ICOs were a revelation in decentralized crowdfunding, but the 2017 ICO boom and bust tarnished their name forever.

NFTs were groundbreaking for digital art and collectibles, but the fallout from the 2021 mania caused the public to reflexively associate any mention of ‘NFT’ with ‘scam’.

We now enter 2025, and the next innovative tech set to be forever tainted by rampant over-hyped shillage has arrived — AI Agents.

Left untainted, AI Agents could grow to become some of the most powerful tools in the industry.

DeFi AI Agents can be used to process real-time data in order to automate trading and optimize LP management. Intent-based AI trading Agents can interpret user intentions and execute trades that align with a user's specified goals — both financially and belief-driven.

Autonomous decision-making agents can make low-level, repetitive decisions while leveraging blockchain for transparency and accountability. AI helpers and advanced chat boxes could assist with the less user-friendly aspects of onboarding to Web3 and DeFi.

AI Agents like AnonCast are already utilizing ZK proofs to enable anon-posting on social media — a fun use case for now, but it could set the foundation for AI-assisted anonymity standards.

AI-driven liquidity management has already begun rolling out on DeFi platforms like Tempest Finance. Aperture Finance is utilizing AI agents for large-scale portfolio management and trading automation.

Virtuals has introduced a modular AI agent ecosystem utilizing ERC6551 to represent each agent as an onchain entity with full wallet control, image/video/text generation, and long-term memory.

Beyond crypto, big companies are also going all-in on AI Agents. Microsoft announced the launch of their “personal agents” next year, which will be able to complete specific business activities with little or no human involvement.

It is easy to envision a future where AI agents become integral to our professional and personal lives — and crypto could serve as the foundational representation of the world these AI agents interact with.

However, the fact that this future is so easy to envision means that it is also easy to sell — and it is what will ultimately lead to AI Agent’s downfall.

AI agents will be the new ‘buzz’ that radiates out from crypto to the rest of the world throughout 2025. We will see a high cadence of new concepts dropping every other day, and an ‘Agent’ advertised for every minor aspect of your life.

As the market picks up pace over the next few months, it will become harder and harder for investors to sort the legitimate projects from the scams.

The ICO period saw projects promising to ‘solve all the world's issues’ by creating an ERC-20 token and a one-page whitepaper. The NFT peak saw thousands of generative ‘art’ projects promising endless benefits to their holders. The AI-Agent era will be defined by similar false promises, money grabs, and FOMO-driven marketing.

Every project building legitimate AI Agent technology will be background noise in the influx of shill money grabs over the next 12 months. Revolutionary tech will be shaded by memecoin generators, glorified copy traders, and hypercharged gambling bots.

However, once the dust settles, and the ‘dumb money’ has provided the exit liquidity for the thrifters, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Although ICOs are dead, the use case of blockchain for fundraising has remained, and the remnants of its design are still tied to multiple DeFi use cases. NFTs are starting to have their resurgence, giving signs of long-term maturity.

AI Agents will likely follow a similar pattern. The tech will over-bloom in the short term, with many retail investors being turned away, but in the long term, it will return with staying power.

The agents of today are the ones breaking ground, the ones of tomorrow are capitalizing on the cash grab, and the ones of next week will reshape the future.

Let’s just hope we can manage and direct these agents in a world where their influence, efficiency, and decision-making power begin to outperform our collective human minds.