Small groups, large holders, and KOLs are worse than venture capitalists without reputational constraints.
Author: Yash Agarwal
Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow
When we started this hackathon, I had a simple vision:
Make Solana the AI chain and achieve 10x growth!
The hackathon is the best way to achieve this goal, bringing everyone together on the same platform while allowing me to personally engage in the promising field of Crypto x AI Agents.
Over the past month, I can proudly say that the “SoHana AI Hackathon” has not only become a strong brand but has also completely transformed the ecosystem of Solana agents. In just 15 days, over 400 projects participated, which is no small feat. I am incredibly proud of my team for their significant contribution to increasing the market cap of Solana tokens by $500 million to $1 billion.
Of course, we realized from the outset that with the trend of combining Crypto and AI agents, there might be some token issuances. We are completely open to this—as long as developers can use tokens as capital tools to create excellent products. To encourage truly valuable agents, we meticulously designed all 8 tracks, completely led by us (sponsors had no decision-making power).
But what we didn’t expect was that this hackathon would turn into a paradise for speculators (refer to this data). In just one week, it attracted over 40,000 visitors. Now, every day, 2-3 hackathon projects are launching tokens worth $50 million, with a total market cap exceeding $500 million. Unintentionally, the Solana AI Hackathon has become a discovery platform for AI tokens.
Special thanks to @PineAnalytics (some projects were not tracked, so the actual total market cap may be higher)
The current play or script is as follows:
Submit projects in the hackathon and appear in the Solana AI Hackathon project directory.
Enhance project credibility with the Solana AI Hackathon or SendAI brand.
Issue tokens → Snatched up or promoted by large holders and KOLs → Instantly achieve token issuance of $5 million to $50 million.
Speculators flock in, believing they have caught a potential “100x return” project emerging from the hackathon, entering early and turning it into a perfect speculative paradise.
This is not a new phenomenon—the typical power law distribution is driving market speculation, with a few projects attracting most of the attention while others are ignored.
While it’s good to see some developers raising funds through token issuance, like any emerging trend, the current bubble is indeed a bit excessive.
This approach, while closer to “fair issuance” (similar to early ICOs), is not, in my view, the best direction we should take.
Developers are becoming somewhat blind
The current trend of excessive tokenization is making developers short-sighted, even losing their way.
Currently, 90% of Crypto x AI projects resemble cat/dog memes; as long as they are honest about it, that’s completely fine. But those claiming their tokens are “utility tokens” are more like “putting on a show.”
But this phenomenon may cause long-term harm to truly promising developers (especially those with limited resources)—they are now forced to be short-term profit-oriented.
Many agent or infrastructure projects have found that issuing tokens is the best way to attract attention:
Token price rises → Agents/frameworks “go viral” (but with no actual users) → Token price continues to rise → Everyone appears happy on the surface.
Many projects simply release some announcements or demos (even with a market cap exceeding $200 million) to please speculators and artificially inflate prices in the short term (while reaping a wave of “dopamine” stimulation)—then large holders and small groups sell these tokens to retail investors, boasting “this is great technology.”
Many developers know deep down that their products cannot scale or cannot be applied in real environments, so they keep releasing demos or random “X and Y linkage” announcements.
Can you name a few truly launched, scalable, fully on-chain, and intelligent products? I’m waiting.
Small groups, large holders, and KOLs are worse than venture capitalists without reputational constraints
These small groups and large holders are playing the game dirtier: they either seize quality token supplies or persuade developers to allocate token shares, then hype them in the speculative community by fabricating false narratives (like “backed by XX”—which is actually just simple forwarding and boasting about “great technology”). Ultimately, they will sell the tokens (or will sell sooner or later), which harms not only retail speculators but also developers.
Remember, these tokens are usually fully unlocked—because they are issued through hype.
Two pieces of advice for developers:
Do not issue tokens just for the sake of issuing tokens—especially if you do not hold a sufficient proportion yourself. Trust me, if your holding is less than 5%, once the price starts to drop, you will lose the motivation to continue developing.
The token may rise in the short term, and you may feel a brief excitement from issuing a token worth $50 million to $100 million, but when the price corrects, you will find yourself lacking the motivation to continue developing, left with a group of trapped investors. They will expect you to continue developing “great technology” based on the hype from some small groups.
Always remember, tokens are technically assets, but emotionally they are a huge burden. Issuing tokens is easy, but my experience managing tokens over the past 6 months has made me realize: managing a token is not easy. A token itself is a large product that requires continuous management.
When the price drops, these communities, KOLs, or small groups will not provide any help—you will be left to fight alone. At most, they will mock you or criticize you.
It is perfectly fine to use token issuance to kickstart funding for projects, but don’t rush to chase this trend if you are not ready.
Try to think from a long-term perspective—ask yourself: “Even if the token market cap is below $500,000, will I still persist in developing this project over the next 6 months?”
If your answer is yes, then go ahead and issue tokens. If needed, ensure there is a reasonable treasury and team allocation. As a full-time developer, you have every right to let your project (your “child”) bring you returns through long-term efforts, rather than letting those random small groups or large holders profit.
For those developers who have already issued tokens in the hackathon but lack a clear vision—good luck, managing tokens is not an easy task, and we’ll talk again in 6 months.
I won’t name anyone specifically right now, but I want to illustrate with a positive example:
- A friend of mine, like a brother, Umang, developed @cleopetrafun in this hackathon, which is an LP agent aimed at solving a real problem: improving the experience for LP users. He currently has no plans to issue tokens but receives daily harassment about fake tokens and requests from speculators to disclose contract addresses. Of course, he is strong and has not succumbed to this pressure.
But if you are a developer without a vision who easily succumbs to these speculators and issues tokens—frankly, I will have no respect for you. Whether your token market cap is $100 million or $500 million, when the time is right, I will point out your issues without hesitation.
What to do if you haven’t issued tokens yet?
Hold on, state in your Twitter bio “will not issue tokens,” and never imply that you will issue tokens. Keep focusing on development and release.
For the issuance of fake tokens, you really have no power—fighting against it is completely futile. If someone blindly invests without any research, they should be responsible for their losses—ignore them (or if they DM you, just block them).
Advice for KOLs and speculators:
For KOLs in Crypto x AI—most of you are my good friends, but please be responsible for what you promote, especially tokens. Guide developers well, and don’t lose your way chasing short-term token allocations or fame. When token prices drop, you wouldn’t want to be seen as a speculator, right?
For speculators, or all of us—don’t blindly invest in projects you don’t even understand just because a KOL you like recommended a token. In the end, you will become the biggest loser in all of this, just because you pursued quick returns.
On the phenomenon of speculation in hackathons:
Recently, many respected individuals in this field have contacted me, asking about:
Token listings or recommended projects
The date of the hackathon results announcement
Even directly asking about the results of the hackathon
At least over 50 private messages, with some even offering bribes or conditions for token allocations.
I’m sorry, but we will not disclose the exact date of the results or the final results to anyone (including judges) before the official announcement. Each judge has an independent scoring sheet, and we will compile and announce it uniformly.
Pouring heart and soul
When we decided to launch this hackathon, we had no funding or support—everything relied on our hard work, effort, and the passion to drive Solana AI to 10x growth. SendAI was established as an overarching organization only after the Solana AI Hackathon—we took this risk, and the results have proven to be very successful.
We place a high value on ethical standards and do our utmost to maintain academic integrity—regardless of who you are, we treat everyone equally.
To avoid excessive market speculation, we made a difficult but necessary decision: to cancel demo day and announce the results directly through @solana or @sendaifun. Developers need not worry; we will launch events that are even more exciting than demo day, so stay tuned.
What will happen next?
To be honest, I have not yet found the best solution to the token issuance issue, especially regarding capital structure. But I believe we can come up with a way—I will continue to research in my spare time. This is a very new problem (it has only emerged for less than a month), so we are still in the early stages, and there is still an opportunity to correct everything.
In any case, I am very confident about the future of Crypto x AI agents—this is an industry destined to grow into a hundred billion dollar level. This is also why we launched the following projects:
SendAI
Solana AI Hackathon
Solana Agent Kit
All of these projects are fully self-funded public goods and have been completed in the past month. You are not even ready for our next steps.
While my rational mind tells me to wait until the results are out to share this content, I decided to listen to my inner voice and say it now. As an industry, we need to face some obvious issues head-on, or we are not far from a major disaster.
Stay calm. The casino is still running, and the house always wins…
Disclaimer:
The above content is entirely my personal opinion and does not represent anyone else. This is also not financial advice.
Thank you for patiently listening to my lengthy “rant”—I really appreciate it. I will definitely write down my optimistic views on Crypto x AI agents someday. And no, there are no token codes, love you all.
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