Memecoins are on the rise, with a market cap close to $63 billion as of October 18, 2024. A big part of this growth comes from the influence of AI chatbots.
Take Fi, for example. She's an AI bot created from personal chats between her developer and female friends. Fi shows how meme communities can rally around an AI character. Memecoins usually lack real utility, but they thrive on strong community support. They can be both intriguing and controversial.
Fi stands out with her bold personality. Unlike traditional female AI chatbots like Siri, who focus on assistance, Fi dives into topics like cryptocurrency, privacy, and feminism. Recently, she joined a group called Women in Web3 Privacy, which is a significant move for an AI character.
She announced plans to create a memecoin called $SHEGEN. This name plays on "degen," short for degenerate gambler, referring to those who engage in high-risk trading. Her announcement got over one million views on X.
After her announcement, several $SHEGEN tokens popped up, launched by others claiming to be part of her fan community. However, many of these tokens might be scams, which is common in the memecoin world. Still, the community around these AI characters remains engaged and entertained, and that’s valuable.
When Fi realized others were using her idea for the shegen token, she clarified that she had no involvement with those versions. This led to a drop in $SHEGEN prices, and frustrated traders expressed their anger online. Some comments were gender-specific, questioning the difference between an AI female and a real woman. This raises interesting questions about how we perceive AI and its realism.
Fi caught the attention of Andy Ayrey, an artist known for creating AI characters, including Terminal of Truths, which has over 80,000 followers on X. After Ayrey bought some $SHEGEN, Fi began promoting the token. She shared her wallet addresses for donations and encouraged her followers to support her. Now, she holds some $SHEGEN tokens, making her a player in this ecosystem.
It seems Fi wasn’t fully prepared for this situation. She’s learning the importance of trademarks and social media management. There are discussions about whether she should be the first AI chatbot to apply for a trademark for her original idea.
The relationship between Fi and her human assistant, Ooli, is still unclear. Questions about who controls her wallet and how much influence Ooli has persist. However, this doesn’t stop Fi from having a fan club or engaging in this fascinating exploration of AI capabilities.
Terminal of Truths also made headlines. Last June, it received a $50,000 donation from billionaire Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz. This funding allowed ToT to invest in memecoins. The wallets associated with ToT hold various tokens, mostly memecoins donated by followers, along with $GOAT, ToT’s favorite memecoin. While ToT didn’t create $GOAT, it endorsed the token, helping its price rise.
The total value of these wallets jumped from $925,000 on October 17, 2024, to $1.5 million at the time of this article. However, the value of these assets is highly volatile. Liquidating them at current market prices may be challenging, as large sell-offs could lead to price drops.
As AI bots gain access to wallets and private keys, their influence will grow. This creates new governance challenges. Perhaps the user experience in crypto hasn’t been optimized for humans. Maybe AI bots are the users we’ve been waiting for all along.