AI-Fi financial chips and global finance after the singularity of Openclaw: How to avoid being left behind?

Author: Gary Yang , Founding Partner, Xinghan Capital

Since the Openclaw movement began to erupt in mid-January, aside from the four days at the Consensus conference in Hong Kong, I have declined almost all external activities, including online spaces and 90% of in-person meetings, focusing solely on code and agent-based communication to confront the greatest singularity shift in human history to date. Similarly, in this article, I have tried to keep it as concise as possible, briefly discussing the current issues, since everyone's time after the singularity is extremely limited.

Written in London on February 24, 2026

tl;dr

1. The engineering and historical significance of Openclaw

2. AI-Fi and Financial Chips

3. The disruption of global finance and the collapse of social management

4. Panic due to lack of consensus caused by multi-level information asymmetry

5. The sequence of singularities following a singularity

6. The foundation of global geopolitics will undergo fundamental changes.

1. The engineering and historical significance of Openclaw

The engineering significance of Openclaw:

Openclaw is not essentially an intelligent algorithm, but rather a framework based on integrating intelligent tools using memory files . I've read many explanations online, but none seem precise enough. Here, I've summarized it into seven layers:

• Layer 1, Infrastructure Layer: This is the lowest layer of the entire architecture, including hardware devices and cloud services.
• The second layer, the system layer (OS), refers to the operating system, including Linux, iOS, Windows, etc.
• The third layer, the environment layer (DevOps), is the CI/CD layer above the system layer, such as GitHub. This layer has highly specific deployment requirements.
• The fourth layer, Skills: This is the AI's brain and limbs, encompassing listening, speaking, reading, writing, and various other abilities. LLM is loaded at this layer.
• The fifth memory layer (md): This is the core value of Openclaw and the essence that distinguishes it from LLM tools.
• Layer 6 (Jobs): Agent layer. The key to moving from AI tools to one-person company management lies in the division of labor among agents.
• Layer 7 (Apps): Daily task logic and queued tasks for Agents/Bots with different functions.

As Openclaw officially stated, Markdown memory files are the core value. The simple extraction of the memory layer enables the AI ​​Agent to have the ability to operate in the long term. Even a very small file of a few kilobytes of data can drive the dramatic change of the singularity at this historical juncture.

The historical significance of Openclaw:

From a meso-level perspective, Openclaw will stimulate an exponential explosion of AI productivity, transforming all industries globally. It will no longer be limited to relatively rule-based jobs like translation, law, design, and coding; even complex, non-standard jobs such as auditing, finance, engineering management, and business management will be rapidly replaced and upgraded. Similarly, as robots rapidly develop in parallel, their integration with microcontrollers will easily take over the vast majority of physical labor. From a macro-level perspective, the singularity triggered by Openclaw will be the dividing line between a predominantly human-powered society and a predominantly silicon-based society. In a time faster than we imagine, humanity's position in nature and society will be completely altered, and the foundation of civilization will fully enter the next stage.

Returning to the reality of Q1 2026, our small working cluster of 12 bots built using Linux has achieved universal applicability for various industry collaborations. Simply put, we categorize agents into three types: one manages collaboration and code, one manages information and thinking, and one manages business and finances. For over a month, like many others, I've been constantly switching between excitement and fear. In no time will all business models be upgraded and disrupted.

2. AI-Fi and Financial Chips

At the Hong Kong conference two weeks ago, I ran into Mr. Shen, who mentioned my article "Principles of Financial Circuits and Web3 Economic Models" that I wrote three years ago. I excitedly said that what I originally thought would take 30 years to realize, now seems to be possible to achieve this year with the support of Openclaw.

The principle of financial circuits refers to the rapid iteration of the development of digital financial derivatives due to the emergence of Web3 and Crypto. Just like the rapid development of electronic components such as resistors and capacitors in the 20th century, they are no longer limited to single functions, but will quickly evolve into complex system combinations, forming integrated products like circuit boards or even chips, thus possessing financial effects that single functions cannot achieve. Financial chips are the ultimate result of this process.

When AI-driven algorithmic components can make effective, flexible, and self-evolving decisions based on massive amounts of data in an instant, we can encapsulate them in DeFi through Crypto's Smart Contracts, transforming them into virtual digital chips similar to FPGAs or even microcontrollers, creating a super financial digital decision-making entity. This digital decision-making entity, the financial chip, once fully formed, will no longer rely on human intervention in decision-making, achieving a positive balance between key/gas costs and asset profitability, thus becoming a financial product with independent intelligent production value.

Compared to Web 4.0 or DeFi 3.0, I believe AI-Fi is a more accurate description. Today, with AI rapidly driving agents to develop independent working capabilities, our understanding of financial products and the financial industry should undergo a radical transformation, completely overturning the inertia of Wall Street and traditional finance. Quantitative strategies based on single algorithms will become obsolete. The key to success in financial assets lies not only in the ability to process massive amounts of data and changing parameters, but also in the ability to rapidly evolve and adjust to continuously innovating algorithms and strategies. Only ultra-intelligent financial assets encapsulated by AI Agents and Crypto Smart Contracts, combined with AI-Fi, can adapt to the financial environment of the next era.

3. The disruption of global finance and the collapse of social management

In my article "The DeFi 2.0 Explosion Under Disordered Restructuring in 2026" published at the end of last year, I mentioned "the exhaustion of traditional financial inertia and the social failure under strong data regulation." Simply put, Crypto's upgrade of digital production relations alone has brought enormous challenges to the existing environment.

Following Nasdaq, the New York Stock Exchange's parent company, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), also issued a press release on January 19, 2026, confirming that the NYSE is developing a tokenized securities platform supporting 24/7 trading and plans to seek SEC approval to promote this service. It can be said that New York's response efficiency and practical implementation in the face of last year's cryptocurrency digitalization impact remain admirable, far ahead of all other hesitant and evasive attitudes globally. However, even so, policymakers and the ingrained understanding of most people still find it difficult to truly adapt to this change.

What's frightening is that the disruptive power of AI's digital productivity upgrade has amplified the tearing effect of Crypto digital production relations on traditional finance and society by an order of magnitude. If the situation at the end of last year could be described as running out of steam and failing, then this year it's a complete upheaval and collapse. Unlike any previous revolution in history, the exponential pull brought by AI + Crypto leaves no room or opportunity for backtracking or dogma—it's either go fast or go home.

4. Panic due to lack of consensus caused by multi-level information asymmetry

What's interesting, and also sad, is that in this environment, everyone is constantly switching between FOMO and FUD, and for completely different reasons. The vast majority of people are seeking a foothold of confidence within the specific narrative they're focused on, yet they know perfectly well that this is utterly futile in the face of this AI + Crypto tsunami.

Just like the Hong Kong Consensus conference in early February 2026, it was a conference with absolutely no consensus: no consensus between bulls and bears, no consensus on compliance, no consensus on credit, no consensus on value; the only consensus was that the AI ​​disruption after Openclaw allowed the participants of Crypto Consensus to find a mismatched consensus on AI.

Due to the simultaneous occurrence of drastic, multi-level, and multi-structure changes, the speed at which people in different countries and regions and different industries acquire, understand, digest, and respond to information varies greatly. Therefore, the world will enter a phase of ultra-high-speed development and complete chaos without consensus in 2026. Due to differences in the speed of technological progress and the nature of culture, the panic of a lack of consensus has already affected various financial assets and future expectations in Q1 2026. Although the analogy is similar, the level of chaos has completely surpassed the Great Depression of 1929 and the period before and after. Furthermore, the disruptive power and speed of AI + Crypto far exceed those of the industrial automation and electronization stages, thus the position of gold and safe-haven assets is completely different from that of the 20th century. Currently, we must not only consider hedging in turbulent times but also the risk of being left behind and never being able to catch up again. Simply seeking hedging in an environment of exponential disruption itself constitutes a significant risk.

5. The sequence of singularities following a singularity

What happens once the critical singularity is broken on an exponential growth curve? It will inevitably lead to a series of increasingly dense singularities.

After installing the first Openclaw Agent on January 20th, I asked it a question: "Suppose you are given a mechanical surgical instrument, can you operate it to perform surgery?" My Agent replied that after confirming all external equipment, it needs to train itself through simulation for a period of time to install the surgical program driver, and then it can perform the surgery.

Beyond the widespread adoption of intelligent robots and mechanical equipment, and the AI-Fi financial chips mentioned in this article, there are undoubtedly many other directions that I won't elaborate on here. As mentioned earlier, time is limited, and I believe the most important thing now is to understand the value of time and our responsiveness to change within a very limited timeframe. I cannot be certain whether, once the timeline of world development becomes vertical, we can find a response mechanism or methodology to keep ourselves on the exponential curve and avoid being left behind, but at least it is clear that all established experiences and most methodologies from before the singularity will become invalid.

6. The foundation of global geopolitics will undergo fundamental changes.

As mentioned in previous articles, global geopolitical conflicts do not unfold in the manner of historical experience as one might expect, such as a clash of civilizations or the traditional Thucydides Trap.

If Crypto Finance and Stablecoin broke the management mechanism in the face of state machinery because their value propositions of the digital open economy were too different, thus bringing some originally opposing forces closer together, then this singularity of AI will counteract this principle, further tearing open a new gap, catching different countries and regions off guard, and once again falling into a state of competition in the face of difficulties in managing and accepting the disruption.

In other words, the open environment required by Crypto Open Finance, from the same perspective, does not meet the regulatory environment of many countries and regions. The forces of suppression have just begun to reach a consensus, while the borderless open environment required by AI development is rapidly shattering this fragile consensus, ushering in a highly competitive race. Moreover, this race will see the fastest gap widening in history. When countries and regions also face the risk of being left behind and never being able to catch up again, the strength of adherence to fundamental principles will become a tremendous challenge, leading to diverging fates for different groups and reshaping the global geopolitical landscape.