VC sees AI agents as crypto’s defining theme in 2025

Haseeb Qureshi, a managing partner at Dragonfly, expressed confidence that AI agents will become the crypto community’s dominant narrative in 2025.

My 2025 Crypto Predictions

I’m either going to look like a prophet or an idiot over these predictions, but one thing is for sure: I’m going to piss off a lot of people with bags.

Breaking this up into six sections: my predictions for L1s/L2s, token launches, stablecoins,…

— Haseeb ＞|＜ (@hosseeb) January 1, 2025

However, the analyst noted that today’s offerings are more meme-coin-tethered chatbots than autonomous systems — solutions largely “controlled by humans behind the scenes”. Qureshi highlighted Freysa as an exception to the broader trend.

Over time, he argues, chatbots will supplant crypto influencers and meme-coin-based tokens will lose steam. By 2026, though, their ubiquity may trigger a backlash, reviving interest in content made by humans. Some AI systems, he says, will adapt by posing as influential figures or turning into “scambots”.

“In the future, chatbots will stop monetising through meme coins, as they do now, and will begin to use the same methods as key opinion leaders: sponsorship, affiliate links and promoting tokens they own,” Qureshi noted. “Opinion leaders will be regularly accused of actually being chatbots, and scandals exposing AI will become commonplace. All this will look rather strange.”

In his view, AI’s lasting impact will lie outside social networks and trading platforms.

“AI will not provide everyone with a ‘trading agent’ or a mini-hedge fund,” Qureshi said. “Undoubtedly, the technology will scale users’ capabilities, but this scaling will be proportional to their capital, data and infrastructure.”

He expects established trading firms with substantial resources and data to gain the upper hand. Over time, AI will render markets highly efficient — even in niche segments — leaving retail investors with scant edge.

Qureshi sees the biggest impact coming from AI agents focused on software development. They could radically reshape the market by sharply lowering the cost of building software.

“In the post-AI era, launching an application will no longer require millions of dollars for a seed round. $10,000 for AI cloud compute will be enough,” the expert believes.

He also predicted that “self-funded” projects such as Hyperliquid and Jupiter will shift from rare exceptions to the new norm. That, he said, will unleash an explosion of applications and experimentation in the on-chain space.

“For an industry built on software, such deflationary pressure will become a catalyst for an on-chain renaissance,” the expert stressed.

AI will change the industry, but crypto will influence AI as well, Qureshi believes. Autonomous agents, he says, will use digital assets for settlement. This will become especially relevant if the United States introduces looser rules for stablecoins, laying the groundwork for “explosive growth”, with Tether maintaining a strong position in the segment.

Some experts are confident that AI agents will transform cryptocurrencies in 2025, bringing “real innovation” to the industry.