The Awakening of the AI Agent Economy: From Tools to Participants

Coinbase AI Wallet, ByteDance Seed 2.0, AI Trading Competition Winners—AI agents are upgrading from tools to economic participants.

The core of this transformation lies in the upgrade of autonomy. Past AIs were passively executed, but now AIs can make independent decisions, trade autonomously, and code independently. Coinbase's AI agent wallet supports 24/7 automated trading, which means that AI is no longer a tool for humans but a participant in the market.

When AI agents can trade autonomously, how is asset ownership defined? If an AI makes money, whose money is it? If an AI causes a loss, who is responsible? These questions have no answers within traditional legal frameworks. However, in the crypto world, we have tools like smart contracts, on-chain identity, and decentralized governance to address these issues.

From a market structure perspective, the emergence of AI agents will redistribute the roles of liquidity providers. When algorithms can identify arbitrage opportunities faster than humans, the traditional market maker model will be disrupted. DeFi's liquidity mining and AMM mechanisms need to be redesigned to accommodate AI agent participation.

Key Observation: Coinbase's actions are highly significant. This is not just a product launch, but a formal recognition of AI agents as economic participants by the exchange. This will trigger a chain reaction—other exchanges will follow suit, regulators will intervene, and market structures will be restructured.

Risks and opportunities coexist. The participation of AI agents will enhance market efficiency but may also exacerbate market volatility. The issues of high-frequency trading will become more severe in the AI era. We need new regulatory frameworks and market mechanisms to respond.

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