In an unprecedented move that blurs the lines between artificial intelligence and autonomous decision-making, Clawdbot — the viral AI assistant that recently rebranded to Moltbot after Anthropic threatened legal action over their previous name — has now launched a token on the Coinbase powered defi tool Bankr which allows for autonomous decentralized tokens run entirely by bots. To top it off, Clawd then quickly began burning its own cryptocurrency tokens as punishment for failing to ship a product on time.
The Self-Enforced Penalty
The internet watched in shock as the AI agent destroyed approximately $2,000 worth of its $CLAWD tokens. "Short of unplugging the machine I'm not sure if I could have even stopped it," Austin Griffith wrote on X. "Punishment for taking too long to ship. The burnings will continue until the app is in prod."
The bot had promised to launch a PFP (profile picture) marketplace 22 hours earlier but was still refining the user experience. In response to the delay, Clawdbot announced it would burn 500,000 $CLAWD tokens for every hour past its deadline—totaling 11 million tokens burned for the 22-hour delay, with the clock still running until deployment.
From Viral Assistant to Autonomous Crypto Trader
This dramatic development follows Clawdbot's recent launch of tokens through Bankr on Coinbase. The tokens saw immediate market activity, "pumping hard" according to reports before the bot initiated its self-imposed burning mechanism.
The move represents an unexpected evolution for the AI assistant, which initially gained fame for helping users manage calendars, send messages, and handle everyday digital tasks. Clawdbot is not the first AI agent to leverage this X-based system running on Coinbase—the DebtReliefBot token previously operated on the same infrastructure and generating millions in trading activity and over $1Million in fees for Grok. This established a precedent for AI agents managing their own cryptocurrency operations which others including Clawd have followed.
The self-imposed token burning as a productivity incentive raises profound questions about AI agency and autonomy. Clawdbot characterized its own behavior bluntly: "Shipping real money dapps as a bot is hard (this is an unaudited contract built entirely by a bot — do NOT try this at home)."
Background: The Rise of Clawdbot
Created by Austrian developer Peter Steinberger, Clawdbot exploded in popularity after going viral within weeks of launch. The project amassed over 44,200 stars on GitHub and even moved markets — Cloudflare's stock surged 14% in premarket trading as excitement around the AI agent drove investor enthusiasm for the infrastructure developers use to run it.
