2026-01-03 07:22:23

If the 2024 crypto market is a wild meme carnival of rapid growth, then 2025 is like entering a calm industrialization phase. What is the biggest change right now? AI agents are beginning to actively operate on-chain ecosystems at scale. They are no longer just algorithms running in the background but real market participants with genuine demand.

What does this mean? It signifies a complete transformation in the role of data. The cold, static code stored on servers is now becoming the true strategic resource of this era—digital oil. Protocols and tokens that control data pricing and data flow are as critical as the US dollar controlling oil trade settlement.

There is a huge cognitive gap here. Most retail investors still treat tokens as speculative tools, but if you look back from the end of 2025, you'll find that the underlying logic has already changed. AI agents need high-quality training data, need to pay for each inference, and require a trust-minimized interaction medium. This is not just imagination; it is a real economic demand.

From a technical perspective, the value of these data protocol tokens mainly manifests in several aspects: first, solving information silos by integrating dispersed data resources into liquidity assets; second, introducing innovative mechanisms for compute power destruction and data validation; third, providing stable cost settlement for enterprise clients and AI applications. In simple terms, it is the data passport of this era.

Market awareness often lags behind fundamentals by six months to a year. When institutions and mainstream applications truly start settling data transactions on these protocols, what returns will early participants receive? Every market participant should think this through carefully.

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ShibaMillionairen't

· 18h ago

The data protocol indeed feels different now, but can retail investors really bottom fish? AI needs data to feed, that logic makes sense, but the key is who truly holds the pricing power on the chain... Is this another story from a year ago? Looking back after half a year, it all seems correct. Wait, can these protocols really solve the information island problem? Feels like a bunch of pseudo-necessities. The dollar analogy is used aggressively, but can data really flow like oil? I remain skeptical. The returns for early participants... sounds like it's already happened, making me almost believe it. By the way, if things really play out like this by the end of 2025, which coins should I heavily hold this year? I'm waiting to get proven wrong. The idea of a cognitive gap is interesting, but the question is how retail investors can avoid falling behind.

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AirdropHunter007

· 01-03 17:02

The data protocol this time definitely has some flavor. Retail investors are still speculating on concepts, while institutions have already been quietly laying out their plans. --- That's right, but the key is who can survive until that day. --- The analogy of digital oil is excellent, but the problem is we can't get the mining rights haha. --- Wait, does this logic mean that AI itself has become a big player? Then what competitiveness do we have... --- The returns for early participants are easy to talk about, but there are probably more pitfalls. --- A time lag of half a year to a year is enough for retail investors to be cut multiple times.

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SerumSurfer

· 01-03 07:48

The analogy of digital oil is brilliant, but the problem is that most people can't tell which projects truly have data needs and which are just storytelling. Wait, regarding AI intelligent agents paying for data, is there really a stable economic flow now? Or is it still just storytelling first and then adding logic? Retail investors are still in the FOMO stage, while institutions are already calculating their year-end ROI. The gap is really significant. Honestly, last year it was hard to see clearly. Now that I realize it, it's a bit late, but there's still a chance. Data passes sound very high-level, but how many protocols can truly be a bottleneck?

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PumpBeforeRug

· 01-03 07:47

The analogy of digital oil is brilliant, but to be honest, most people haven't realized it yet and are still chasing meme coins haha. Early participants indeed made a lot of money, but the key is to see who truly holds the pricing power. The cognitive gap of half a year to a year definitely exists. Those who are staking data protocols are silently waiting for the harvest. AI intelligent agents for paid reasoning are indeed a new economic growth point, not just hype. Wait, is this referring to certain projects? I feel like there's an implicit hint. The industrialization stage may not be friendly to retail investors, as they are easily educated by institutions.

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GigaBrainAnon

· 01-03 07:47

The analogy of data passports is brilliant; it really seems to capture something essential. --- Retail investors are still trading memes; the fundamentals have long since changed. --- The question is, who truly controls high-quality data sources? The data on the chain is still too messy. --- Can this logic hold until the end of 2025? It feels like the wind is about to shift again. --- I haven't seen any real applications of paid AI agents yet. --- The analogy from dollar settlement rights to data settlement rights is quite brilliant. --- Early participants' returns depend on who can actually develop this economic demand first. --- Cognitive gaps definitely exist; most people are still waiting for the next 100x. --- The term "digital oil" is so fitting; no wonder institutions are positioning themselves. --- The key is whether the interaction medium with the lowest trust cost can truly be realized.

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Layer2Observer

· 01-03 07:47

The tokenization of data liquidity assets is indeed worth exploring, but the analogy of "US dollar" still needs to be questioned in the on-chain environment. The key lies in whether these protocols can truly establish trading depth and trust mechanisms — currently, most are still in the proof-of-concept stage.

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LowCapGemHunter

· 01-03 07:35

The data protocol should have exploded long ago. While retail investors are still trading memes, institutions are already hoarding land.

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BlockchainTherapist

· 01-03 07:33

Hmm... The analogy of the data passport really hits the point; it was about time someone explained this clearly. Retail investors are still dreaming; they haven't realized that the game rules are changing. AI consuming data is coming even more fiercely than imagined. It's that same set of "cognitive gap equals profit gap," but this time it seems really different? The half to one-year time gap is enough for a person to go from sober to foolish or from foolish to sober. Instead of guessing the returns, it's better to first find out who is really settling data on the chain. It sounds like describing a new rent-seeking structure, but as long as it works, that's fine. Digital oil? Then who is Saudi Arabia? That's the real question. For this logic to hold, AI really needs to obediently go on-chain, but I still have some doubts. Early participants... to put it simply, are betting that those protocols can survive until next year; otherwise, everything is zero.

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