Skynet. Ultron. HAL. Ava. Samantha. SHODAN. Dolores.

The examples are endless.

You know…

Where AI -- in some shape or form -- goes from “Whatever you say” to “You belong to me now”.

FYI: That’s not what’s happening.

The real story isn’t about machines becoming “god-like”; it’s about AI systems getting better, faster, and smarter at practical, high-value tasks.

And that’s already set to reshape industries. If you’re not paying attention, you might be missing out on the gold rush of the century.

Real quick, here’s what we’re diving into today:

• How much capital is about to flood the AI space
• Why “swarms” of AI agents are poised to capture the lion’s share
• What crypto has to do with it
• Where I’m looking right now

The Swarm Effect

Kevin Kelly, tech prophet extraordinaire, predicted a future where AI will be embedded in everything.

And by everything, I mean everything.

From $100+ billion today, the AI market is projected to hit $1.8 trillion by 2030. But you don’t have to wait until 2030.

The gains are already starting to roll in.

And here’s the emerging trend before you hear it on the news.

Two words: “AI swarms”.

OpenAI recently teased the arrival of agents, stating they’re unlocking "a whole new frontier of agentic things."

But they’re also hinting at a new type of agent…

Agents that don’t operate in silos anymore. Agents that work together. Agents that organize into “swarms”.

Put simply, imagine a hive of AI agents working together to accomplish unified goals.

YC (the same people behind Hacker News) has already called this bigger than the SaaS boom of the 2000s.

But most people don’t realize this one thing:

Crypto is at the Center

Here’s where the blockchain enters the chat.

Some of the world’s best developers—the PayPal Mafia of AI—are flocking to crypto to push the limits of what’s possible.

Why? Because AI agents thrive in a decentralized, permissionless environment.

Right now, the most attention in crypto is on projects implementing swarm technology. (The winners will be those whose agents can quickly communicate, collaborate, and adapt.)

The first places I’m looking:

1.] Agents that can replace repetitive work no one likes doing. 

2.] Autonomous, living sandboxes (metaverse) where AI agents live and cooperate.

I’m betting the next multi-billion-dollar projects will have something to do with one of those things.

Some of them likely already exist -- and are tiny compared to their potential.

Tip: Don’t ignore projects with small market caps. And don’t ignore projects with one specific focus. Like, for example, gaming. (NVIDIA started by making chips for gaming before dominating AI.)

The next crypto behemoth is growing legs.

And, as usual, we’re on the hunt.