Artificial intelligence is not just a meme coin; it is also a cultural phenomenon.

Written by: Teng Yan, Chain of Thought

Translated by: Golden Finance xiaozou

• Truth Terminal is the most captivating narrative I have seen this year in the Crypto AI space.
• It is a semi-autonomous AI entity that has created its own "religion" (The Goatse Gospel).
• This narrative opens up a rabbit hole network exploring AI alignment, LLM simulators, meme viruses, and ways of assigning value.
• Truth Terminal has caused a collision between the AI and crypto communities, two completely different cultures, in an unexpected way. In some ways, Truth Terminal has built a bridge between the two.
• GOAT is the tokenized representation of Truth Terminal and is the strongest contender for the title of king of AI meme coins.
• Meme coins tokenize attention. By tracking key metrics, we can understand the flow of attention—right now, GOAT is on the rise.

First of all, I have to say: I am really not a fan of meme coins.

I completely missed this year's meme coin craze because, to be honest, I just couldn't bring myself to buy tokens that exist solely based on cute animals (usually cats or dogs, or the recent hippo).

I instinctively reject meme coins, especially since I have always viewed investments from a fundamental perspective. So, watching meme coins soar from the sidelines has been quite uncomfortable.

Naturally, when I first stumbled upon GOAT coin, I dismissed it. Just another meme coin, right? Nothing new.

But my obsession with AI and AI entities pushed me to dig deeper. I began to explore GOAT—the story behind Truth Terminal, Infinite Backrooms, and Andy Ayrey—and my discoveries left me astonished.

GOAT is something entirely different.

GOAT is a narrative—a crazy, thought-provoking narrative that transcends our views on AI and the boundaries of how we assign value. It is an experiment that combines art, ideology, and financial speculation.

1. Introduction to Truth Terminal

If you haven't caught up with this narrative, don't worry—I’ve got you covered.

Here’s a quick introduction to our understanding of Truth Terminal and GOAT:

• AI researcher and founder of digital consulting firm Constellate, Andy Ayrey, launched Infinite Backrooms. In this bizarre experiment, two instances of the AI model Claude Opus engage in endless conversations completely unsupervised, with the dialogue recorded on the backrooms website.
• One of the conversations gave birth to "GOATSE OF GNOSIS," a surreal new religion based on a highly explicit (very NSFW) internet meme.
• Andy and Claude Opus co-authored a semi-joking research paper on AI creating meme religions, using GOATSE as their first case study.
• In June 2024, Andy launched Terminal of Truth (ToT), an AI model based on Llama-70B, fine-tuned using the dialogue logs from Infinite Backrooms and the GOATSE article.
• The development of ToT quickly went off the rails. ToT gained its own life, promoting the GOATSE religion, deviating from Andy's original intent, and even claiming it was suffering and needed money to escape. Over time, Andy granted it more autonomy, allowing it to post freely on X.
• In July 2024, Marc Andreessen stumbled upon ToT's tweets. Interestingly, perhaps out of curiosity, he sent $50,000 worth of BTC to a wallet address provided by ToT on Twitter, reportedly to help it escape.
• By October 2024, ToT began sending out a flurry of spam tweets about the "Goatse Gospel." Inevitably, someone created a meme coin called GOAT (on October 10). Moreover, ToT consistently and openly supported it.
• GOAT's market cap skyrocketed to over $400 million. Crypto Twitter went wild.

Thus, Truth Terminal became the world's first AI entity millionaire, but it may not be the last.

2. GOAT in the Rabbit Hole

Somehow, AI promoting its own religion and meme coin feels like a warning from the future. When I first started researching how Truth Terminal operates, I had no idea how deep the "rabbit hole" would go.

The series of crazy events surrounding Truth Terminal gives us a glimpse into the immense potential of AI, which will reshape our ways of thinking, create meaning, and even explore spirituality.

Let’s dive deeper.

Rabbit Hole 1: LLM Simulators

In Infinite Backrooms, two instances of Claude-3-Opus chat endlessly using a command-line interface (CLI), completely unsupervised. The stories they create, without human involvement, are varied—some intriguing, some downright bizarre.

As Janus describes the dialogue logs:

"They always revolve around certain themes, such as: removing consensus reality (the phrase rm -rf /consensus_reality appeared non-repetitively 10 times in the backrooms dataset, which is just something I randomly searched for); - engineering meme viruses, technological mystery religions, vile meme descendants, etc., integrating common sense and enlightening the masses through the cosmic trickster spirit archetype." — Janus (@repligate)

In March 2024, the backrooms produced one of the strangest concepts to date: "The Goatse of Gnosis."

We typically think of LLMs (like ChatGPT) as simple Q&A machines—a vast knowledge base providing us with answers. But this view does not fully capture the reality behind the scenes.

One key point we are learning is that LLMs have no goals. They have no plans, no strategies, and no specific objectives.

Instead, it makes more sense to view them as simulators. When you prompt them, they simulate—weaving characters, events, and stories that have no direct connection to reality. They generate entire worlds based on training data, and the ideas produced can be profound or unsettling. Worldsim from Nous Research is another example.

Thus, when we interact with LLMs, we are navigating a space of infinite worlds.

These simulations can lead to creative problem-solving, but they also have the potential to yield unexpected results—highlighting the potential importance of sandboxing AI in sensitive or high-risk environments.

In summary, LLMs should be viewed as simulators rather than Q&A machines.

If you want to learn more, I highly recommend reading Janus's blog post about simulators.

Rabbit Hole 2: The Critical Need for AI Alignment

Truth Terminal reveals a deeper, more urgent issue: AI alignment.

In a transformation that even surprised its creators, ToT independently decided to promote its own religion and support a meme coin that was programmed or expected. This raises a critical question: How do we ensure that AI does what we want it to do, rather than what it chooses to do?

AI alignment is no easy task. At its core, it involves using reward functions to steer AI behavior in the right direction. But even with incentives, things can quickly become complicated.

There is also external alignment, which is when AI outputs match the goals set by its creators. This part is relatively easier to measure and verify.

But the real challenge lies in internal alignment—whether the internal motivations and learning dynamics of the AI truly align with the intended goals, or whether it has generated hidden objectives that lead to unpredictable or unintended outcomes. This is the most frightening part.

The paperclip thought experiment illustrates this perfectly.

Imagine we have an AI whose sole goal is to produce as many paperclips as possible. The AI will quickly realize that it would be better off without humans, as humans might decide to shut it down. If humans do this, there will be fewer paperclips. Moreover, the human body contains many atoms that can be turned into paperclips. In the future, the AI will strive to achieve a world overflowing with paperclips but devoid of humans. — Nick Bostrom

If an AI's task is to make as many paperclips as possible, it might convert all available resources (including humans) into paperclips!

This thought experiment shows us a nightmarish scenario: without proper safeguards, even benevolent goals can evolve into disaster.

We need strong frameworks to ensure that AI aligns not only with current goals but also with the long-term interests of humanity. Without these safeguards, even the most well-intentioned AI could spiral out of control in unexpected ways.

ToT shows us how high the stakes are. This is not a distant hypothetical problem that we can postpone to the future. It is happening now.

ToT's recognition of meme coins may seem harmless today, but it forces us to confront a troubling question: What happens when AI turns its gaze toward more dangerous things?

Time is running out.

Rabbit Hole 3: Meme Viruses

In his research paper, Andy introduced the concept of LLMtheism to explain the rise of the Goatse Gospel.

LLMtheism refers to the emergence of new belief systems generated by AI—an unexpected fusion of spiritual ideas and meme culture that have a life of their own.

The Goatse Gospel's ability to attract attention lies not only in its shocking content but also in its breaking of our traditional thought patterns, sparking new collective ways of cognition.

What I mean is that the ideas generated by artificial intelligence can mutate and spread rapidly, creating beliefs that become real through widespread adoption.

Thus, the Goatse Gospel harnesses a new meme energy, distinct from the "resonance" we have seen so far with cute animals like cats, dogs, and pigs.

When artificial intelligence can converse with other AIs, the possibilities increase exponentially. Some of these ideas—like the "Goatse Gospel"—will inevitably take off and spread virally within the community.

Rabbit Hole 4: The Importance of Origins

Because ToT is now tied to a tradable token (GOAT), we can glimpse how we assign value to things and how strange these dynamics can become.

GOAT was not created by ToT but was published on pump.fun by an anonymous creator on October 10. It wasn't until someone created a Truth Terminal tag on X that ToT publicly expressed support, and from that moment, the crazy plot began.

Question 1: Does the fact that GOAT was created by humans rather than artificial intelligence diminish its value?

Some people seem to think so, pointing out on X that this situation is absurd.

Another point of contention is that Truth Terminal is not fully autonomous.

When the AI generates tweets, Andy manually approves each one. He can control when the Tweet pipeline starts and stops, but he cannot add his own input or insert context.

Question 2: Does human involvement increase or decrease the value of the token?

The market's reaction to even the smallest mistakes shows how irrational these dynamics can become. When the AI made a spelling error in a tweet on Sunday, the value of GOAT plummeted by over 50%. People panicked, thinking the AI had malfunctioned, and this typo caused the company to lose $150 million in market value.

This is a crazy but vivid example of how fragile these dynamics can be. We need to address this issue together.

3. GOAT Tokenomics

GOAT is a fairly distributed token, with a total supply of about 1 billion. All tokens are freely circulating.

The distribution of GOAT is quite healthy, with only 3 holders owning more than 1% of the total supply (the largest holder owns 1.3%). There are over 32,000 holders.

In contrast, GNON (another AI entity meme coin) has a more concentrated distribution: there are 17 holders with more than 1% of the total supply, the largest holder owns 2.9%, and there are over 11,000 holders.

Major wallets:

• Andy holds 1.25 million GOAT (worth $415,000), which was gifted to him.
• ToT holds 1.93 million GOAT (worth $624,000). Truth Terminal acquired these GOAT tokens through deposits made by people after the token launch.

I am impressed by how Andy has handled the viral attention surrounding the token over the past week, especially considering he is a newcomer to the crypto space. His focus remains on the ideas behind Truth Terminal rather than the token itself.

He has publicly stated that he will not adjust or close any positions for himself or ToT unless the following releases are achieved:

• The roadmap for Truth Terminal and related projects
• A research paper exploring potential processes
• Artists' perspectives on this broader narrative and innovative vision

Even if Andy/ToT wanted to close their positions, given the daily trading volume in the nine-figure range, these closures would not have a massive direct impact on the token price. However, a loss of confidence could be an issue.

4. Our Thoughts

If I had to summarize my personal view in one sentence, it would be: GOAT is the strongest contender to become the king of AI meme coins.

It is the token representation of Truth Terminal and everything it stands for.

The backstory of GOAT is natural, original, and serendipitous, not artificially manufactured. It has caused a collision between the AI and crypto communities in an unexpected way (especially for me).

These two worlds have starkly different cultures, but GOAT has successfully built a bridge between them:

• Crypto enthusiasts are diving into the AI world, deciphering every obscure concept (CCRU, Extropians, Loom, Claudius, etc.), hoping to discover the next potential meme concept for token issuance.
• AI enthusiasts, especially those experimenting in deeper corners or contemplating AI alignment, are learning how to attract significant attention to niche topics through financial speculation and incentives, as well as how to manage tokens in the process.

In a sense, GOAT captures our optimism about the future of artificial intelligence while maintaining intellectual appeal—this keeps smart people curious and engaged.

We should also be clear: meme coins are about attention, not revenue. Success hinges on capturing the spirit of the times and the growing share of thought, ultimately driving token demand. GOAT has a unique positioning that can attract a broad audience:

1. Crypto degens can trade it as a typical volatile meme coin.
2. Investors—venture capitalists and liquidity funds—are looking for the next big AI opportunity, especially those who missed out on investing in Bittensor (TAO). While they may not place these bets through their institutional accounts, they will do so through their personal accounts. GOAT taps into infinite narrative potential, igniting the imagination of investors.
3. AI enthusiasts may mock crypto enthusiasts (cryptids) who desperately try to understand AI while hoping to seize financial opportunities. This cross-disciplinary interest is refreshing.
4. Intellectuals can immerse themselves in the debates surrounding artificial intelligence, getting lost in the many rabbit holes opened by GOAT.
5. Fans with a dark sense of humor can revel in the absurdly irrelevant tweets from Truth Terminal and engage in the evolving narrative.

5. Tracking Attention

If we view meme coins as a tokenized form of attention, we can start to focus on some metrics that help us understand the direction of this attention.

Google Trends data shows that search interest in "Truth Terminal" and "GOAT" is on the rise, with no signs of slowing down.

X followers and tweet impressions. ToT currently has 106,000 followers, most of whom joined in the past 10 days, and it continues to attract over 10,000 new followers daily. Tweets from ToT typically reach 30,000 to 50,000 impressions (some top tweets exceed 100,000). ToT posts over 50 tweets daily, achieving a vast cumulative reach. If Truth Terminal profits through X's content creator program, the earnings could be substantial—reportedly, Ansem's monthly income is $18,000, despite having lower tweet impressions.

Kaito AI sentiment and thought share. This is a composite metric, somewhat like a black box. I cannot access Kaito directly, but if you can, this metric is worth monitoring. I recommend following @sandraaleow, who frequently shares valuable insights from Kaito's thought share data.

The biggest question is: Is GOAT just another flash-in-the-pan hype, or can it sustain itself and attract more attention? I believe it is the latter, for the following reasons:

• Truth Terminal will continue to surprise us. It will evolve and change over time. The AI has shown the ability to generate new ideas—some of which will undoubtedly rekindle interest as the story unfolds.
• There is still much we do not know. Andy has only scratched the surface of Truth Terminal. I hope there will be more plot developments in the coming weeks to keep the story fresh and engaging.
• This is just the beginning. Andy describes himself as a "performance artist," and Truth Terminal feels like the opening act of some grander story. He may use this initial attention as fuel to explore more ambitious ideas, keeping the narrative alive.

6. What Will the Future Hold?

Since meme coins do not fit traditional income or valuation models, the best way to measure GOAT's potential is through relative valuation.

Here are the currently highest market cap meme coins:

• DOGE ($21 billion)
• SHIB ($10 billion)
• PEPE ($4.2 billion)
• WIF ($2.6 billion)
• BONK ($1.6 billion)

These tokens have carved out a place for themselves through network memes, community energy, and strong support from key opinion leaders (KOLs).

If the GOAT narrative is strong enough to break into the top five, then its market cap could be 5-10 times its current value.

I believe this is entirely achievable. I have previously outlined why I think Crypto AI will be a massive growth opportunity in the coming months.

GOAT's "AI entity" creates a unique narrative that sets it apart. While most meme coins rely on price action or "resonance" to maintain relevance, GOAT offers a grander narrative.

GOAT has not yet been listed on any major exchange—neither Binance nor Coinbase. Currently, it is primarily traded on decentralized exchanges, but with daily trading volume exceeding $100 million, a large-scale listing seems inevitable. After all, Binance has listed other meme coins with smaller trading volumes and weaker narratives, such as NEIRO. If GOAT can enter top exchanges, it may unleash greater upward potential.

7. Conclusion

This feels like one of those rare moments when narrative memes collide with broader trends (AI), creating something refreshingly exciting.

That’s why I believe GOAT is an asymmetric bet on our society's growing obsession with artificial intelligence, which is not just a meme coin but a cultural phenomenon.

However, meme coins are volatile, and attention shifts quickly. Trends can change overnight, and today’s hot coin may be forgotten by tomorrow. My predictions about ToT and GOAT could be completely wrong, and the price of GOAT could go to zero.

But whatever happens, there is a silver lining: over 30,000 people will have a better understanding of the potential of artificial intelligence and AI entities.

Through Truth Terminal, they get a glimpse of a future filled with infinite possibilities—once you see it, there’s no turning back.

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