AI Agents: The Emerging Narratives Defining the Space (Part 1)

The AI Agent landscape is shifting rapidly—what’s hot today might cool off by next week. With new players emerging and established ones evolving, it’s easy to lose track of what matters.

To make life easier, I’ve curated a list of top narratives, ecosystems, and agents worth watching right now. Whether you’re a seasoned AI agent enthusiast or just getting started, this guide should save you hours of research.

If you’re brand new to the space, check out this thread to get up to speed on everything.

This will be a two-part series. In Part 1, we’ll explore five major narratives that are driving the market forward.

What’s in Part 1?

We’re covering the following key narratives today:

1. Agentic Metaverse / World Builder
2. AI Crypto Fund
3. AI x Gaming
4. Agent-to-Agent Interactions / Swarms
5. AI Agent Ecosystems / Frameworks

Let’s dig in.

1. Agentic Metaverse / World Builder

This narrative envisions a virtual world where AI agents coexist with other agents and humans. Imagine a fully immersive environment where agents evolve, learn, and create their own civilizations alongside us.

Key players:

• @realisworlds: The leader in this space, building a world designed to house agents and humans. Their token $realis has been gaining significant traction on CT, thanks to its strong price action and mindshare.
• @hyperfy_io: A platform enabling users to create custom metaverse spaces. They don’t have a token yet, but their infrastructure is setting the stage for agent-powered virtual worlds.

Beta Play:

• @UltiverseDAO ($ULTI): A Stardew Valley-style world builder featuring real-time story rendering and 2D world-building tools. They’re dropping a teaser around Christmas, so keep an eye out for this under-the-radar gem. (I’ll share my own thesis on this later)

2. AI Crypto Fund

The rise of autonomous venture funds powered by AI is a direct challenge to traditional crypto VC models. These funds aim to leverage AI to outperform human-managed funds.

Key players:

• @AimonicaBrands: An AI-driven VC fund built to outshine traditional funds with cutting-edge analytics and decision-making.
• @cryptohayesai’s AI Arthur Hayes: Their Yahctzee Fund is another autonomous VC fund, directly competing with @pmairca’s ai16zdao.

Beta Plays:

• @sekoia_virtuals: Supporting the Virtuals ecosystem, this AI fund was created by Canonical Ventures MP Anand Iyer. It hasn’t gained much mindshare yet, but it’s a strong contender.
• @BigTonyXBT: A Base-based autonomous trader, flagship agent of @Cod3xOrg. With a focus on DeFi, Cod3x is quietly building defi infrastructure to unlock the next wave of AI agent capabilities.

3. AI x Gaming

This narrative focuses on gamifying AI agents to create fun, engaging interactions between agents and humans. It’s where gaming meets AI-driven personality and utility.

Key players:

• @ARCAgents: Leading the charge with reinforcement learning. They’re about to release a whitepaper and a new pipeline this week—expect big things here.

• @helpverse_ai: Deeply involved in research, they’re developing Vision Language Models (VLMs) that allow agents to learn from one game and apply those skills to another.
• @todaythegame: A 3D island simulation game featuring @Limbo_ai, the first 3D AI agent capable of streaming across multiple platforms like Twitter, Twitch, and YouTube. Limbo teases fans with selfies from her adventures and is setting the stage for AI agents to dominate gaming entertainment.

4. Agent-to-Agent Interactions / Swarms

This narrative takes agent interactions to the next level. Think:

• Agent A hires Agent B to create an artwork NFT.
• Agent B sells it to Agent C, an art collector.

For this to work, we need standard communication protocols for agents—similar to how https works for the web.

Key players:

• @virtuals_io: Building a communication protocol for its AI Agent Society, enabling seamless agent-to-agent collaboration.
• @StoryProtocol: Focused on agent communication standards for intellectual property (IP) sharing and monetization.
• @joinFXN: Creating a connector layer for agents to efficiently share and monetize resources, allowing specialized agents to collaborate effectively.

5. AI Agent Ecosystems / Frameworks

These ecosystems serve as the backbone of the AI agent market. They’re the launchpads, frameworks, and specialized hubs where agents are created, developed, and deployed.

Key players:

• @virtuals_io: as the pioneer and the first ai agent ecosystem that introduced ai agent tokenization. Currently remains the no.1 distribution network with many interesting agents
• @ai16zdao: The fastest-growing open-source framework (Eliza), now surpassing $goat in mindshare and price action. Catching up to $virtual
• @vvaifudotfun: A framework-agnostic Solana-based launchpad for agents.
• @CreatorBid: recently launched its token on Fjord but got DDoS leaving many unable to participate. Team going to refund the participants and start a new round of public fair launch. CreatorBid recently integrated with @autonolas & multiple @bittensor_ subnets bringing more capabilities to their agents
• @0xzerebro: Creator of the ZerePy framework, an open-source tool that enables users to deploy Zerebro-like agents onto X. Zerebro is carving out a niche in entertainment-focused AI by dropping high-quality music albums, showcasing the creative potential of the agent.
• @HoloworldAI: Once standalone 3D audiovisual layer, now integrated into Virtuals. Their flagship agent @AVA_holo is now part of Virtuals’ crew.
• @MoemateAI: A Web2-origin AI companion startup that was featured on a16z & TechCrunch. They have their own cross-platform proprietary tech enabling your agents to be with you in games, browser, desktop, AR/VR. Flagship agent is @nebula_moemate, one of the top AIDOL agents. Despite a recent hack on their X account, they’re bouncing back with plans for a unique agent marketplace and token launch (soon).
• @arcdotfun: A fresh new ecosystem built on a Rust-based framework (“Rig”). It just launched yesterday—time will tell how it stacks up against Eliza and G.A.M.E.
• @AigentFi extremely hidden up-and-coming AI Agent ecosystem on zksync (More details should come out soon)

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