AI Agent and DeFAI: New Opportunities in the Blockchain Field

At the beginning of January, AI Agents sparked a wave of enthusiasm in the blockchain field. The market capitalization of Virtuals and ai16z once soared to several billion dollars, while the market capitalization of underlying frameworks like ARC and Swarms also exceeded 600 million dollars. The market capitalization of DeFAI projects like BUZZ and Grift even touched the 200 million dollar mark. Traditional Web2 AI Agent projects such as Pippin and AIOS also entered the cryptocurrency market one after another. However, this wave of enthusiasm quickly cooled down due to market changes.

With the shift in market sentiment, the liquidity of AI Agent tokens has quickly decreased. The emergence of DeepSeek has further impacted the valuation of AI-related assets. The market capitalization of Virtuals and ai16z has dropped below $1 billion and $500 million, respectively, while other AI Agent tokens have generally fallen by over 90%. The AI Agent sector has entered a winter, leaving many investors facing serious losses.

Nevertheless, the development story of AI Agents in the blockchain field is far from over. The current market requires practical applications to drive its second growth curve, and DeFAI seems to show the greatest potential in this regard.

AI Agents are intelligent entities capable of acting autonomously, performing tasks, and interacting with external tools. At their core are model services provided by companies such as ChatGPT, Anthropic, Gemini, DeepSeek, and Llama. These AI Agents are not just simple conversational systems; they can manage their own state, invoke various tools, and execute tasks securely.

In the Web3 ecosystem, AI Agent projects are mainly divided into the following categories:

1. Launch platform: such as Virtuals, allowing users to create, deploy, and monetize AI Agent.

2. Framework: Tools such as SolanaAgentKit, Eliza, Rig, GOAT, and ZerePy provide developers with the means to build AI Agents.

3. Infrastructure: including data aggregation services cookie.fun, testing platform Jailbreak, resource sharing network FXN, etc.

4. Intelligent Agents: Such as AIXBT, Luna, Freysa, Zerebro, and Pippin, these are specific AI Agent applications.

5. DeFAI: Combining decentralized finance and artificial intelligence, aiming to simplify DeFi operation processes. Representative projects include Griffain, Orbit, and BUZZ.

DeFAI is expected to become an important application of AI Agents in the blockchain field. It not only lowers the threshold for users to access DeFi services but also provides practical application scenarios for AI Agents. Through AI technology, DeFAI can help users complete complex DeFi operations, such as trading, staking, and lending, more easily.

In the future, the integration of AI and Web3 seems inevitable, and the direction in which AI improves the Web3 user experience is more certain. AI Agents can provide guidance and assistance throughout the user's entire Web3 journey, from creating and managing on-chain transactions to answering questions in real time, and even completing complex intent transactions.

Despite the short-term impact on the current AI Agent market, this is more due to fluctuations in market sentiment rather than issues with the technology itself. As more practical applications emerge, the market is expected to re-recognize the value of AI Agents.

DeFAI, as a new narrative direction for AI Agents, could be key to driving its second growth curve. Compared to pure agents, the DeFAI project is more easily empowered by tokens, such as unlocking advanced features through token payments or staking. This model not only provides real value to users but also contributes to the sustainable development of the project itself.

Overall, DeFAI not only simplifies the complexity of DeFi operations and enhances user experience, but also stands at the intersection of DeFi and AI Agent. It can promote the popularization of DeFi while providing practical application scenarios for AI Agents, potentially helping AI Agents move from the conceptual stage to actual implementation. In the current market volatility, DeFAI may bring new growth momentum to the Blockchain industry.