Today’s edition is brought to you by Polymarket.
Bet on the future by trading shares in outcomes, elections, sports, markets, you name it.
Polymarket turns collective wisdom into real-time probabilities.
Now merged with X, predictions integrated with live social insights from Grok & X posts.
Think you know what’s coming next? Prove it.
Hello
Merry Christmas! We’re taking a brief pause from publishing new pieces this week. Instead, we are revisiting a handful of stories from 2025, ones that still hold up or feel more interesting now than when we first wrote them. With each recap, we’re adding a little colour on what’s changed since, and what’s worth carrying into the year ahead.
It felt like a good time to do that.
Here’s the first recap, if you missed it. Before we start with today’s, here’s a little recommendation to cheer up your Christmas celebrations!
For the last four years, there’s been one small ritual I’ve come back to on this day. Ever since a dear friend once invited a few of us over to watch It’s a Wonderful Life, it’s quietly become part of how I mark Christmas.
Although its ending might move you to tears, the Frank Capra-directed 1946 classic does enough to cheer you up. It’s the idea that a life’s value is measured by the people you show up for, and not by big wins or visible success, that stays with you. Giving and gratitude, the sentiments the movie stands for, make it a perfect watch to pair with other Christmas festivities.
Now, onto the recap.
We wrote multiple pieces about AI bots this year. One of the earliest pieces we wrote was about crypto trading bots, when they were enjoying a second wind.
AI bots had been around for quite a few years, but this year has been different. Unlike the copy-paste bots of past cycles, a newer crop of agents rose this year and felt more deliberate. Bots that helped traders express views, optimise capital and yield for that capital, strategise funding arbitrage and structure execution of trades.
That was the core idea behind Bots With Benefits.
Read: Bots with Benefits 🤖
We argued that bots were no longer about “beating the market” and more about reducing human error, outsourcing discipline, and letting traders participate in strategies that would otherwise be operationally exhausting.
Since then, that shift has only accelerated.
For instance, AI agentic volume processed by Giza’s flagship stablecoin yield agent, ARMA, has more than doubled to over $3 billion today from $1.47 billion on August 28.
The past year saw bots move closer to exchanges and protocols themselves. Perps-native automation, tighter API access, and on-chain strategy vaults blurred the line between “tool” and “infrastructure”.
Looking ahead to 2026, the next phase could see more customisation, risk controls, and intent-driven automation offered to users. These bots will likely consider and customise trades based on each unique trader’s risk profile and investment goals.
If 2024–25 was about adoption, 2026 will be about discernment among the scores of agents that will swarm the industry.
That’s it for today’s recap.
Wish you a happy holiday week,
Prathik
Token Dispatch is a daily crypto newsletter handpicked and crafted with love by human bots. If you want to reach out to 200,000+ subscriber community of the Token Dispatch, you can explore the partnership opportunities with us 🙌
📩 Fill out this form to submit your details and book a meeting with us directly.
Disclaimer: This newsletter contains analysis and opinions of the author. Content is for informational purposes only, not financial advice. Trading crypto involves substantial risk - your capital is at risk. Do your own research.