Been seeing a lot of chatter lately about AI and crypto converging, but honestly most of the projects people hyped up over the past couple years have kind of fizzled out. Render, Bittensor, ASI — they all had their moment but are trading way below their peaks now.

Here's what's interesting though: there's this one crypto to buy now that people might be sleeping on, and it's probably been in your portfolio the whole time. I'm talking about Ethereum.

So Vitalik actually came back recently with some thoughts on how Ethereum could become the backbone for AI infrastructure. And when you think about it, it kind of makes sense. Unlike centralized platforms controlled by big tech companies, Ethereum could provide a decentralized layer where AI agents interact, coordinate, and even pay each other directly. No middleman needed.

The way he frames it is pretty compelling — imagine a world where you don't need to go through OpenAI or some Silicon Valley giant every time you want to use an AI model. Instead, you could tap into a network of AI services running on Ethereum, all coordinating autonomously. That's the vision anyway.

Now, if Ethereum can actually pull this off and become the go-to blockchain for new AI projects, the upside could be massive. We've already seen what happened when Ethereum dominated DeFi — valuations went through the roof. This could be similar, maybe even bigger.

There are already some projects building on this layer right now too. ChainGPT, Assemble AI, Virtuals Protocol — these aren't household names yet, but one of them could end up being the killer app that makes the whole thing work.

The realistic question though: will this actually happen? Or is it just idealistic thinking? Monetizing decentralized AI is tricky. You can't just run it on vibes and hope. Eventually someone has to figure out how to make money from it, which is where things get complicated.

But here's the thing — if you're looking for a crypto to buy now with serious long-term potential, Ethereum at current levels around $2.12K might actually be undervalued if even a fraction of this AI vision plays out. It's not a sure thing, but it's definitely one worth watching. The convergence of AI and blockchain is happening whether we like it or not, and Ethereum is positioned better than most to capture that trend.