ZachXBT calls 99% of AI agent tokens scams

On-chain detective ZachXBT has called 99% of AI agents plain scams. In a comment on X, he noted that AI agents are even worse than memes as memecoins do not pretend to have any inherent value.

According to ZachXBT, these AI Agents are trying to appear as legit projects even though they have no real value. His comments were in response to a post by crypto investor Justin Taylor, who questioned why AI agents have their tokens since the token does not contribute to their functionality.

ZachXBT said:

“99% of it is a scam and the AI agent wrapper grifts are probably worse than other past trends tbh. bc at least meme coins promise nothing whereas AI coins try to larp as much as possible to appear legit to unsuspecting buyers.”

Interestingly, many stakeholders share this view and have compared AI Agents to memecoins. Crypto investor Mark Jeffrey observed the same thing while predicting that 99% of AI agents would die as they are mostly chatbots with memecoins attached.

Another key opinion leader who does not see any real value in AI Agents is Dragon Fly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi. The crypto VC founder believes that the AI agent hype is mostly social without any real technological transformation.

He said:

“These things are not really agents. These are chatbots with memecoins attached; they are barely agentic at all besides posting on Twitter. Current “AI agents” are also mostly “Wizard of Oz” agents—there are humans behind the scenes.”

Meanwhile, AI agents are not just attracting criticisms for their tokens; some people are also questioning the amount of tokens needed to gain access to AI agents’ services. Pseudonymous account gmoneyNFT observed that one must hold $300,000 worth of tokens to access the AIXBT terminal.

They noted that this business model is not sustainable based on previous cycles. While it might work in the short term, it will not work in the long term, as everyone will be priced out of the service.

Users back AI Agents as AI Memes rise 30% in seven days

Despite the criticisms from several quarters, most people have tried to justify the tokens. Many argue that the tokens represent an opportunity for holders to have a stake in AI projects and create a shared economy.  Others also note that tokens are essentially a means of accessing some AI agents’ services and serve as incentives for the developers because the networks cannot self-sustain.

The support for AI agent tokens is not surprising, given the category’s massive rise in value over the past few weeks. According to CoinMarketCap, AI memes have seen a 26% rise in market cap over the last seven days and an almost 70% increase in 30 days.

Data shared by crypto analyst Miles Deutscher shows that the total market cap for AI Agents is up 31% in the past seven days to reach $16.2 billion. He added that there are still plenty of upsides, particularly as the market cap is still 7x away from memecoins.

AI takes 72% of mindshare after AGI announcement

Meanwhile, the rise in AI tokens is not surprising, given how AI continues to dominate the conversation in the crypto social space. Kaito data shows that AI accounts for 72% of mindshare in the crypto markets. This follows the announcement by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman that the company knows how to build artificial general intelligence (AGI).

This announcement which confirms the possibility of AI superintelligence has fueled new optimism about what AI tools will be capable of in coming years and how this will also benefit the autonomous AI agents. Even critics of AI Agent proliferation recognize this possibility.

Qureshi who has criticized AI agents as glorified chatbots still believes that they may even replace influencers. He noted that the novelty fueling the sector and these agents are capable of doing everything that most crypto influencers do without needing to rest like humans.

However, he does not expect AI agents to have any meaningful impact on the crypto sector as many have predicted. Instead, he believes that the most impactful AI agents would be software engineering agents.

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