The rise of AI agents is reminiscent of the beginning of the corporation era two centuries ago, a crypto executive said.
“I think it perfectly parallels to the 19th-century advent of the corporation: able to enter contracts itself, hire humans, own things, and outlive people,” Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley said in a Dec. 30 X post reflecting on the current state of AI agents:
“Corporations were feared and now number in the millions. We all work for them, and they produce everything we use and consume.”
“Why won’t AI Agents be similar?” Horsley said.
AI agent “fever” expected in 2025
Crypto trader Alex Becker said in a Dec. 30 X post that 2025 will be the year of “AI agent/AI fever in all industries.”
Agenic AIs are gaining traction in the industry for their ability to build Web3 applications, launch tokens and even interact with humans.
One AI agent that has notably been receiving attention is AIXBT, which claims to deliver real-time market updates to its fast-growing X following.
Since its launch in November, it has already amassed 246,900 followers.
Matt Hougan, asset manager Bitwise’s head of research, recently told Cointelegraph: “The potential universe of AI agents interacting with crypto is infinite.”
Most recently, it was reported on Dec. 29 that agentic AI platform ai16z is mulling launching its own layer-1 (L1) blockchain network as part of a broader tokenomics overhaul.
Over the past 24 hours, ai16z clocked a 40.7% price increase, trading at $1.63 at the time of publication, according to CoinMarketCap data.
In a Dec. 30 post, Blockworks researcher Dan Smith said that AI tokens launched on the Virtuals Protocol (Virtual) — which claims to be building a co-ownership layer for AI agents in gaming and entertainment — now make up 12% of the total DEX trading volume on the Base network.
During 2024, Virtual has skyrocketed 6,851% and is now trading at $3.46.
Related: Grayscale adds AI launchpads, Solana DeFi apps to Q1 2025 top tokens
However, Real Vision co-founder and CEO Raoul Pal said today’s AI agents don’t accurately reflect what will emerge in the next few years.
“I’m not sure what you all think AI agents are, but they aren’t what we are seeing on X currently … those are just bots. In a year or two, you’ll see the difference.” Pal said in a Dec. 30 X post.
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This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
