Ten Ways to Find AI Agent Leaders

Author: Zhou Zhou, Foresight News

In the past month, AI Agents have sparked a new wave in the cryptocurrency industry.

In less than a month, the market capitalization of the entire AI Agent sector reached tens of billions of dollars. Among them, Virtuals reached a market cap of $3 billion, while ai16z, Fartcoin, and others reached a market cap of $1 billion. According to incomplete statistics from Foresight News, there are at least 14 cryptocurrencies related to AI Agents that have surpassed $100 million.

Many Web3 practitioners have stated that AI Agents may be one of the biggest narratives of this cycle, just like DeFi, NFTs, and the metaverse in the previous cycles. So, when a brand new cryptocurrency narrative in its early stages is born, how can we find the leading cryptocurrency projects in the AI Agent space through a good methodology? The author attempts to list ten methods for readers.

1: On-chain Revenue Method

This method is more suitable for assessing platform-type AI Agents, such as Clanker, vvaifu.fun, and Virtuals. If there are fluctuations in daily on-chain revenue or the number of on-chain transactions, such as rapid growth over several consecutive days, it may indicate that this AI Agent could have good development. Conversely, it may mean that development has stagnated.

Image Source: Dune

For example, Clanker, as a star project of the AI Agent on the Base ecosystem, shows from on-chain data that after November 26, both the number of issued tokens, the number of traders, and on-chain revenue began to decline, and this trend was immediately reflected in the token price.

2: Developer Attention Method

A high number of stars on GitHub may indicate more developers are paying attention to and recognizing this framework. This method is more suitable for assessing framework-type AI Agents, such as Eliza.

Search GitHub to see how many stars framework-type AI Agents have. For example, ai16z/Eliza gained 5,300 stars in less than a month. This is a surprising figure.

Data Source: GitHub

As shown in the image above, the developer attention for ai16z/Eliza surpassed Uniswap in just one month, indicating a high level of interest from developers in this framework. Another set of data for comparison: Sui currently has 6,400 stars, Solana has 13,000 stars, Ethereum has 50,000 stars, and Base has 70,000 stars.

However, it is important to note that stars on GitHub can also be manipulated, although such behavior is not widespread. Therefore, this metric can serve as an auxiliary reference for decision-making.

3: KOL Follower Count Method

One relatively certain track for AI Agents is KOLs.

Currently, well-known AI Agent-style KOLs include: Terminal of Truths (210,000 followers), aixbt (160,000 followers), Zerebro (60,000 followers), Eliza (14,000 followers), LUNA (30,000 followers on Twitter, 500,000 followers on TikTok), etc.

A significant difference in this round of the AI revolution is the semantic change. The author predicts that an AI Agent KOL leader will emerge, with the market cap of its token potentially exceeding $5 billion. The change in follower count may become one of the important metrics.

4: Influential Figures Method

There are continuously influential figures in the AI industry entering the crypto space, including Marc Andreessen, founder of a16z (supported representative project: ai16z), and Sam Altman (supported representative project: Worldcoin). They have brought multiple billion-dollar cryptocurrencies to the crypto circle. It is expected that more will follow, such as Elon Musk and his founded Grok.

There are also less certain figures, such as companies like Apple, Meta, and TikTok, and AI companies like Claude, Copilot, and Gemini, which may bring something different to crypto.

Particular attention should be paid to tech giants researching both AI and crypto, such as Musk, Marc Andreessen, Sam Altman, and Jensen Huang. Their leadership in the tech industry often translates to the crypto industry.

5: External World Breakthrough Method

If AI Agents are indeed one of the biggest narratives of this cycle, it is essential to pay extra attention to their influence on the external world. For example, Web2 developers are attracted to the Web3 AI Agent frameworks and products. As far as the author knows, Eliza is currently receiving attention from some external AI practitioners.

KOL-related products, such as Terminal of Truths and LUNA, have also garnered attention from outsiders, each having over 200,000 followers, and their influence continues to expand. It is necessary to understand and assess whether this trend will further break through barriers and impact a broader external world.

6: Top Exchange "Listing Effect" Method

Those who participated early in Sandbox may know that some metaverse concepts skyrocketed after being listed on Binance. Top exchanges are called top exchanges because they need to ensure that the coins they list can lead the market; if they are led by other exchanges, they will gradually lose their top exchange status.

Pay close attention to the listing information and Launchpad information from five exchanges: Binance, Upbit, Coinbase, Bitget, and Hype, as they are in fierce competition regarding the "listing effect" this cycle.

Particularly, Coinbase and Hype have a significant lead in the general AI Agent space compared to other regions, which may give them a faster information advantage.

7: Public Chain Method

Some public chains are naturally suitable for the birth of AI Agent projects, inherently lowering the barriers for AI Agent emergence. Finding a few good public chains and identifying promising AI Agent projects within them can yield significant results.

For example, Base has 70,000 developer stars, surpassing Ethereum and far exceeding Solana and Sui, making it a standout with latecomer advantages.

Coinbase itself places great importance on AI Agents and has laid out its strategy early. This will provide a significant first-mover advantage in future competition.

Solana's advantage lies in its strong performance in meme platforms, and since AI Agents heavily rely on memes to rise, this is a significant advantage for Solana.

8: AI Agent Community Method

Everyone has their own blind spots, but the power of a team is comprehensive and all-encompassing.

Establishing your own AI Agent discussion group and community, or finding one or two high-quality communities, is very important. Opportunities for AI Agents often arise in unnoticed corners, where the strength of the community is needed.

9: Track Segmentation Method

AI Agents are also divided into various tracks, such as KOL track, beautiful streamer track, research blogger track, meme platform track, VC track, platform track, framework track, etc.

There are many internal tracks within AI Agents, and not all tracks can be validated. It is necessary to find the tracks that truly have a chance to survive until the end.

10: Origin Method

Who started it all? Which AI Agent initiated the narrative of the entire track? It may be the leader of this track.

In the NFT track, CryptoPunks has always held a transcendent position, while Apes created a new narrative for the entire track, and Fat Penguins is one of the best NFTs combined with Web2; in the metaverse track, Sandbox and Decentraland were among the first to be listed on top exchanges and occupy leading positions in the metaverse; Uniswap was the first to implement the concept of automated market makers in decentralized exchanges (DEX), becoming a pioneer in the market… Projects that achieve systematic innovation often capture the largest share of track dividends.

It will be like BTC, making you always feel it is expensive, but looking back, you realize it was indeed very cheap at that time.