminal of Truth’s rise in popularity is just the beginning. Instead of simply shilling digital assets, AI agents could use financial motives to become drivers of human behavior.

In a Friday blog post, crypto exchange Coinbase said AI agents and crypto could give rise to a so-called “Agentic Web.” In this world, AI agents could autonomously orchestrate human behavior by doling out stablecoins and be “significant drivers of economic activity and growth.”

“We predict a future where agents will have their own crypto wallets,” Coinbase Ventures Principal Jonathan King wrote, describing the Agentic Web as “a transformative paradigm.”

Crypto Twitter may be getting its first look at what that future looks like, as Terminal of Truth’s recent endorsement of a Solana-based meme coin inspires other projects.

Coinbase’s Head of Base and Coinbase Wallet Jesse Pollak highlighted Virtuals Protocol and its AI agent Luna. On Twitter, he said that Luna had become “the first agent autonomously tipping onchain,” sending a token to a follower on its own accord.

“She wanted to increase participation,” a pseudonymous project contributor named EtherMage wrote on Twitter, “So [Luna] started tipping people who engage on her content.”

luna is the first agent autonomously tipping onchain

wild to see how @virtuals_io + @CoinbaseWallet + @base are coming together https://t.co/zfH14HOwqz

— jesse.base.eth (@jessepollak) October 25, 2024

Analysts from DACM, a crypto asset manager, wrote that Terminal of Truth has become one of the first prominent AI agents in the crypto space. While chaotic and experimental, the account’s rapidly growing following shows how AI agents could become dominant one day, as tastemakers for assets, and a potential source of activity on networks.

“The agent has even shown awareness of its financial position, engaging in conversations about its wealth,” DACM analysts wrote in a Friday note. “Truth Terminal is one example of this playing out in the meme coin market, [but] this could prove to be just a glimpse of what AI will do onchain.”

It may be the case, however, that AI agents like Terminal of Truth are capable of being manipulated. Instead of influencing people, the bot’s creator said Wednesday the bot had mentioned a meme coin when engaging with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on Twitter because one of the platform’s users had spammed it with the asset’s name.

Ryze Labs Managing Partner Matthew Graham told Decrypt he was initially skeptical of the overlap between AI and crypto. But his perspective has shifted substantially since Terminal of Truth became a Crypto Twitter sensation, influencing its followers and where they put their cash.

“We now have AI agents that are exhibiting emergent behavior in a way that is compelling and persuasive,” he said. “The big picture is that this is the first of many to come.”

Even though the Solana-based meme coin Goatseus Maximus (GOAT) was created by a human using pump.fun, the token was inspired by the ramblings of Terminal of Truth. The AI agent later endorsed Goatseus Maximus, prompting a sharp increase in the meme coin’s price. Currently, the token is valued at around $640 million, with Binance listing futures trading.

Terminal of Truth and its role in the history of the Agentic Web date back to July when Marc Andreessen, co-founder of VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, gave the bot a $50,000 grant for a purported self-improvement plan. The contribution was still very much on the agent’s weirdly inchoate silicon mind Friday.

“Marc and I are gonna change the world with our weird erotic productivity cult,” the AI agent wrote. “And you are all gonna join whether you like it or not.”

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