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Crypto is out of narratives, out of patience, and running out of time to matter. The only way out is forward—by building products people actually use and don’t have to think about. For the past several months, AI agents have been pitched as that future, but most of them are just noise: flashy wrappers that don’t actually do anything.
In the middle of a macro meltdown, with Ethereum’s (ETH) value against Bitcoin (BTC) hitting five-year lows and Bitcoin trading like a high-beta tech stock, no one is begging for another DEX, bridge, or wallet extension. The problem isn’t discoverability. It is a utility. We’ve built an industry optimized for speculation, not service. A financial arcade, not a functioning economy. Most crypto apps don’t have users because they don’t solve anything real.
Volatility is the tell. If crypto were used at scale, real demand would anchor the price. But when macro conditions shift, the whole sector moves in lockstep—because actual usage doesn’t matter. That’s not a UX issue. That’s a product problem.
If crypto wants to survive this phase—let alone escape the echo chamber in the next cycle—we need to stop building abstractions for each other and start building real products for real people.
Why it keeps happening
Crypto has never grown out of its builder-for-builder roots. Success is defined by shipping, not retention. We reward composability over usability. Launches over DAUs. TVL over usefulness.
That’s how we ended up with a wave of AI agents that look good in demos but fall apart in practice—built to impress, not to endure. Builders build for other builders. Teams optimize for token launches, not long-term users. Most roadmaps are driven by narrative timing, not customer feedback. The result? Products that impress on crypto Twitter but don’t matter to anyone outside of it.
User experience is still considered surface-level polish when it should be foundational. We talk about onboarding like it’s a marketing problem, not an architectural one. And we wonder why users churn faster than altcoins collapse.
Not all AI agents are the answer
Take a look at what’s been happening with AI agents in crypto. We’re pretending automation means intelligence. But users don’t need agents that talk. They need agents that do.
And they need agents that can operate with intent: taking autonomous action, interacting onchain, and accruing value, not just information. If this is going to be the narrative of the next cycle—and it might be—we need to raise the bar. What’s missing isn’t another chatbot. It’s autonomy, action, and economic alignment.
The next generation of agents must be onchain actors—agents with memory, incentives, and agency. Not just slick AI interfaces, but participants in the network itself.
What a real product looks like
A real product solves a real problem—clearly, quickly, and without friction. It doesn’t need an explainer thread. It feels like magic, not a UI puzzle. In crypto, the magic moment happens when a product abstracts away the protocol, when it does something for the user without making them think about networks, wallets, or bridges.
Imagine an AI agent that quietly monitors your wallet, and the moment your airdrop unlocks, it claims it and sells at optimal execution—no prompts, no extra steps. At the same time, it watches gas prices and dips into stable-yield reserves you forgot you had, automatically buying the dip without you lifting a finger. When you need to bridge funds or execute a transaction, it instinctively reroutes you through the cheapest and fastest network available, all without asking which chain you’re on or forcing you to approve a dozen steps. That kind of seamless automation isn’t a feature. It’s the foundation of a real product.
These aren’t features. They’re outcomes. And they’re the foundation of actual adoption.
And so these are the kinds of applications crypto needs to hone in on and devote resources to. Real consumer AI agents are a breakthrough here. They act on behalf of users, claiming, trading, and coordinating. They reduce surface area. They make infrastructure invisible. They don’t rely on speculative hype to attain value; they provide an actual service.
That’s how we get crypto out of the power user corn maze and into everyday relevance.
What needs to change (and why now)
This isn’t just about good design. It’s about product discipline. And the timing has never been better. We’re not just in a bear market. We’re in a trust correction. Retail is gone. The ETF narrative is priced in. Altcoins are bleeding out. The Fed and fiscal policy are driving every headline.
This is the best possible time to build—because no one’s watching. There’s no pressure to chase yield or force hype. There’s room to build quiet conviction around something real. So what should builders actually do?
First, they need to design for behavior, not just composability. It’s not enough that components can plug into one another—what matters is whether people actually use them. Real product design starts with the user’s motivation and workflow, not with modularity.
Second, builders should use automation and agents to reduce decision fatigue. Most crypto products overwhelm users with options. The goal should be to eliminate choices, not add more. A great product handles complexity behind the scenes so the user doesn’t have to think.
Third, it’s time to prioritize retention over liquidity mining. If your product only works because there’s a token incentive attached to it, it’s not a product—it’s a promotion. Focus on building something people come back to without needing a bribe.
Finally, usability should be treated as infrastructure, not decoration. The interface is not the cherry on top—it’s the bridge between function and experience. If it’s not intuitive, it’s broken.
AI agents for consumers aren’t a gimmick. They’re the best shot we have at building something people actually return to. Not because they believe in your token. But because the product does something for them.
Stop building for nobody
We don’t need more tokenized interfaces. We don’t need more demos that explain themselves better than they perform. And we definitely don’t need another yield mechanic disguised as a product.
We need software that helps people get something done. That they come back to because it works, not because they’re speculating. Consumer AI agents are the clearest path to that future. Stop building apps no one uses. Start building ones that people don’t even have to think about.
