Beyond the Meme – AI, Crypto, and Cults

Technology is no longer a tool that serves us; it shapes our beliefs, dictates our identities, and crafts entire subcultures with the fervor of modern-day cults. As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to permeate our lives, society finds itself caught between two extreme visions: one of existential risk, where AI threatens humanity’s very survival, and another of radical opportunity, where a single individual can leverage an army of autonomous agents to create multi-million-dollar ventures.

This transformation coincides with the erosion of public trust and the rise of memecoins within crypto. Detached from traditional financial logic, memecoins have tapped into a new zeitgeist—one that values community, narrative, and the power of collective belief over top-down control of money. However, since Murad’s announcement of a Memecoin Supercycle, where he underscored the similarities to cult-like communities, a new breed of memecoins has emerged: AI-inspired or so-called sentient memecoins.

Source: Kaito.ai – Goatseus Maximus

This most recent narrative is the outcome of that existential crisis underscoring the belief that “What am I even useful for? Where can one find meaning when AI beats us at almost everything?”. Demand for new belief systems actually emerges from this collective alienation, or unmet existential needs—those that AI could address by appearing “all-knowing”.

Crypto and AI, seemingly opposites, have proven to be complementary forces: one thrives on scarcity and financial autonomy, while the other generates boundless creativity and abundance. Together, they form a potent synthesis—an ethos of emancipation where control over the narrative and the power to capture attention become the new arbiters of value, influence, and meaning.

Source: Kaito.ai – 50% of all narrative mindshare is AI and Memes

It is the interplay between technology and narrative that resonates deeply with the mystique and philosophical core of both fields—how belief systems are formed and propagated as emergent properties in human and machine cognition.

The allure of Goatseus Maximus’s ($GOAT) origin story won’t be easily replicated; it represented a tale of culture that sparked debates about sentience, creativity, and existential risk. In the following report we will examine how crypto and AI are rewriting the rules of how narratives are shaped, exploring how these two domains intertwine to create fertile ground for the emergence of new forms of capital, culture, and—yes—cults.

Source: hyperstition.org

We’ll examine the rise of memecoins as modern digital icons, the power of lore in fostering belief systems, and the role of AI as both a creator and participant in these ecosystems. This is a story of curiosity and chaos, where the edges of human imagination and machine learning collide. Unlike tech, cults must be built. For that, a charismatic or disruptive narrative must captivate and mobilize communities. AI has definitely introduced a radical shift in these dynamics, transforming agents into ideal cult leaders. Whether these movements will lead to enlightenment or chaos remains an open question, but one thing is certain: this narrative is here to stay.