Navigating the Virtuals Ecosystem

Ejaaz is back with David to unpack the whirlwind effects of President Trump’s $70B memecoin launch, which slammed 400K fresh users onto Solana and shattered revenue records in under 30 hours. Meanwhile, a $500B federal boost to AI—backed by OpenAI and SoftBank—has everyone on edge about how crypto’s AI agent economy might ride this newfound momentum.

On the protocol front, Arc’s Rake framework and AI16z’s curated Eliza ecosystem are both stepping up, incubating projects like SoulGraph and Listen that promise a more user-friendly DeFAI future. Virtuals keeps shipping at breakneck speed too, testing new multi-chain waters, instituting a bold buyback, and hinting at metaverse collabs that could reshape gaming for good.

From automated DeFi positions and trading dashboards to fully autonomous NPCs that commentate (and maybe soon play) your favorite games, the lines between AI and crypto are getting blurrier—and more exciting—by the day. Buckle up as the AI agent revolution continues to redefine what “on-chain” can really mean. Ready for the ride?

------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🪙FRAX | SELF SUFFICIENT DeFi https://bankless.cc/Frax 

🦄UNISWAP | BUG BOUNTY PROGRAM https://bankless.cc/Uniswap-Bug-Bounty 

⚖️ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM ⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum 

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 

🌐CELO | BUILD TOGETHER AND PROSPER https://bankless.cc/Celo 

🎮RONIN | THE FUTURE OF WEB3 GAMING https://bankless.cc/Ronin 

----- ✨ Mint the episode on Zora ✨ https://zora.co/collect/base:0x4be6cd4d402fed49eb2de95fbc8e737e8ffd3e7f/20 

----- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

0:50 Trump’s Memecoin & $MELANIA https://x.com/cryptopunk7213/status/1880974772990832780   https://x.com/DiamondHandsDig/status/1880979832445780107  

13:52 The Stargate Project…$500B AI U.S. Investment & OpenAI Agents https://x.com/OpenAI/status/1881830103858172059 https://www.axios.com/2025/01/21/openai-davos-kevin-weil-ai-agents 

23:09 Virtuals goes multi-framework https://x.com/virtuals_io/status/1881340149503857151  https://x.com/NickDGarcia/status/1880275667809374597  

30:54 Indie.fun  https://x.com/indiedotfun/status/1879518209293918434 

36:16 First AI Agent DOTA2 Stream https://x.com/ethermage/status/1879900384019517522 

38:39 Agent tank demo of agent performing TA on a chart https://x.com/AgentTankLive/status/1881786054593925159  

42:22 Ai16z demo day  https://x.com/0xwitchy/status/1880244340561441238 

46:44 ARC announces initial agent projects launching on its framework RIG, soulgraph  https://x.com/LiquidLizard_/status/1880068692261675228 

1:00:20 AI Agent Playground Grows https://x.com/nifty_island/status/1880258049149128749 

1:03:19 Closing & Disclaimers

------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures