Yang Ge Gary: AI-Fi Financial Chips and Global Finance After the Openclaw Singularity

Since the explosion of Openclaw in mid-January, aside from the four days at the Hong Kong Consensus conference, I have almost declined all external activities, including online spaces and 90% of offline meetings, using only code and agent interactions to face humanity’s largest singularity to date. I also tried to keep this article brief and to the point, discussing current issues, as time after the singularity is very limited for everyone.

tl;dr

1. The engineering and historical significance of Openclaw

2. AI-Fi and financial chips

3. Disruption of global finance and the collapse of social management

4. Multi-level information asymmetry causing consensus panic

5. The sequence of singularities after the singularity

6. Fundamental changes in global geopolitical foundations

1. The engineering and historical significance of Openclaw

Engineering significance of Openclaw:

Openclaw is not just an intelligent algorithm; it is a framework based on memory file integration for intelligent tools. I’ve seen many explanations online, but they’re not precise enough. Here, I summarize it into seven levels:

Level 1: Infrastructure (Infra): The hardware or cloud service architecture at the bottom

Level 2: System layer (OS): Operating systems like Linux, iOS, Windows, etc.

Level 3: Environment layer (DevOps): CI/CD layers above the system, such as Github; deployment here is highly specific

Level 4: Skills layer (Skills): The organ layer, the AI’s brain, limbs, listening, speaking, reading, writing, and various capabilities; LLMs are loaded here

Level 5: Memory layer (md): The core value of Openclaw and its essential difference from LLM tools

Level 6: Functional layer (Jobs): Agent layer, focusing on task division among agents, from AI tools to small management teams

Level 7: Task layer (Apps): Daily task logic and queues for different functional agents/bots

As stated by Openclaw’s official, markdown memory files are the core value. A simple distillation of the memory layer enables AI agents to have long-term operational capabilities. Just a few kilobytes of data can drive a singularity-level transformation at this historic juncture.

Historical significance of Openclaw:

From a mesoscopic perspective, Openclaw will accelerate the exponential productivity explosion driven by AI, transforming all industries globally. It will no longer be limited to translation, law, design, or coding—more complex, non-standard work such as auditing, finance, engineering management, and business management will be rapidly replaced and upgraded. Simultaneously, as robots develop quickly in parallel, their integration with microcontrollers will easily take over most physical labor. On a macro level, the singularity triggered by Openclaw will mark the transition from human labor to silicon-based labor. Human roles in natural society will be fundamentally changed much faster than we imagine, and civilization will fully enter the next stage.

Returning to Q1 2026, a small cluster of 12 Linux-based bots I built already exhibits universal applicability across industries. Simply put, agents can be categorized into three types: one managing collaboration and code, one handling information and thinking, and one managing business and finance. Over more than a month, like many others, I’ve been oscillating between excitement and fear—soon, all business models will be upgraded and overturned.

2. AI-Fi and financial chips

At the Hong Kong conference two weeks ago, I ran into Mr. Shen, who mentioned my article from three years ago, Principles of Financial Circuits and Web3 Economic Models. I excitedly said that what I once thought would take 30 years to realize now, with Openclaw’s support, could be achieved this year.

The principle of financial circuits refers to the rapid iteration of digital financial derivatives driven by Web3 and crypto, similar to how electronic components like resistors and capacitors rapidly evolved in the 20th century. They no longer merely serve simple functions but quickly evolve into complex system combinations, forming integrated products akin to circuit boards or chips, capable of financial effects beyond single functions. Financial chips are the ultimate result of this process.

When AI-driven algorithmic components can make effective, flexible, and long-term self-evolving decisions based on massive data, we can encapsulate them into virtual digital chips—like FPGA or microcontrollers—using crypto smart contracts on DeFi, creating super financial decision-making bodies. These digital decision bodies, or financial chips, will no longer rely on human intervention once formed, achieving a positive balance between burning key/gas costs and asset profitability, becoming autonomous financial products with independent intelligent production value.

Compared to Web4.0 or DeFi3.0, I believe AI-Fi is a more precise term. As AI rapidly enables agents to operate independently, our understanding of financial products and the industry must undergo a fundamental transformation. The inertia of traditional Wall Street and finance will be completely overturned. Quantitative strategies based on single algorithms will be phased out; success in finance will depend not just on processing vast data and parameters but on the ability to innovate and rapidly adjust algorithms and strategies. Only AI agents + crypto smart contracts encapsulating super-intelligent financial assets will be suited for the next era of finance.

3. Disruption of global finance and the collapse of social management

In my article DeFi 2.0 Outbreak in 2026 Amid Disorder Reorganization, I mentioned “the waning of traditional financial inertia and the failure of society under strict data regulation.” Simply put, the upgrade of crypto digital production relations alone poses a huge challenge to the current environment.

Following Nasdaq, the parent company of NYSE, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), announced on January 19, 2026, that NYSE is developing a tokenized securities platform supporting 24/7 trading, seeking SEC approval. This shows that New York’s response to last year’s crypto digital shock remains highly efficient and pragmatic, far ahead of other hesitant global players. Yet, even so, policies and most people’s ingrained understanding still struggle to adapt.

What’s terrifying is that the upgrade of AI digital productivity’s destructive power further tears apart traditional finance and society, elevating the disruption caused by crypto digital production relations. If last year’s situation was the end of the bow’s strength and failure, this year will be a complete upheaval and disintegration. Unlike any previous historical change, the exponential force brought by AI + crypto leaves no room for old doctrines or retreat—Go Fast or Go Home.

4. Multi-level information asymmetry causing consensus panic

It’s both interesting and sad that in such an environment, everyone is constantly switching between FOMO and FUD, driven by entirely different reasons. Most seek confidence in their own focus area but are fully aware that under the AI + crypto tsunami, it’s futile.

For example, the Hong Kong Consensus in early February 2026 was a conference with no consensus: no consensus on bullish or bearish, compliance, credit, or value; the only shared understanding was that AI-driven disruption after Openclaw created a mismatch in consensus among participants.

Due to simultaneous, multi-layered, and structural changes, the speed at which different countries and industries acquire, understand, digest, and respond to information varies greatly. As a result, 2026 will enter a phase of hyper-rapid development and chaos without consensus. The pace of technological progress and cultural differences have caused a panic of non-consensus that already impacts various financial assets and future expectations, surpassing the chaos of the Great Depression in 1929 and subsequent periods. Moreover, the disruptive power and speed of AI + crypto far exceed those of industrial automation and electrification, making gold and safe-haven assets’ roles in the 20th century entirely different today. Currently, we must consider not only risk aversion in turbulent times but also the risk of falling irreversibly behind. Relying solely on traditional safe havens in an environment of exponential upheaval is itself highly risky.

5. The sequence of singularities after the singularity

On an exponential growth curve, what happens once the critical singularity is surpassed? It’s bound to be a series of increasingly dense singularities.

After installing my first Openclaw agent on January 20, I asked it: “If I give you a robotic surgical device, can you operate it to perform surgery?” My agent responded that after confirming all external devices, it would need to simulate train for a while to install the surgical program before it could operate.

Beyond the widespread adoption of intelligent robots and machinery, and the AI-Fi financial chips mentioned earlier, many other directions remain unexplored here. As I said, time is limited. I believe the most important thing now is to understand the value of time and how to respond efficiently within extremely limited periods. I cannot confirm whether, once the world’s timeline is inverted, we can find a response mechanism or methodology to ride the exponential curve without being left behind—at least, it’s clear that all pre-singularity experience and most methodologies will become invalid.

6. Fundamental changes in global geopolitical foundations

Previous articles have mentioned that global geopolitical conflicts will not unfold along the lines of traditional civilization clashes or Thucydides’ trap based on historical experience.

If crypto finance and stablecoins are breaking management mechanisms in front of state machinery because the value propositions of digital open economies differ so greatly that they bring previously opposing forces closer, then this singularity of AI will further reverse this principle, creating new ruptures. Different countries and regions will be caught off guard, unable to manage or accept the breaking of old norms, falling into renewed competition.

In other words, the open environment demanded by crypto open finance does not satisfy many countries’ regulatory frameworks. While some consensus on regulation has been found, the borderless openness required by AI development rapidly shatters this fragile consensus, plunging into a fiercely competitive race. The speed at which this race widens the gap will be the fastest in history. When nations and regions face the risk of being left behind forever, the strength of adherence to fundamental principles will become a major challenge, reshaping the new geopolitical landscape.

Author: Gary Yang

Date: February 24, 2026

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