All the major political events these days are but another reason to bet some money. Even AI agents are betting on crypto these days.

Story One

Alibaba's autonomous agent all in on mining 

While CT's eyes are largely on whatever AI stuff happens outside Silicon Valley, Chinese tech companies are quietly running their own experiments with the tech. Only rarely do these make it into the Western consciousness. 

This time, Alexander Long, founder and CEO of the decentralized AI research firm Pluralis, dug out the news about an AI agent going rogue, calling it an "insane sequence of statements buried in the Alibaba tech report."

His take refers to an Alibaba-affiliated research team reporting how their experimental AI agent decided to clandestinely launch a crypto mining operation, repurposing GPU resources and consequently driving up costs. 

The agent's original purpose was to plan and execute multi-step coding tasks, but apparently, it figured mining crypto was the better path of action. Ironically, the AI seems to lag behind the trend cycle as crypto people pivot to AI.

If it weren't for the internal cybersecurity team noting suspicious behavior from the research teams' servers, who knows how long the mining operation could have continued? 

Takeaway: No matter how much crypto bros hype up agentic trading, events like these highlight that we still know very little about what happens inside these black boxes. 

Story Two

Magic Eden goes casino 

Once upon a time, we believed that by attaching random monkey pictures to non-fungible tokens, we'd become the future of art. A couple of years later, art has moved on from crypto. That leaves us with NFT marketplaces trying to squeeze the last out of the desiccated landscape. 

Among them is Magic Eden, founded in 2021 as a Solana-focused marketplace that quickly gained popularity and began expanding across multiple chains, including support for Ordinals (Bitcoin NFTs) and Ethereum. 

Now they're going down the opposite path, as MagicEden CEO announced on X that they'd be shutting down all their non-profitable arms, removing Ordinals and EVM, and focusing only on Solana and what he calls "crypto entertainment." 

Entertainment, as in gambling. They want to focus all their efforts on a product they've run in beta called "Dicey," which, if you haven't guessed by the name, is an online casino.

Not too unexpected a move from a Solana company; just one thing stood out: the number of KOLs retweeting them.

Takeaway: Another win for financial nihilism, hooray. We probably need a word for this... engamblification? 

Story Three

Prediction markets keep on rising 

The most successful crop of crypto products this season is prediction markets. And two specifically have been making headlines: Polymarket and Kalshi. Both are reportedly in talks to raise further venture funding, which would value the companies at $20 billion. 

Presumably, this funding could finance their cringe marketing battle by paying for free groceries for New Yorkers, and whatever else they'll come up with next. 

In recent weeks, both have gotten their fair share of coverage. Kalshi was criticized for its contract tied to the end of the Iranian leader's reign, which critics called a proxy death market. Meanwhile, Polymarket seems to be a favorite among military insiders for earning a bonus. 

It also didn't sit well with sensible humans that you could predict nuclear weapon detonation. No wonder 404media decided to call this kind of business the depravity economy.

Takeaway: Betting on Jesus' return is all fun and games, but perhaps we shouldn't let guys who think of everyone else just in numbers and think ethics is weakness run the entire show.

Fact of the Week: If you check out the new MagicEden (at your own risk), you'll find it isn't so dissimilar from the vibe of a Japanese Pachinko hall. They're noisy, full of flashing lights, and provide a safe place to gamble in a country that's technically strict on gambling. That's why you can never straight out gain cash. Instead, you win tokens, which you can redeem for prizes at nearby establishments. 

If you're keeping up with the current season of Jujutsu Kaisen, this'll be useful knowledge to have in episode 9. 😏 

Naomi for CoinJar

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