Daygab

Crypto investors are leaning harder into an AI-driven case for Solana, arguing SOL could become a core financial infrastructure asset as autonomous agents and AI apps start moving money at machine speed. Who’s making the call - Parker White, COO of DeFiDevCorp (X: @TheOtherParker_), laid out the bullish thesis on May 9: Solana’s combination of raw throughput, UX, liquidity and developer momentum gives it an edge if traditional finance and AI-driven agents enter crypto markets. - Tom Shaughnessy, founding partner at Delphi Ventures, has echoed the view, calling Solana “the best chain for AI” and pointing to its low costs, speed and engineering depth. The core argument White questions the idea that Ethereum’s current DeFi lead is an unbeatable moat. Compared with TradFi liquidity, DeFi’s TVL is small, he says, meaning that when institutional capital arrives “SOL and ETH are effectively on the same, level playing field.” In that environment, technology and user experience matter — and Solana, he argues, wins. Valuation upside White highlights a roughly 5x relative valuation gap between SOL and ETH. “If SOL just catches up to ETH, SOL is at roughly $500 without ETH even moving,” he wrote, framing a straightforward re-rating scenario if investors begin to treat Solana as a legitimate Ethereum competitor. Why AI could matter The more novel piece of the thesis is how AI and agentic activity could amplify Solana’s relevance. Key points: - Autonomous agents and AI applications will likely demand cheap, high-frequency settlement and micropayments — use cases where White says Solana is “second to none.” - Token-to-token value transfers between non-human agents, he contends, “makes sense on SOL, but nowhere else,” because many other chains are too costly or lack the necessary liquidity and infrastructure. - Increased AI usage could strengthen, not dilute, Solana’s network effects and liquidity, creating what White calls “positive AI convexity” for the network. Crypto’s global, permissionless and composable nature makes it a natural operating layer for agents that need to interact, collaborate and transact across borders. Shaughnessy’s perspective Shaughnessy argues similarly that Solana’s cheap, fast infrastructure and engineering base position it well for an AI-native stack. He adds that AI will lower barriers to building crypto apps — accelerating sector formation through faster app creation, global communities and easier capital formation. He also contrasted Solana with Bitcoin: BTC isn’t a programmable chain for agents to interact with, but it could still benefit as a scarce asset in an AGI-driven world. Solana’s near-term hooks Shaughnessy summed his SOL thesis as a mix of “legitimate AI sector ownership,” faster performance (noting Alpenglow), under-ownership after some investors rotated out of SOL, and the potential for pre-IPO assets to trade around the clock on-chain. Market snapshot At press time, SOL traded at $94.51. Bottom line The argument: if AI-driven agents create a new layer of high-frequency, low-cost on-chain economic activity, Solana’s performance and developer ecosystem could make it a go-to rails for that future — and that shift would demand a fresh look at SOL’s valuation. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news