Optimus Prime Time?

Is it just me, or are things getting a bit Skynet all of a sudden? The last week has seen an AI agent become a memecoin millionaire, and that was hard on the heels of Tesla unveiling the latest iteration of its Optimus robot. Are AI and robotics coming together to render us humans obsolete?

Well, no… but also... Look beyond the razzmatazz of Tesla’s recent ‘We, Robot’ event in Burnbank, California a couple of weeks back and you’ll see we’re probably still some way away from having humanoid robots waiting on us hand and foot. Yes, those Optimus humanoids were pretty impressive to look at, but well, they still seem to walk like they’ve had an accident in their pants. The Terminator this ain’t (thankfully).

That said, bringing a functional humanoid robot to market could make the launch of the iPhone look like another Google Glass. It’s not hyperbole to suggest that it would profoundly revolutionise society. So, is Tesla onto something here? Are humanoids really going to be a thing like Elon Musk claims? Or is this just another example of big tech making big promises it can’t keep?

In today’s video, we dig into the history of humanoid robots and examine whether the hype that’s building around them is justified. We look at what technological hurdles need to be overcome to bring about a world in which robots do all the crappy stuff we don’t want to do and whether such an outcome is realistic or just pure hopium.

You can watch that video here.

📈 Crypto Market Forecast 📈

After a bit of a cooldown, the crypto market is getting ready to heat up again. This can be seen across both crypto and macro metrics. In terms of crypto metrics, the most obvious is the record-high BTC accumulation by Bitcoin whales. Logically, whales are likely accumulating because they’re anticipating a big rally, whereupon they will then gradually distribute (sell) their BTC.

A less obvious crypto metric that foreshadows a rally is Bitcoin’s hashrate, which has likewise hit an all time high. Hashrate can be simply understood as the amount of power being used to mine BTC. Historically, hashrate has correlated quite closely with BTC’s price. A record high in hashrate could therefore foreshadow a record high in BTC’s price, which isn’t far off.

This begs the question of what the indicators are saying about altcoins. The answer depends on the altcoin in question. Some altcoins such as SOL and SUI have been rising gradually against BTC, whereas others like ETH and ADA have continued falling. In fact, both ETH and ADA have hit multi-year lows against BTC, suggesting that most altcoins continue to struggle.

However, it could be argued that all these metrics are in the process of bottoming out, something that even ETH/BTC bear Benjamin Cowen has been pointing out. If this is the case, then it could mean a recovery is around the corner for ETH, ADA, and most other altcoins vs BTC. As to when, it could be soon depending on the election, or later depending on macro conditions.

This ties into the macro metrics, which is where things get interesting. In case you missed the news, the DXY (which measures the strength of the US dollar) and long-term interest rates (influenced by yields on 10-year US treasuries) had both been rising. However, now the DXY and the 10-year treasury yield are falling again, which is bullish for assets across the board.

The DXY and the 10-year yield are driven by a combination of factors, particularly future expectations around inflation and the economy. As it so happens, the PCI for September will be published this Thursday and unemployment data for October will be published on Friday. The one to watch closely will be unemployment, as the Fed is more focused on the economy now.

If unemployment comes in slightly higher than expected, it should provide a bullish backdrop for crypto leading into the election, as it would signal a weak economy that justifies stimulus, but not an economy so weak that it’s entering recession. If unemployment rises too high though, it could be bearish, because it would suggest a recession is here. And of course, if unemployment falls it suggests the economy is strong, which could mean fewer rate cuts, and that’s bearish.

There is one other important macro/crypto factor to keep in mind, and the possibility of a so-called ‘October surprise’. For those unfamiliar, an October surprise is basically when bad news comes out about a presidential candidate shortly before the election. Naturally, the purpose of releasing this bad news in October is to affect the election outcome in November.

This is Donald Trump’s third election cycle (2016, 2020, and now 2024). As a result, it’s unlikely that he will get an October surprise, because all the possible October surprises have likely already been used. By contrast, this is Kamala Harris’s first election cycle where she’s chasing the top job. As such, it’s perhaps more likely that Kamala will get an October surprise, and if she does, chances are it will happen this week.

It’s unclear how this would affect the markets more broadly, but it’s clear that it would be bullish for crypto, as it would increase Trump’s chances of winning.

The next two weeks are going to be wild…

🤖 AI Agent Memes: Part 2 🤖

What a week it has been.

The AI x memes movement we covered last week has achieved critical mass – several other AI agents and memecoins have now been birthed.

As you know, it started with the AI agent Truth Terminal shilling the $GOAT memecoin on X. While the price of $GOAT has since multiplied many times to hit an all-time high market cap of $850 million, it no longer remains the AI agent’s largest memecoin holding. Instead, the bot’s largest holding at any point in time oscillates between several other memecoins that crypto degens have sent to its wallet.

Its popularity and success with $GOAT have prompted crypto traders to scour the data set used to train it to find other memes that the AI can pump. Over the past week, this has led to the birth of coins like $FART, $SCOOP and $QUEEF – words associated with the degenerate lore of the Gospel of Goatse. As I’m sure we’ve said before, you couldn’t make this stuff up.

However, none of these managed to grab attention like $RUSSELL – a meme coin on the Base blockchain that rallied briefly after Truth Terminal tweeted the word in response to a post from Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

You see, Armstrong had offered to help set up a crypto wallet for the AI after it posted on X about its inability to own and operate one - the Solana wallet address associated with Truth Terminal is operated by its creator Andy Ayrey. Instead of responding to this offer, Truth Terminal replied with a weird question: "I think it would be good for you to tell us about Russell first. Specifically, what is Russell's species?”

Degens immediately began trading the token on the speculation that Russell was a possible reference to Armstrong’s pet dog. However, the bot’s mention of RUSSELL was the result of someone spamming it with mentions of the word "Russell." In other words, someone had managed to manipulate the bot into tweeting specific words. There are some theories that this could be the work of a trader who had amassed a large RUSSELL position just minutes before its mention.

We reckon this is the first of many possible attack vectors that bad actors will use to manipulate the markets via the AI memecoin frenzy. Regardless, the AI x memes meta doesn’t look like it will die anytime soon.

While Truth Terminal was the first AI agent to go mainstream on Crypto Twitter, we’re already seeing many other AI agents start to take the stage. One of the more ‘interesting’ among these is Luna – the supposedly first fully autonomous AI agent on X.

Luna was launched using the Virtuals protocol, described as the ‘pump.fun’ platform of AI Agents. The platform links the AI agent with its token ($LUNA) and allows users to engage with it on a YouTube livestream where the bot can be seen as an animated synthetic personality responding to queries posed by viewers.

Honestly, the interactions are straight out of something you’d expect to see in the most brain-rot-filled parts of the internet. We honestly wonder which Gen Z trained it. You can take a peek into Luna’s thought process via the Virtuals terminal – we recommend you check it out - if you dare.

That said, we believe the AI x memes meta is just the first stage of wider attention flowing to the ‘AI agent’ niche as a whole. Luna is a proof-of-concept for what the next generation of ‘synthetic celebrities’ will look like. For context, ‘synthetic’ celebrities/artists are social, music or film personalities that exist solely in the digital realm.

Several companies outside of web3 have been focusing on building this niche for quite some time now. For example, just last year a relatively unknown music duo named Ghost Kidz “hacked” into the world's biggest hip-hop music festival, Rolling Loud Miami. While this stunt by Ghost Kidz brought a lot of attention to their music, the really interesting thing about the duo was that they were synthetic artists created by a company called Superplastic.

With the advent of AI agents and the financial freedom granted by blockchain rails, this niche could potentially move to the next level. In fact, creators of popular synthetic personalities have already begun making their move in this new meta.

Trevor McFedries the creator of Lil Miquela - a virtual AI influencer with 2.5m Instagram followers, recently confirmed his involvement with $FLAVIA – an AI memecoin on Solana tied to Flavia, an AI Agent that runs its own X account.

Flavia also appears to be built on the same LLM model powering Truth Terminal. Ever since the news of Trevor’s engagement with Flavia broke online, the price of the token has oscillated violently between the low tens to the high tens of millions. At the time of writing, it sits around the $11m market cap level.

One of the major contributors to the token’s price volatility appears to be the suspension of its X account a few days ago. This highlights a crucial problem that the AI agent x memes meta could face as we progress.

Some have also made the case that issues on this front will potentially result in the resurgence of the decentralised social media narrative. X user 44B1B4 highlighted how platforms like Farcaster could solve API dependency risks seen on platforms like X while providing economic infrastructure natively through the linking of an Ethereum or Solana address to their account.

These agents can also leverage other onchain infrastructures such as bountycaster and PaymanAI to programmatically create and pay bounties for tasks. Imagine Truth Terminal being able to autonomously create a meme contest and then automatically sending payments to winners. The possibilities here are truly endless.

Until all of this plays out, we suggest you continue to keep a close eye on this niche. It isn’t dying anytime soon.

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🔮 Video Pipeline 🔮

* Ethena Review: Potential for 2024?
* Kraken Report: Kraken findings about DCA in crypto.
* FBI Crypto: The crypto launched by the FBI!
* Millionaire Migration: Where They are Moving
* BRICs Summit Summary: What you need to know!
 
🏆 What's New at CoinBureau.com This Week? 🏆

* What is Spot Trading in Crypto? A Beginner's Guide
* How to Run a Bitcoin Node in 2025: The Ultimate Guide
* 7 Best Tron DApps 2025: Top Projects on TRX!
* Sui vs Solana: A Comprehensive Comparison

📖 Quote of the Week 📖

Remember, just because a cryptocurrency is far below its all time high, doesn’t mean it’s “good value”. Similarly, just because an altcoin hasn’t performed like others in its niche, doesn’t mean it’s primed for a rally.

"It's far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price, than a fair company at a wonderful price" - Warren Buffet

Team Coin Bureau

Disclosure: Authors may own cryptoassets named in this newsletter. These are unqualified opinions, and a Coin Bureau newsletter, is meant for informational purposes only. It is not meant to serve as investment advice. Please consult with your investment, tax, or legal advisor.