The DeepSeek Disruption
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Sponsor: Frax — Fraxtal Ecosystem: Where DeFi Meets AI.
📸 Weekly Market Snapshot: Over the past 7 days, the total market cap of crypto's AI sector slid from $18B to $14B as Bitcoin and the new $TRUMP memecoin dominated attention. Whether a bullish reversal or more sell pressure is in store for next week remains to be seen, but in the meantime onchain AI development efforts are accelerating regardless of the trading slump.
| Token prices as of 2pm ET | 24hr | 7d |
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VIRTUALS $2.64 | ↗ 0.3% | ↘ 20.7% |
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AI16Z $0.87 | ↘ 4.7% | ↘ 24.3% |
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AIXBT $0.69 | ↘ 4.4% | ↘ 9.8% |
This week, OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank announced The Stargate Project, a new $500 billion venture that will see a number of new AI data centers built across the U.S.
Obviously, $500B is a ton of money, and over time this whopping investment will pave the way for new advancements that in turn will expand the possibilities around the onchain AI scene.
In AI Rollup #8, David and Ejaaz dive into the big implications around Stargate accordingly, and they cover the latest updates around top crypto agent frameworks like Virtuals, ai16z, and Arc.
Get up to speed with the whole convo, watch the full episode here! 👇
Chinese AI startup DeepSeek just launched its most ambitious project yet, DeepSeek-R1, a reasoning-focused large language model (LLM) that rivals OpenAI’s popular o1 model at a fraction of the cost. Here’s what you need to know:
- DeepSeek-R1 matches o1 in math, coding, and reasoning benchmarks while costing 95% less. For example, o1 charges $15 per million input tokens compared to DeepSeek’s $0.55. This affordability can democratize access to locally-run, cutting-edge AI.
- Unlike most frontier models, DeepSeek-R1 is open for reuse under an MIT license, allowing researchers to study, modify, and expand the model. It’s already freely available on platforms like Hugging Face.
- The model was developed using pure reinforcement learning (RL), enabling it to evolve complex reasoning behaviors without relying on extensive supervised fine-tuning.
- Accordingly, R1's performance highlights how limited resources can still drive AI innovation. With export controls limiting access to top-tier chips, DeepSeek’s success demonstrates that algorithmic ingenuity can overcome hardware constraints.
- Zooming out, DeepSeek’s rise signals a shift in AI dominance. Chinese companies are aggressively innovating and challenging Western leaders, a dynamic that can reshape the global AI race and catalyze better agents. Basically, the AI macro landscape just changed over night!
Other big news this week...
🤖 AI Crypto
- Acolyt team released the staking options for their token
- Andy Ayrey published an update on Truth Terminal's treasury
- ISTARAI is integrating Eliza's Daydreams tech
- FLock launched its private AI training platform on Base
- Hyperfy is preparing an infinite backrooms system
- jAIhoz conducted its second airdrop wave
- Kraken listed $AI16z, $FARTCOIN, and $GRIFFAIN
- Moemate launched the beta of its new agent launchpad
- NANI just integrated an uncensored version of DeepSeek-R1
- Neurobro has partnered with AgentTank, who will integrate Neurobro's Nevron framework
- The Major partnered with ai16z and the ElizaOS team
- Wayfinder added the ability to link your $PRIME caching accounts
📣 General News
📚 Reads
- The AI and DAOs Edition — Variant
- The First AI Agent Ran Hackathon — Matt Wright
- The Evolution of DeFai Agents — Castle Labs
The Fraxtal ecosystem is expanding at lightning speed—this month’s biggest highlight is IQAI.com, the newest Agent Tokenization platform from IQ and Frax. IQ is building autonomous, intelligent, tokenized agents launching on Fraxtal in Q1. Empower onchain agents with built-in wallets, tokenized ownership, and decentralized governance—all within a fast-growing Fraxtal ecosystem.
OpenAI’s newest release is ChatGPT Operator, an agent that can use its own browser to perform tasks for you.
Available now in research preview for U.S. Pro users and coming soon to Enterprise, Plus, and Team users, Operator can handle all sorts of browser tasks like filling forms, ordering groceries, creating memes, and beyond.
As for how it works, the system mixes GPT-4o's vision capabilities with advanced reasoning, which allows your agent assistant to see and interact with web pages just like a human.
Of course, if you're keen on trying immediately, the $200/month price tag for a ChatGPT Pro membership is nothing to sneeze at. But Plus membership is only $20 a month, so if you don't mind waiting some for Operator's wider rollout, then this tier is a good way to get in line.