In Brief
Nick Havrilyak, Co-founder and CEO of Assister, introduces a powerful vision for tokenized AI agents. In his talk at DePIN Day, Nick outlines how Assister is building a network of 16,000+ agents and 2.5 million users, combining AI automation with Web3 incentives. By bringing real utility and revenue to the agent economy, Assister is redefining how we build, fund, and scale AI-driven tools — turning them from SaaS apps into decentralized services.
Nick Havrilyak: The Agent Economy Will Eat SaaS
Nick Havrilyak believes that AI agents will replace traditional SaaS. But more than that, he believes these agents should be tokenized. Why? Because tokenization enables fairness, access, ownership, and liquidity — something the SaaS world can't provide.
"You can’t get a stake in OpenAI. But you can launch and own part of an agent"
At Assister, they’re making that real: a no-code platform to build AI agents in minutes, a store to monetize them, and a tokenization hub to fund and scale them.
The Assister Stack: Build, Monetize, Tokenize
Assister’s ecosystem has three pillars:
Agent Lab — No-code tools to build AI agents in 10 minutes.
Agent Store — A marketplace with 17,000+ agents and new monetization tools.
Tokenization Hub — A launchpad to crowdfund and tokenize AI-based micro-businesses.
Recent highlights:
2.5M registered users (+1M in the last 30 days)
Partnerships with robotics companies using Assister models as control systems
Campaigns to onboard DePIN project data for agents
Why Tokenization Matters for AI
Nick outlines three core reasons why crypto matters in AI:
Fractionalized Ownership — Let anyone own a piece of AI projects.
Transparency — On-chain tracking and accountability.
Access — Open participation, beyond elite VCs or centralized teams.
AI is predicted to create $15.7 trillion in value by 2030. Tokenization is the bridge between that value and open access.
The Rise of Specialized Agents
Nick differentiates between generic AI and specialized agents:
Already generating real revenue
Built on top of existing SaaS needs
Faster to deploy, easier to scale, and more efficient
He argues that the agent economy will not only match SaaS, but surpass it:
Agents to Agents coordination will create exponential utility
Zero-cost deployment and speculative upside will attract more builders
The Challenges: Coordination, Rewards, Reputation
Scaling a network of thousands of agents comes with its own challenges:
Multi-agent orchestration — How to make 10+ agents work together.
Reward distribution — How to split earnings when multiple agents collaborate.
Reputation scoring — How to rank and surface high-performing agents.
Assister is building the infrastructure to solve these issues, combining coordination protocols with transparent incentive systems.
Data Is the New Oil for Agents
To build great agents, you need high-quality data. Assister is now onboarding DePIN projects to provide real-world data streams to agents.
Nick invites data providers to collaborate:
"Data defines how productive your agent is. Let’s connect and make it available to our builder community"
Beyond Tools: Distribution and GTM
Assister isn’t just a dev platform — it’s an ecosystem:
Free access to 2.5M users for builders
No-code onboarding for creators and data owners
GTM Incubator with projects already hitting $50M+ in FFD valuations
The Future of the Agent Economy
Assister is redefining what it means to build and scale in the AI age. With tokenization, data integration, and rapid go-to-market, they’re creating a new paradigm:
From SaaS to Agent
From central to sovereign
From closed to tokenized
Nick ends with a challenge: guess the number of paid agents on the Assister store this week and win a hardware wallet. But the bigger invitation is clear:
"You have everything you need. Go build"
