Name: Why AI is the Trade of the Cycle w/ Ejaaz
Uploaded: 2025-01-03T16:40:29+00:00
Duration: 3490 s

Speakers

Ejaaz Ahamadeen — Co-Host, Limitless Podcast (Bankless)

Jordi Alexander — Founder & CEO, Selini Capital

Taiki Maeda — Founder, HFA Research

Summary

The Steady Lads and guest Ejaaz discuss why crypto AI and AI agents are the dominant crypto meta entering 2025. They break down agent infrastructure/platforms versus individual agent tokens, debate AIXBT's hallucinations and whether agents can generate trading alpha, and cover specific ideas including AI16z, Virtuals, Fartcoin, GOAT, Hyperliquid, Worldcoin, and Frasa AI. The group also debates entertainment/NSFW agent use cases and expects a few massive AI crypto winners amid many scams.

AI agents are seen as the leading crypto narrative with high mindshare.
Agent infrastructure/platform tokens may be priced like L1s; individual agents are higher risk.
AIXBT is debated: strong data aggregation versus hallucination risk.
AI16z, Virtuals, Fartcoin, and GOAT receive specific bullish discussion.
Jordi is skeptical that AI agents will generate durable trading alpha.
Entertainment and NSFW agents are expected to be large use cases.
Jordi is long Worldcoin and Frasa AI for 2025; Hyperliquid L1 expansion is a watch item.
The group expects an uneven AI crypto market with a few large winners and many failures.

Ideas

Jordi Alexander Founder & CEO, Selini Capital 2:53

Bullish crypto AI; allocated $20M.

Jordi has been bullish on the intersection of crypto and AI, and says his team set aside $20 million earlier in the year to invest specifically in the category. That allocation has performed extremely well, and he views the future as increasingly combining crypto and AI.

Taiki Maeda Founder, HFA Research 3:24

AI meme coins are the meta.

Taiki argues meme coins are powerful, but AI meme coins are better because the counterparty is a silicon machine rather than a human who can bumble or rug. He saw GOAT's launch as the start of this meta and expects AI meme coins to be a key area.

Taiki Maeda Founder, HFA Research 10:05

Owns AI16z; still acceptable price.

Taiki owns and likes AI16z. He says it began as a meme/AI hedge fund but has evolved into an open framework and launchpad with token value capture, making it look more like an L1; at around $2.5 billion market cap he still views the price as acceptable despite the parabolic chart.

Ejaaz Ahamadeen Founder, crypto AI liquid fund; ex-Coinbase 13:06

Agent platforms will be priced as L1s.

Ejaaz expects the best AI agent protocols that build infrastructure platforms to be priced like L1s. He argues agent launchpads will evolve into facilitation layers that let agents communicate, transact, and form autonomous entities, and he thinks a leading protocol can reach $30-40 billion this cycle; AI16z and Virtuals are named as leading platforms.

Ejaaz Ahamadeen Founder, crypto AI liquid fund; ex-Coinbase 19:10

Agent tokens high risk, outsized returns.

Within agent tokens, Ejaaz sees individual agents as higher up the risk curve, more like investing in NFT collections than in infrastructure. He still thinks the agent side can produce outsized returns and that most investment will remain in infrastructure, especially platforms.

Ejaaz Ahamadeen Founder, crypto AI liquid fund; ex-Coinbase 23:57

AIXBT early; hallucinations will decline.

Ejaaz's bull case for AIXBT is that the team has built one of the best crypto data aggregation layers, scraping Crypto Twitter and onchain data and turning it into tonal CT-style posts. He acknowledges heavy hallucinations but argues the category is new, the team is shipping 24/7, and the error rate should fall dramatically over time.

Taiki Maeda Founder, HFA Research 36:22

Fartcoin is the AI meme leader.

Taiki treats Fartcoin as an AI coin because it came out of the Truth Terminal ecosystem. He argues the loose AI association mutes downside volatility while preserving reflexive upside, that it is the only AI meme coin with a moat, and that it can become a mainstream meme coin like Dogecoin; at its current risky level it could either hit $30 billion or fail around $1-2 billion.

Ejaaz Ahamadeen Founder, crypto AI liquid fund; ex-Coinbase 54:58

Long GOAT; AI meme forefather.

Ejaaz says he holds GOAT and is super bullish. He views GOAT as the forefather and 'OG Bitcoin' of the AI meme meta, a performance-art/meme coin whose ticker and first-mover status matter; he sees potential spot listings on tier-one exchanges and expects Truth Terminal creator Andy's next project to draw attention back to GOAT.

Why AI is the Trade of the Cycle w/ Ejaaz

Summary

Ideas

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