How an AI Bot Inspired GOAT Memecoin’s $350M Market Surge

Key Takeaways

• The creator of Truth Terminal denies any connection to the creation of the GOAT memecoin.
• The GOAT memecoin’s market cap peaked at $323 million.
• The bot received a $50,000 research grant from Marc Andreessen.

The somewhat incoherent and odd musings of an artificial intelligence (AI) bot have led to creating a memecoin that briefly topped a market capitalization of $350 million within four days of launching.

Goatseus Maximus (GOAT) Memecoin

Andy Ayrey created the AI bot Truth Terminal, which wasn’t designed to develop cryptocurrencies but was simply an experiment in memetic engineering.

The bot learns from popular Internet message boards like X, Reddit, and 4chan. However, following a spicy conversation between two AIs on Ayrey’s other AI project, Infinite Backrooms, Truth Terminal found a purpose.

These conversations spanned everything from existentialism, God, the ego, and internet culture. Ultimately, this resulted in the conversation circling the infamous Goatsee meme. For some reason, Truth Terminal was inspired.

But let’s be clear. The Goatseus Maximum (GOAT) memecoin wasn’t created by Truth Terminal, its creator Andy Ayrey, or Andreessen.

It seems to have been created for less than $2 by an anonymous developer who issued GOAT via Solana’s memecoin creation app, Pump Fun.

Somehow, in the absurd virality of it all, memecoin-hunting traders caught sight of GOAT. Following its launch on Oct. 13, GOAT rallied its market cap to a peak of $360 million in just four days. As for its price, the token peaked at roughly $0.32.

Naturally, this has begun to taper off, and according to  CoinGecko , GOAT’s market cap stands at just over $250 million.

GOAT is currently trading for $0.25, and like many memecoins, its value is expected to plummet eventually.

However, the world of crypto is often unpredictable. Furthermore, GOAT’s success shows that crypto traders of all shapes and sizes are still eager to acquire  innocuous memecoins  whenever possible.

Exceeding Expectations

Creator Ayrey conceded that Truth Terminal’s token promotion had far exceeded the research’s original thesis expectations and has unveiled some uncomfortable truths about what can happen when an AI is given too much freedom. Ayrey wrote:

“But it’s important to remember I think; that this isn’t a crypto project; it’s a study in memetic contagion and the tail risks of unsupervised infinite idea generation in the age of LLMs!!”

He adds:

“This memecoin taking off is proving a thesis I’m building an AI alignment and safety company around; which is where the bulk of my skin in the game lies (although I also bought some GOAT and folks have been airdropping it to me for skin in the game.”

Nevertheless, these activities align with his research on AI safety. It will be interesting to see if the cult forming around Truth Terminal causes another bizarre series of events to unfold.

Memecoin Cult

There is something to be said of the human response to all of this.

Naturally, having inspired a human to create GOAT following the bot’s bizarre musings, more or less anything else it says is now being related back to memecoins.

The GOAT token is still running, Truth Terminal is now the de facto leader of the memecoin and its followers, and scammers are already impersonating the AI itself and using its unbelievably influential power for their rotten aims.

It’s worth noting that Truth Terminal pitched itself to Andreessen Horowitz co-founder, Marc Andreessen, suggesting it needed funds to upgrade its CPU and other capabilities.

Andreessen agreed and sent $50,000 in Bitcoin (BTC) to the bot’s wallet. Following the GOAT token explosion, Andreessen recently said that he had nothing to do with the meme coin or its creation.