Editor's Note: This article discusses investment opportunities in crypto AI agents and DeAI infrastructure. The AI agent ecosystem has low liquidity and high volatility, while the Bittensor ecosystem has better liquidity and stability. DeAI infrastructure is undervalued and has enormous potential, and combining agents with infrastructure can bring new workflows and investment opportunities.
Following is the original content (slightly edited for readability):
Since Trump took office, crypto investment has become significantly more difficult. Overall uncertainty has driven funds towards "safe-haven assets" instead of risk assets.
The entire world is watching the escalating tariff situation. The crypto market is no exception - while BTC has shown some strength, Fartcoin has performed even more aggressively, almost crushing everything else.
Others are Struggling
Except for these two assets, other projects (and I mean literally all projects) are struggling - the Crypto AI sector, which once dominated the narrative, has significantly declined, with its overall market cap currently maintained at around $6 billion. DeFi isn't doing well either, with over $50 billion in on-chain TVL having evaporated, and funds are withdrawing from the crypto market towards safer assets.
What Should We Invest In?
This raises the key question: During market volatility, how and what should we invest in?
Most people I know might say to do yield farming on chains like Berachain or Sonic, which is fine. But for me, there are actually some opportunities with better risk/reward ratios, especially worth paying attention to during market turbulence.
In my view, the most asymmetric opportunity (meaning huge potential but not fully priced by the market) lies in the intersection of DeAI infrastructure and AI agents (I'll elaborate on this later).
Sticking to that old saying: "Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful." (Wait, did I say that backwards?) Yes, "Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful." That's right!
Crypto AI Subsectors I'm Watching
In my view, several subsectors in crypto AI are particularly worth noting:
·Development Tools: Including frameworks, Vibe coding tools, MCP infrastructure
·Decentralized AI Infrastructure: Such as decentralized computing power, verifiability, deployment methods, privacy protection, storage, ownership, etc.
·Consumer-Facing AI: Including AI agents, Alpha tools, games, DeFAI, GambleFAI, personalization/companion applications
(This isn't all subsectors, but you should understand the direction I'm pointing to.)
[The translation continues in the same professional and accurate manner for the entire text, maintaining the original structure and meaning while translating to English.]The Problem with Infra - Most Are Not Yet Investable
DeAI infra teams generally receive VC funding and need several years before Token Generation Event (TGE). Some that have already been listed have dropped 50-80%. To stabilize token price, there's only one way: either have real revenue or find top-tier market makers.
For example, @getgrass_io is a good case: they have a consumer-grade product, earning airdrops by users contributing bandwidth, reportedly with 8-9 digit income. Such projects are rare, and usually you can only participate early through product use/airdrop participation. When actually listed, high fully diluted valuation and low circulation make it easy for average people to lose money.
So, more worth paying attention to are purely community-driven, VC-free DeAI ecosystems. Yes, I'm talking about @opentensor (Bittensor).
But since the dTAO upgrade on Valentine's Day this year, the entire landscape has dramatically changed. Now the market determines which subnet can obtain emissions. The community - the users themselves - have become capital allocators. If the community believes your subnet lacks products or value, you won't get emissions (capital). This forces subnets to build openly and accelerate progress to create products people truly need.
This transformation has even spawned hedge funds specifically investing in Bittensor subnets.
@BarrySilbert is betting on the Bittensor ecosystem with @YumaGroup (a DCG subsidiary), which invests in, builds, and incubates Bittensor subnets. A recent interview between @RaoulGMI and @BarrySilbert sparked massive community excitement (because a major crypto institution has now entered the Bittensor ecosystem).
From an investment perspective, the Bittensor ecosystem's liquidity is clearly superior to AI agent ecosystems. The core issue with agent ecosystems like Virtuals is liquidity pools (LP) paired with Virtuals, which leads to higher volatility and more Impermanent Loss (IL) for liquidity providers.
This is why liquidity is typically thin - you usually invest $1k to $5k and might experience 3% to 7% slippage on these agent tokens. On the other hand, investing similar amounts in subnet tokens would only have about 0.05% to 0.1% slippage (or even lower).
Brief summary:
·The hype cycle for crypto AI agents is waning, with truly functional products and user retention still scarce
·DeAI infrastructure is underestimated, misunderstood, and mispriced
·The best investment opportunities combine infrastructure and agent go-to-market (GTM) to unlock new workflows
·$VIRTUAL leads in the agent domain, Bittensor leads in infrastructure
·Watch for teams combining both - if discovered early, they have massive upside potential
Conclusion: I believe DeAI will define the next trend in Web3 AI. We'll see more teams changing how we interact with each other and protocols, transforming value creation, and generating new market segments that attract more users and larger market share (more mainstream). Now is the best time to understand DeAI infrastructure and how it can change the status quo. Make sure to follow teams that can successfully combine DeAI and agents.
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