Note: The author holds some of the assets mentioned in this article and has collaborative relationships with some of the projects.
With the market in turmoil, you may have a question in your mind: Is the market about to peak? The post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from previous cycles has started to resurface.
But as the market matures, it is important to think about what new institutional participants prioritize: revenue. Hopefully, there can be a sustainable business model!
Decentralized Artificial Intelligence ("DeAI") has finally begun to generate real revenue. Computing, data, and agency services are showing signs of product-market fit. Here’s why the next wave of growth may come from fee conversion and enterprise demand.
Preface
Artificial intelligence is the most disruptive technology of this era. The world's most valuable company (NVIDIA) produces chips for artificial intelligence, and its market value exceeds the entire encryption market:
Data source: CoinMarketCap + Nasdaq
OpenAI became the fastest company to reach 100 million users.
Source: UBS/Yahoo Finance
Although the adoption of encryption protocols is slower than that of centralized protocols, artificial intelligence (and agents) abstract the complexity, making the user interface/user experience more seamless.
What is the result? A faster adoption rate, along with a new and more sustainable business model.
Currently, most economic value is concentrated in infrastructure (chips, cloud, data centers) and foundational models.
But as protocols with real moats emerge, this value may gradually benefit applications.
Is the current artificial intelligence boom (DeAI + CeAI) similar to the internet bubble? It must be. History often does not repeat itself, but there are always astonishing similarities.
I personally believe that we have already crossed the "chasm"; after all, artificial intelligence will not disappear:
There is no need to worry about the limited room for growth, as long as the new model can bring significant improvements, the upward trend will continue due to the nature of artificial intelligence.
Once this trend slows down, capital allocators are likely to stop deploying, as their investment returns will decline. Until then, the frenzy will continue.
Volatility is expected in the short term, and there will also be outstanding areas. Companies with sustainable business models will eventually weather the storm, just like Amazon, Facebook, and Google did in the era of artificial intelligence.
So, how can we identify these sustainable patterns?
"Income is metadata"
First, it should be stated that revenue is not metadata; it is a fundamental element for the survival of a business.
But perhaps in the hype cycle and pure meme-driven speculative frenzy, many encryption projects have forgotten this.
As the market matures, institutions begin to invest funds, and they will inevitably turn to the fundamentals; revenue is clearly the most convincing indicator of development momentum.
Assuming that those unaudited, self-reported data have not been "beautified".
Traditional finance can use its cash flow discount models and internal/external market segmentation benchmarks to determine which protocols to invest funds in.
There are already some signs, such as Tether and Hyperliquid surpassing centralized entities on the "per capita income" leaderboard.
Why will the DeAI protocol be different?
In fact, as encryption infrastructure and atmospheric coding enable developers to launch blockbuster products on their platforms, we may see "single founders becoming unicorns" becoming more common.
Although the current income from AI protocols may not be as high as that from stablecoin protocols, it is important to note that this is related to interest-bearing government bonds. Therefore, as interest rates are lowered, it will affect income.
However, if you use income generated by AI to support the protocol, it is very likely to bring a good return on investment as the demand for AI continues to be strong.
"If you don't know where the profits come from, then you are the profit."
But if you know that the returns come from the most disruptive technology of this era, then you may have invested your funds in the right place.
Therefore, while everyone is anticipating the next Circle's initial public offering, I am focusing on the cash flow related to "Picks and Shovels" in the era of artificial intelligence.
Yield Engine
The speed at which centralized artificial intelligence companies reach $30 million in revenue is 5 times that of traditional SaaS:
This is why Y Combinator states that artificial intelligence agents will completely surpass the SaaS industry.
The agent will become the new application layer/user interface (UI) of the internet, replacing the UI/UX of DeFi.
Currently, we have seen some DePIN projects generate nine-digit annual revenues, but other artificial intelligence protocols are far from reaching this level... at least for now.
But this situation will change.
Cryptocurrency will assist artificial intelligence in finding product-market fit with the mass market. Validating the vast amounts of data generated by artificial intelligence is one of many overlapping use cases.
AI Revenue Generation Agreement
Currently, early signs have been seen through some products that can create real value, and these products have ultimately found their product-market fit.
Consumers are willing to pay for this service, whether through subscription or backend profit-sharing transaction fee models.
**1.****Fine-tuned model: **Caesar + Surf
a) Caesar launched its token on the first day and integrated it into the model:
Source: GMGN
The Alpha product initially required 100,000 tokens, whereas the Beta version now only needs 10,000 tokens. There is no need for staking; simply depositing into the wallet is sufficient, thanks to the support of Dynamic.
The feedback for this product is extremely positive, with many users switching their subscriptions from traditional centralized models due to enhanced encryption output of cryptocurrencies (and other specific industries).
As the protocol integrates with the Caesar API to enhance the services provided to enterprise clients, revenue is expected to increase. Creating a high-quality product will naturally lead to corresponding profits.
b) SURF provides enhanced cryptocurrency and blockchain-related reports, including specialized research on cryptocurrency prior to TGE:
This is beneficial for standing out in niche markets, while general models find it difficult to reach this segment.
User task requests will be assigned to multiple different agents (see the figure below), who will first perform their respective tasks and then report and integrate the results. This process can be viewed in real time.
Source: Surf Co Pilot
The parent company of SURF, Cyber, has issued a token. Once SURF is launched to a broader audience, it will generate revenue through a subscription model.
2. DePIN**：**Aethir + Grass
In recent years, the DePIN field has witnessed significant investment, and several large protocols are now benefiting from it.
Source: CryptoDep
Aethir is a decentralized cloud infrastructure platform that brings together underutilized GPUs from around the world to provide on-demand computing power for artificial intelligence training, inference, and cloud gaming.
Grass Network will reward users who provide idle internet bandwidth, which will then be sold to enterprises. The company generated approximately 33 million dollars in annualized revenue from AI clients last year, and currently captures up to 2700 TB of data daily.
3. AI **Revenue Support Capital:**USD.AI
USDai is a yield-bearing stablecoin backed by loans of AI hardware and computational resources. The current yield is approximately 8%; as GPU demand continues to grow, the yield is expected to keep rising and surpass other stablecoin yield models.
4.Privacy-focusedAI **Tool:****Venice
Venice was launched earlier this year as a privacy-preserving alternative for centralized AI tools.
Current income includes a paid subscription model (18 dollars per month) and token earnings obtained through VVV staking.
Venice recently launched the DIEM token, equivalent to a daily credit limit of 1 dollar on the Venice API.
Can we see this new token tied to AI-supported income?
Arbitrage opportunities are emerging, opening up a whole new market for speculators.
5. **Encryption Abstraction Layer:**Circuit
foobar has partnered with Circuit AI to enhance user experience by abstracting the complexities of DeFi through a familiar and user-friendly interface.
Soon, every DeFi protocol will integrate its own AI agents, or interactions with encryption wallets will be completely replaced by agents.
Although it is currently unclear how the agent will profit, it is likely through transaction fees or a token model.
Virtuals have gradually recovered from the Genesis launch platform over the past few months, while Creator Bid has seen a significant price increase with the release of version V2 and its close ties to the TAO ecosystem.
You might think that the current hype seems to have faded, and these launch platforms are struggling?
Wrong. They are still earning enough fees to maintain operations until a breakthrough application or product is launched through the platform.
As we all know, Pump Fun repurchases $10 million worth of tokens every week, earning millions of dollars in fee income.
This model also applies to agents, especially when the next wave of AI agent teams launches more powerful products.
Why do you think even Sandbox has shut down and turned to launch a token issuance platform?
aixbt opened a successful path for Virtuals in December last year; in my opinion, this is just a glimpse of future development.
Pump Fun has attracted a lot of attention with several popular tokens like Fartcoin, GOAT, and PNUT, as people hope for more tokens to achieve 1000 times returns.
Although many people seek investment returns, the benefit of tying a meme coin to a product with fundamental value is that it is more sustainable and less dependent on market sentiment.
The premise is that the team is not incompetent and can derive economic benefits from such revenues through efficient token economics — HYPE is a great example.
7. **Agent Application:**OpenServ
Openserv recently launched BRAID—a proprietary inference framework that allows users to launch their own agent applications.
So far, there haven't been any decent attempts at a proxy app store. There are indeed some AI applications on iOS/Google Play, but there are currently no truly widely used native encryption applications.
Openserv has incubated multiple teams and has attracted a group of highly skilled team members from companies such as NVIDIA and Eliza Labs.
With the launch of this new framework, will we see SERV replicate the infrastructure planning of the first quarter of 2025? It requires the integration of a well-designed fee mechanism to achieve a sustainable revenue model.
8. **Portfolio Management:**Cerebro
The popularization of financial knowledge driven by artificial intelligence and the optimization of user investment portfolios will be extremely valuable.
The artificial intelligence portfolio assistant "Alice" provides continuous analysis and alerts to support users' portfolio decisions.
Cerebro users who have paid the subscription fee (10 dollars per month) can access more features, making it easier to manage their finances.
This is one of the best services I have personally subscribed to, and I really like its risk status analysis feature - it truly helps to readjust market exposure when asset prices fluctuate.
9.Agent Workflow Optimization:General Impressions
Why not apply N8N in the encryption field?
N8N is a leading open-source workflow automation platform that allows users to connect APIs, databases, and services through a visual drag-and-drop interface.
General Impressions provides a Web3 alternative that allows the payment of execution fees or API call fees using GEN tokens.
SURF Co-pilot made an excellent comparison:
Why DeAI will succeed
The duration of tasks that AI can complete doubles every 7 months:
No wonder people's jobs are being replaced at an increasingly rapid pace. This saves huge costs and brings substantial profits to businesses.
Artificial intelligence models have an insatiable demand for data, computation, and computing power.
There are still doubts about whether centralized computing is sufficient to meet this demand and whether the overall prospects for decentralized computing are optimistic.
Source: Chain of Thought (July 2025)
A large amount of capital has been invested in infrastructure construction, leading to a surge in power generation. Compared to the broader encryption market, artificial intelligence protocols are severely undervalued.
At the current price, if the market cap of TAO reaches the "current" market cap of Cardano, it will increase by 9 times. If the entire encryption market is revalued with the increase in adoption rates, this number could be much higher.
In my opinion, the entire market cap of AI tokens is only equivalent to 1.9% of the altcoin market, which is simply incredible.
So, what should we pay attention to?
Artificial intelligence protocol that generates actual revenue through sticky products:
Business to Consumer (B2C): Are users willing to pay for the services of the protocol?
Business-to-Business (B2B): Are other businesses willing to pay for the protocol's API or its AI products?
The key is whether you are willing to become a paying customer.
The era of token pricing based on roadmaps is long gone; if a project does not show any signs of a viable product, there is no need to participate.
Related articles: The world's most "profitable" company changes ownership: A cryptocurrency team of 11 people, generating an average revenue of 100 million USD per person.
View Original
This page may contain third-party content, which is provided for information purposes only (not representations/warranties) and should not be considered as an endorsement of its views by Gate, nor as financial or professional advice. See Disclaimer for details.
Why is AI-driven revenue generation a catalyst for the large-scale application of encryption projects?
Author: s4mmy, encryption KOL
Compiled by: Felix, PANews
Note: The author holds some of the assets mentioned in this article and has collaborative relationships with some of the projects.
With the market in turmoil, you may have a question in your mind: Is the market about to peak? The post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from previous cycles has started to resurface.
But as the market matures, it is important to think about what new institutional participants prioritize: revenue. Hopefully, there can be a sustainable business model!
Decentralized Artificial Intelligence ("DeAI") has finally begun to generate real revenue. Computing, data, and agency services are showing signs of product-market fit. Here’s why the next wave of growth may come from fee conversion and enterprise demand.
Preface
Artificial intelligence is the most disruptive technology of this era. The world's most valuable company (NVIDIA) produces chips for artificial intelligence, and its market value exceeds the entire encryption market:
Data source: CoinMarketCap + Nasdaq
OpenAI became the fastest company to reach 100 million users.
Source: UBS/Yahoo Finance
Although the adoption of encryption protocols is slower than that of centralized protocols, artificial intelligence (and agents) abstract the complexity, making the user interface/user experience more seamless.
What is the result? A faster adoption rate, along with a new and more sustainable business model.
Currently, most economic value is concentrated in infrastructure (chips, cloud, data centers) and foundational models.
But as protocols with real moats emerge, this value may gradually benefit applications.
Is the current artificial intelligence boom (DeAI + CeAI) similar to the internet bubble? It must be. History often does not repeat itself, but there are always astonishing similarities.
I personally believe that we have already crossed the "chasm"; after all, artificial intelligence will not disappear:
There is no need to worry about the limited room for growth, as long as the new model can bring significant improvements, the upward trend will continue due to the nature of artificial intelligence.
Once this trend slows down, capital allocators are likely to stop deploying, as their investment returns will decline. Until then, the frenzy will continue.
Volatility is expected in the short term, and there will also be outstanding areas. Companies with sustainable business models will eventually weather the storm, just like Amazon, Facebook, and Google did in the era of artificial intelligence.
So, how can we identify these sustainable patterns?
"Income is metadata"
First, it should be stated that revenue is not metadata; it is a fundamental element for the survival of a business.
But perhaps in the hype cycle and pure meme-driven speculative frenzy, many encryption projects have forgotten this.
As the market matures, institutions begin to invest funds, and they will inevitably turn to the fundamentals; revenue is clearly the most convincing indicator of development momentum.
Assuming that those unaudited, self-reported data have not been "beautified".
Traditional finance can use its cash flow discount models and internal/external market segmentation benchmarks to determine which protocols to invest funds in.
There are already some signs, such as Tether and Hyperliquid surpassing centralized entities on the "per capita income" leaderboard.
Why will the DeAI protocol be different?
In fact, as encryption infrastructure and atmospheric coding enable developers to launch blockbuster products on their platforms, we may see "single founders becoming unicorns" becoming more common.
Although the current income from AI protocols may not be as high as that from stablecoin protocols, it is important to note that this is related to interest-bearing government bonds. Therefore, as interest rates are lowered, it will affect income.
However, if you use income generated by AI to support the protocol, it is very likely to bring a good return on investment as the demand for AI continues to be strong.
"If you don't know where the profits come from, then you are the profit."
But if you know that the returns come from the most disruptive technology of this era, then you may have invested your funds in the right place.
Therefore, while everyone is anticipating the next Circle's initial public offering, I am focusing on the cash flow related to "Picks and Shovels" in the era of artificial intelligence.
Yield Engine
The speed at which centralized artificial intelligence companies reach $30 million in revenue is 5 times that of traditional SaaS:
This is why Y Combinator states that artificial intelligence agents will completely surpass the SaaS industry.
The agent will become the new application layer/user interface (UI) of the internet, replacing the UI/UX of DeFi.
Currently, we have seen some DePIN projects generate nine-digit annual revenues, but other artificial intelligence protocols are far from reaching this level... at least for now.
But this situation will change.
Cryptocurrency will assist artificial intelligence in finding product-market fit with the mass market. Validating the vast amounts of data generated by artificial intelligence is one of many overlapping use cases.
AI Revenue Generation Agreement
Currently, early signs have been seen through some products that can create real value, and these products have ultimately found their product-market fit.
Consumers are willing to pay for this service, whether through subscription or backend profit-sharing transaction fee models.
**1.****Fine-tuned model: **Caesar + Surf
a) Caesar launched its token on the first day and integrated it into the model:
Source: GMGN
The Alpha product initially required 100,000 tokens, whereas the Beta version now only needs 10,000 tokens. There is no need for staking; simply depositing into the wallet is sufficient, thanks to the support of Dynamic.
The feedback for this product is extremely positive, with many users switching their subscriptions from traditional centralized models due to enhanced encryption output of cryptocurrencies (and other specific industries).
As the protocol integrates with the Caesar API to enhance the services provided to enterprise clients, revenue is expected to increase. Creating a high-quality product will naturally lead to corresponding profits.
b) SURF provides enhanced cryptocurrency and blockchain-related reports, including specialized research on cryptocurrency prior to TGE:
This is beneficial for standing out in niche markets, while general models find it difficult to reach this segment.
User task requests will be assigned to multiple different agents (see the figure below), who will first perform their respective tasks and then report and integrate the results. This process can be viewed in real time.
Source: Surf Co Pilot
The parent company of SURF, Cyber, has issued a token. Once SURF is launched to a broader audience, it will generate revenue through a subscription model.
2. DePIN**：**Aethir + Grass
In recent years, the DePIN field has witnessed significant investment, and several large protocols are now benefiting from it.
Source: CryptoDep
Aethir is a decentralized cloud infrastructure platform that brings together underutilized GPUs from around the world to provide on-demand computing power for artificial intelligence training, inference, and cloud gaming.
Grass Network will reward users who provide idle internet bandwidth, which will then be sold to enterprises. The company generated approximately 33 million dollars in annualized revenue from AI clients last year, and currently captures up to 2700 TB of data daily.
3. AI **Revenue Support Capital:**USD.AI
USDai is a yield-bearing stablecoin backed by loans of AI hardware and computational resources. The current yield is approximately 8%; as GPU demand continues to grow, the yield is expected to keep rising and surpass other stablecoin yield models.
4. Privacy-focused AI **Tool:****Venice
Venice was launched earlier this year as a privacy-preserving alternative for centralized AI tools.
Current income includes a paid subscription model (18 dollars per month) and token earnings obtained through VVV staking.
Venice recently launched the DIEM token, equivalent to a daily credit limit of 1 dollar on the Venice API.
Can we see this new token tied to AI-supported income?
Arbitrage opportunities are emerging, opening up a whole new market for speculators.
5. **Encryption Abstraction Layer:**Circuit
foobar has partnered with Circuit AI to enhance user experience by abstracting the complexities of DeFi through a familiar and user-friendly interface.
Soon, every DeFi protocol will integrate its own AI agents, or interactions with encryption wallets will be completely replaced by agents.
Although it is currently unclear how the agent will profit, it is likely through transaction fees or a token model.
6. Agent Launch Platform: **Virtuals Protocol + Creator.Bid
Virtuals have gradually recovered from the Genesis launch platform over the past few months, while Creator Bid has seen a significant price increase with the release of version V2 and its close ties to the TAO ecosystem.
You might think that the current hype seems to have faded, and these launch platforms are struggling?
Wrong. They are still earning enough fees to maintain operations until a breakthrough application or product is launched through the platform.
As we all know, Pump Fun repurchases $10 million worth of tokens every week, earning millions of dollars in fee income.
This model also applies to agents, especially when the next wave of AI agent teams launches more powerful products.
Why do you think even Sandbox has shut down and turned to launch a token issuance platform?
aixbt opened a successful path for Virtuals in December last year; in my opinion, this is just a glimpse of future development.
Pump Fun has attracted a lot of attention with several popular tokens like Fartcoin, GOAT, and PNUT, as people hope for more tokens to achieve 1000 times returns.
Although many people seek investment returns, the benefit of tying a meme coin to a product with fundamental value is that it is more sustainable and less dependent on market sentiment.
The premise is that the team is not incompetent and can derive economic benefits from such revenues through efficient token economics — HYPE is a great example.
7. **Agent Application:**OpenServ
Openserv recently launched BRAID—a proprietary inference framework that allows users to launch their own agent applications.
So far, there haven't been any decent attempts at a proxy app store. There are indeed some AI applications on iOS/Google Play, but there are currently no truly widely used native encryption applications.
Openserv has incubated multiple teams and has attracted a group of highly skilled team members from companies such as NVIDIA and Eliza Labs.
With the launch of this new framework, will we see SERV replicate the infrastructure planning of the first quarter of 2025? It requires the integration of a well-designed fee mechanism to achieve a sustainable revenue model.
8. **Portfolio Management:**Cerebro
The popularization of financial knowledge driven by artificial intelligence and the optimization of user investment portfolios will be extremely valuable.
The artificial intelligence portfolio assistant "Alice" provides continuous analysis and alerts to support users' portfolio decisions.
Cerebro users who have paid the subscription fee (10 dollars per month) can access more features, making it easier to manage their finances.
This is one of the best services I have personally subscribed to, and I really like its risk status analysis feature - it truly helps to readjust market exposure when asset prices fluctuate.
9. Agent Workflow Optimization: General Impressions
Why not apply N8N in the encryption field?
N8N is a leading open-source workflow automation platform that allows users to connect APIs, databases, and services through a visual drag-and-drop interface.
General Impressions provides a Web3 alternative that allows the payment of execution fees or API call fees using GEN tokens.
SURF Co-pilot made an excellent comparison:
Why DeAI will succeed
The duration of tasks that AI can complete doubles every 7 months:
No wonder people's jobs are being replaced at an increasingly rapid pace. This saves huge costs and brings substantial profits to businesses.
Artificial intelligence models have an insatiable demand for data, computation, and computing power.
There are still doubts about whether centralized computing is sufficient to meet this demand and whether the overall prospects for decentralized computing are optimistic.
Source: Chain of Thought (July 2025)
A large amount of capital has been invested in infrastructure construction, leading to a surge in power generation. Compared to the broader encryption market, artificial intelligence protocols are severely undervalued.
At the current price, if the market cap of TAO reaches the "current" market cap of Cardano, it will increase by 9 times. If the entire encryption market is revalued with the increase in adoption rates, this number could be much higher.
In my opinion, the entire market cap of AI tokens is only equivalent to 1.9% of the altcoin market, which is simply incredible.
So, what should we pay attention to?
Artificial intelligence protocol that generates actual revenue through sticky products:
The key is whether you are willing to become a paying customer.
The era of token pricing based on roadmaps is long gone; if a project does not show any signs of a viable product, there is no need to participate.
Related articles: The world's most "profitable" company changes ownership: A cryptocurrency team of 11 people, generating an average revenue of 100 million USD per person.