Crypto AI Agents Have Surged, with Numerous Projects Emerging Like Mushrooms After Rain

Driven by the global AI wave, crypto AI Agents have surged, with numerous AI Agent projects emerging like mushrooms after rain.

Author: 0xJeff

Compiled by: Felix, PANews

Driven by the global AI wave, crypto AI Agents have surged, with numerous AI Agent projects emerging like mushrooms after rain. How can one successfully build an Agent project? What are the common pitfalls? Crypto KOL 0xJeff summarizes the common traps in a post.

Over the past few months, I have spoken with hundreds of AI agent teams. Many teams have fallen into the same common traps. Here are the 7 major mistakes discovered during these conversations, along with suggestions on how to avoid them.

1. Imitating Pioneers

Virtuals Protocol pioneered the narrative of AI agent tokenization. By collaborating with top teams, they continue to build innovative agents. Virtuals Protocol holds over 50% of the AI agent market share due to their excellent storytelling and narrative construction.

Many teams believe they can replicate the success of Virtuals Protocol by tokenizing their agents, pairing them with their own tokens, and launching on a new L1/L2 (hoping to achieve PMF immediately).

(Note: PMF refers to Product-Market Fit.)

However, this approach is ineffective for two main reasons:

The market already has too many agent tokens; simply launching another agent token is not enough.

The structure of VIRTUAL/Agent LPs is tricky, especially for early projects with low liquidity. Altcoins: The LPs of altcoins are inherently fragile, leading to higher volatility and impermanent loss. Liquidity providers (LPs) will avoid them, resulting in even lower liquidity and extreme slippage.

What to do:

Find a unique niche market that addresses a real problem in a specific area.

Choose LP pairs of mainstream coins or altcoins with stablecoins. They are structurally more robust, especially in volatile markets.

2. Founders/Co-founders Who Don't Understand Sales

Many teams are composed of developers who do not understand sales. As the chief salesperson, if the founder is not interested in their own product, why would they expect others to be?

Conducting marketing efforts led by the founder and driven by the team (where the team actively engages in CT and continuously discusses their product) is organic marketing. People will become curious and try it out, providing feedback in return. There is no need to burn money or tokens to acquire users.

3. Building Products That Fit the Narrative

Forking Compound, AAVE, OHM, or Solidly at the time was merely because it was trendy.

Launching an AI agent was also just because it was trendy.

Building without understanding the problem to be solved or the audience to be served is one of the fastest ways to fail.

Before building, ask yourself:

Who are the real customers?

Is the build driven by hype or by solving a real need?

Are you forcing the product into a non-existent market?

Is your token the actual product?

4. Launching Tokens Before the Product Goes Live

Launching tokens before the product goes live means the token will become the main focus. Worse, the team starts dumping tokens, competing for listings on exchanges, and neglecting product development.

This approach will never yield good results; without a product, revenue, or appeal, there is no reason for anyone to hold the token.

What to do:

Find some form of PMF before launching the token.

Only issue tokens when there are clear network effects and actual value accumulation.

5. Skipping the "V" in MVP

MVP = Minimum Viable Product. However, many teams skip the "Viable" part and launch a useless, minimal product that no one cares about.

An MVP should be a basic but fully functional product that allows early users to try it out—this way, you can collect feedback and iterate on the product.

What to do:

Engage in genuine communication with users.

Understand their needs and then build a product that users will actually use.

Do not cling to your assumptions before proving real value.

6. Lack of Clear KPIs, Goals, or Vision

Some teams drift aimlessly: chasing trends, blaming the market, and reacting passively instead of executing a clear plan.

What to do:

Set clear, measurable KPIs from day one.

Define what success looks like—what problem you are solving and what the important milestones are.

Pivot if certain aspects are not working; no one gets it right the first time.

7. User vs. Investor Expectations

Web3 projects have two types of products:

Tokens

Actual products

This means attracting two types of supporters:

Speculators: those who speculate on tokens

Real users: those who care about the product

Many projects fall into the KOL trap: paying unreliable KOLs to promote their tokens. The result is attracting a large number of Degens who do not care about the product; when prices drop or airdrops disappoint, they will panic sell and label the project a scam.

What to do:

Have a strategy