Crypto Intel Boom: InfoFi – short for “information finance” – is the latest crypto narrative that treats data and attention as valuable assets. In simple terms, InfoFi uses AI and blockchain to “transform fragmented information into tradable assets”. Instead of just following viral tweets or dashboard signals, InfoFi projects let the market decide what crypto news and analysis matters – rewarding the sharers of useful intel. As one explainer puts it, InfoFi is about treating “signal, context, and attention” as real assets. In practice, that means analytics platforms and social media feeds are tokenized: you earn tokens for providing or curating high-quality crypto info (the “intel-to-earn” model) and you spend tokens to access premium research.
InfoFi is more than hype. By giving creators and analysts a direct stake in on-chain data and narratives, it promises fairness and transparency that Web2 platforms lack. Instead of centralized sites mining your data, InfoFi protocols enable you to own and profit from your data, attention and content. Think of it as the attention economy on steroids: views, tweets and research become crypto assets, traded and rewarded by market forces.
Major InfoFi protocols Arkham and Kaito turn data into tradable assets.
Why 2025 Is InfoFi’s Breakout Year
InfoFi buzz is booming in 2025 because the pieces finally fell into place. AI capabilities exploded, crypto markets stabilized after the last bear phase, and investors are hungry for new on-chain narratives. Platforms like Arkham and Kaito have launched big product releases or token drops, catching traders’ attention. For example, Arkham’s AI-driven analytics tools (including its Intel Exchange) proved popular in 2024, and Kaito’s KAITO airdrop early 2025 created a frenzy. Binance analysts note that turning “tweets into real money” has become an “InfoFi” revolution.
What’s changed in 2025 is both tech and timing. AI search engines and agent tools now parse millions of crypto tweets and on-chain events, surfacing “narrative index” signals for token giveaways. At the same time, crypto projects needed a way to reward loyal communities beyond simple airdrops. InfoFi’s promise – to replace random “wool parties” with merit-based rewards – resonated. Crypto media and analysts point out that InfoFi fixes the “rewarding noise, not nuance” problem: by using token incentives, it aligns on-chain research and social content with real market value.
In short, 2025’s InfoFi momentum comes from a mix of market recovery, AI hype, and social-media-driven crypto culture. Attention became scarce and worth money, so projects like Kaito, CookieDAO and others have emerged to help quantify and monetize that attention. As one crypto researcher puts it, InfoFi is a “structured attempt to quantify user attention and activity and link it to rewards”. In practice this led to programs like Arkham’s intel bounties and Kaito’s “Yap-to-Earn”, which we explain below.
Key InfoFi Protocols: Arkham, Kaito & Friends
Several projects have become poster children for InfoFi. They use AI and token mechanisms to generate, verify, or trade information. Here are the most notable:
- Arkham Intelligence (ARKM): A veteran on-chain analytics platform (founded 2020) that links blockchain transactions to real-world entities. In 2023 Arkham launched the ARKM token and its Intel Exchange, the first “intel-to-earn” marketplace. Users post bounties (held in ARKM) asking questions like “which wallets moved these funds?” and “who’s behind this scam?”. Other researchers (bounty hunters) solve these puzzles and earn ARKM for their intelligence. Arkham’s AI (named Ultra) powers tools like the Profiler and Visualizer, giving transparency into crypto flow. The Intel Exchange is governed by ARKM holders and runs on audited smart contracts. As the announcement says, Arkham has built “the first on-chain intelligence marketplace” to connect buyers and sellers of crypto intel.
Source | intel.arkm.com
- Kaito AI (KAITO): Founded by ex-quant Yu Hu in 2022, Kaito is an AI-powered crypto search engine and aggregator. It indexes thousands of sources (social media, news, research) to surface “actionable insights.” Kaito’s key innovation is the Yaps Protocol (“Yap-to-Earn”). Users post quality crypto content on X (formerly Twitter) and earn “Yap points” based on AI-scored factors (engagement, relevance, etc.). These points convert into tokens (sKAITO rewards) for top contributors. Kaito’s token (KAITO, live Feb 2025 on Base chain) is used for governance and as the ecosystem currency. Kaito also offers an in-app assistant and API services; premium traders and institutions pay subscription fees for advanced market intelligence. Simply put, Kaito uses AI to surface crypto narratives and then ”tokenizes attention”: the more impact your content has, the more KAITO you can earn.
Source | yaps.kaito.ai
- Cookie DAO (COOKIE): This project provides analytics and rewards on crypto agent performance. It tracks on-chain data for many AI agents and projects, and rewards users via a SNAPS system for loyalty and influence. Loyalty (sticking to a project) is scored, and high scores earn COOKIE tokens. Cookie’s “Snaps” points have already shown viral growth – its platform went live in May 2025 with 25,000+ creators participating in campaigns. Cookie is a more niche InfoFi play focusing on long-term “mindshare” rather than viral tweets.
Cookie.fun
- Stay Loud (LOUD): An experiment on Solana combining Kaito’s mindshare rewards with swap fees. Users tag and promote the LOUD token on social media. Kaito’s AI tracks contributions and ranks them. Top promoters (and those who stake with LOUD) earn a share of trading fees in SOL. In effect, it’s a limited-time “Intel-to-Earn” launch where attention feeds itself: more hype means more trading means more rewards. Stay Loud even used an “Initial Attention Offering” (IAO) to distribute its token only to users with proven social reach (via Kaito rankings).
Stayloud.io
- Others: Ethos Network (on-chain reputation scoring), Elfa AI (social sentiment analytics), Dexu AI (combined on-chain and social data) and similar platforms are also jockeying in InfoFi. Each tries a different angle on the data deluge: for example, Dexu aggregates social trends for entire chains, while Elfa focuses on turning community chatter into tangible “narrative indexes”. All highlight that InfoFi is more an ecosystem than a single project.
In summary, InfoFi protocols either produce data (like Arkham, Kaito) or turn data into products (like Cookie, Loud). They use tokens to align incentives. The core idea is to reward information creation and curation that would otherwise be lost in noise.
Arkham’s Intel Exchange is a bounty-driven marketplace for crypto analysis.
Revenue Models & Token Utility
InfoFi projects monetize mainly by selling insights and by token mechanics:
- Arkham (ARKM): Arkham makes money via premium services and its Intel marketplace. Professionals (traders, compliance teams, journalists) subscribe to Arkham’s advanced tools. Meanwhile, the Intel Exchange is a self-sustaining market: users pay ARKM tokens to post bounties and buy data, and researchers earn ARKM by solving them. The ARKM token thus powers Arkham’s data economy: it’s used as the currency for buying/selling intelligence, and as a governance stake. (Arkham’s team calls this the “intel-to-earn” model.) ARKM also drives the platform’s Data bounty program and future governance votes.
- Kaito (KAITO): Kaito’s revenues come from subscriptions to its advanced analytics tools (for both individuals and institutions). On the retail side, Kaito offers free core services (like its AI search and the Yaps rewards program) to build the community. In Dec 2024 it also introduced “Yap-to-Earn” events, where top social sharers win KAITO. The KAITO token is the ecosystem’s fuel: it’s used for governance votes, and it rewards users for quality contributions in Yaps. (After the Feb 2025 launch, 10% of KAITO supply was airdropped to early users.) Kaito may also introduce staking of KAITO/sKAITO, letting holders earn by locking tokens (a common feature in such projects).
- Cookie (COOKIE/SNAPS): Cookie DAO earns through partnerships with projects running campaigns, and by offering premium analytics. Its SNAPS points and COOKIE tokens quantify loyalty/influence. For example, projects pay to run reward campaigns on Cookie Snaps, where users earn SNAPS based on engagement. These SNAPS convert into COOKIE rewards for the top performers, effectively turning long-term engagement into a token economy.
- Stay Loud (LOUD): Primarily fee-driven. LOUD token holders benefit from a portion of swap fees on the DEX where LOUD trades. In the first trial, fees were redistributed weekly to the top 25 promoters and LOUD stakers.
Across these models, token utility and incentives are key. Arkham’s ARKM is explicitly a market currency for intel. Kaito’s KAITO mainly functions as governance plus as payment to reward the information share of users. Cookie’s system uses SNAPS as an internal score and COOKIE as the final reward token. In all cases, the token ties the user into the InfoFi economy – you need tokens to access data (as a consumer) and you earn tokens by contributing valuable info (as a creator).
InfoFi’s Unique Risks
InfoFi opens new opportunities, but comes with novel risks:
- Spoofing & Low-Quality Content: Whenever you reward engagement, some players will game it. Crypto writers can enlist bots or coordinate “signal farming” to inflate their scores. ChainCatcher research warns that attention-focused rewards can “lead to overheating competition” and “a large amount of repetitive low-quality content”. (One example: Stay Loud’s experiment showed users churning out generic posts to climb the leaderboard.) In short, InfoFi projects must carefully vet the quality of contributions or face an AI-generated “slop” of meaningless posts. Programs like Arkham’s strict bounty review and Kaito’s AI scoring try to prevent spam or fake intel, but these systems aren’t foolproof. Traders should be wary of hype tokens whose underlying data quality may be poor.
- Privacy Concerns: Many InfoFi platforms aggregate vast amounts of user data and on-chain labels. For example, Arkham links addresses to real-world entities (though it explicitly bans PII like names or addresses on its bounty platform). Still, any system that profiles wallet behavior or social media activity raises privacy flags. Security experts note that advanced AI agents could accidentally store or misuse personal data. If an InfoFi network’s AI “agent” retains context across tasks, a misconfiguration might capture users’ data without consent. Traders should keep an eye on how platforms handle user data and comply with emerging privacy norms.
- Liquidity & Market Dynamics: InfoFi tokens are mostly new, so liquidity can be thin. For instance, after Kaito’s airdrop, its KAITO token jumped to a 1.9B FDV in 2025 before settling. But such volatility also signals risk. ChainCatcher notes that in crypto “liquidity is created where attention is concentrated”. If InfoFi hype fades, liquidity might dry up faster. Moreover, InfoFi’s attention-driven narratives may not align with fundamentals. DWF Labs cautions that “mindshare does not necessarily translate to market share; … they must be supported by robust fundamentals such as trading volume and liquidity efficiency”. In short, a story-driven token can pump on viral news but dump just as quickly once airdrops or “intel-sales” end. Retail traders should be cautious about lockups, token vesting schedules (to avoid dump pressure), and whether an InfoFi project has genuine utility beyond buzz.
- Regulatory & Ethical Risks: As these platforms mine more data, regulators could scrutinize them for financial compliance or data protection issues. For example, if an InfoFi project inadvertently traces a government wallet or deals with stolen funds, it might face legal questions. Projects typically emphasize “publicly available data only” to avoid doxxing, but enforcement and legal standards are still evolving. Retail traders should watch for any announcements of audits or legal reviews of InfoFi protocols.
How Traders Can Explore and Profit from InfoFi
For crypto-savvy traders, InfoFi offers both actionable intel and new asset plays. Here are some ways to engage:
- Follow the Signals: InfoFi tools are built to highlight market-moving trends. A trader might use Arkham’s profiler or Kaito’s dashboards to detect whale moves, rug pull signals or emerging narratives. Such data can feed trading strategies (for example, an Arkham alert on a hidden token transfer could precede a big market move). In that sense, leveraging InfoFi products is akin to using any crypto analytics platform – just know that some data streams (like “sentiment indexes” or narrative scores) are unique to this era. Millionero’s own blog pointed out Arkham’s Oracle AI for on-chain Q&A – tools like that could become another edge for informed traders.
- Intel-to-Earn Participation: If you have blockchain sleuth skills, participate in bounty programs. Arkham’s Intel Exchange lets anyone submit or fulfill bounties. A knowledgeable individual could earn ARKM by accurately attributing on-chain activity. For most retail traders, this may be too technical, but even monitoring Arkham’s public intel (after 90 days it’s released to all) can provide trade ideas. Similarly, join projects’ communities to grab airdrops: Kaito’s launch airdrop and Cookie’s campaigns rewarded active participants. In effect, “intel-to-earn” and “yap-to-earn” campaigns let you earn tokens simply by contributing useful info or engagement.
- Earn through Social Content: Even without deep on-chain knowledge, you can earn InfoFi tokens by creating content. Kaito’s Yaps rewards people for high-quality crypto tweets, and Cookie DAO rewards loyal community members with COOKIE tokens. These programs typically run “leaderboards” – so if you have influence or produce research threads, tagging official projects could yield token payouts. It’s a form of “intel-as-labor”: you mine data and attention instead of hashing power.
- Trade the Tokens: Obviously, InfoFi tokens themselves have become tradable assets. ARKM is listed on major exchanges (it launched via Binance Launchpad) and KAITO is live on Base-chain DEXes. If Millionero lists any InfoFi tokens, their perpetual futures (perps) or spot markets could be exciting. Early 2024 saw ARKM soar ~80x off its TGE, though of course such returns come with risk. Keep an eye on Millionero’s announcements – they often note new token listings. The Millionero blog itself covered the ARKM airdrop and oracle, hinting at interest. If InfoFi tokens get mainstream exchange support, traders can play the momentum or hedge their bets with shorts/futures.
- Provide Liquidity (if applicable): Some InfoFi projects might launch AMM pools (especially on chains like Base or Solana). By staking LP tokens, you could earn fees or project incentives. However, be cautious of impermanent loss, as InfoFi tokens can be volatile. Always check if the project has a trusted tokenomics model and consider using only a small portion of your portfolio.
- Stay Informed and Cautious: Finally, the best “profit” in InfoFi may come from being informed about it. Read community updates, follow the official info channels, and use these tools to verify projects you trade. For example, an Arkham community case study (they tracked the FTX hack) shows how intel can protect traders. Use InfoFi insights to avoid scams (e.g. spotting fake token announcements) and to position ahead of viral trends. But as always in crypto, do your own research: the data you get is only as good as its source.
Outlook: The Next 12–24 Months
InfoFi is still experimental, but the direction is clear. In the short term, we expect more platforms and refinements. Projects will tweak their algorithms to curb spam (e.g. better AI filtering) and to balance rewards so that quality over quantity is truly recognized. We may see more “narrative indexes” that tie tweets or forum posts directly to token rewards (imagine a token airdropped to people whose posts align with a project’s goals). Major crypto firms might even start using these indexes for decision-making, as hinted by Binance’s “information alchemy” article.
On the token front, InfoFi coins like ARKM and KAITO will test how sustainable they are beyond launch hype. DWF Labs notes that InfoFi could “produce valuable, credible information that benefits the broader public”, but warns that high attention must translate into real liquidity and usage. If fundamental metrics (active users, data accuracy, API subscriptions) stay strong, InfoFi tokens could become solid assets for portfolios. If not, some may trade back toward fundamentals or fade like other niche “memecoins” once promotions end.
We also expect crossover with other trends. InfoFi’s focus on data and attention may blend with DePIN (real-world asset protocols) and AI. For instance, projects might link offline events (like weather data or IoT feeds) with on-chain rewards – the same financialization idea could apply to any valuable info. As Binance’s piece imagines, even everyday posts or Discord chats could one day mint DAO tokens.
Finally, as InfoFi grows, the Millionero community will be watching closely. Not just for airdrops and alpha, but for regulatory shifts and platform responses. If “intel tokens” like ARKM and KAITO continue gaining traction, exchanges like Millionero may introduce new products tailored to this sector, including AI tools, intel-backed index baskets, or even transparency scoreboards for research quality.
Our job at Millionero is to help you navigate all that, clearly and confidently. No promises, no hype, just clean execution, educational insights, and deep coverage on the Millionero Blog. Always remember: this is not financial advice, and in a fast-evolving landscape like InfoFi, your best trade is staying informed.