Even though the cryptocurrency market has been consolidating and fluctuating, the capital of AI agent concept coins has been bustling.
On January 2, VIRTUAL's 24-hour increase exceeded 18%, with the current price at $4.72 and a market capitalization reaching a new high of $47.2 billion.
ZEREBRO's 24-hour increase exceeded 16%, with the price at $0.72 and the market capitalization surpassing $7 billion, also reaching a new high.
AI16Z's increase exceeded 31%, with the current price at $2.37 and the market capitalization once breaking through $25 billion, setting a new record high.
COOKIE's increase was 119%, with the current price at $0.52 and a market capitalization of $72 million. Even the almost forgotten GOAT saw an increase of over 19%, with the current price at $0.6, while ACT increased by 18% to $0.33.
The AI agent concept group is in a frenzy, what's happening behind the scenes?
OpenAI to release AI agent tool "Operator" this month
As early as last November, OpenAI planned to release an AI agent tool codenamed "Operator" in January 2025. The tool can automatically perform tasks on the user's computer, such as writing code or scheduling appointments. Insiders revealed that the tool will be launched as a research preview and opened to developers through the API.
In addition, OpenAI even boldly predicted last October that AI agents will "become mainstream" next year. Kevin Weil, OpenAI's Chief Product Officer, said, "These more agentic systems will become possible, and that's why I think 2025 will be the year that agent systems finally go mainstream."
As a heavyweight brand in the AI field, any major updates and progress of its products will attract market attention and become the target of speculative capital. Therefore, it is not surprising that some hot and high-quality project tokens have gained market attention.
What is AI agent and what are the possibilities of its combination with Crypto?
In short, AI agent is an efficient intelligent tool that can automatically handle various tasks, such as email management, travel scheduling, and even programming assistance. This allows people to focus more on other important tasks at work.
If you still don't understand, imagine when you need to buy fruit, you usually open the mobile app, then search, fill in the address, confirm the order, and finally pay. In the AI agent era, you only need to tell the AI agent to make a call, buy $30 worth of mangoes, and deliver them to your home. The AI agent will directly call the merchant and explain the specific requirements, and the user only needs to wait for the goods to arrive.
In the era of everything being AI-enabled, what kind of chemical reaction will occur when the cryptocurrency field combines with AI? This exploration has become the latest market trend. Apart from the past WLD and Arkham that focused on the OpenAI Ultraman concept and AI data analysis, the on-chain AI agent concept has now become the latest trend.
From the initial AI+MEME representatives like GOAT, to the subsequent evolution into the application exploration track like Twitter reply comments, and even including coin price analysis like AIXBT, and AI-influenced music content generation like Zerebro.
The third type is the platforms like Virtual and Clanker that are built with Launchpad functionality to create a wealth effect. If these platforms can generate decent returns and have high-quality projects, they often form a good leading effect, as evidenced by Virtual's continuous new highs.
More possibilities include the combination of AI agents and DeFi, such as automated investment, smart alerts, and yield enhancement. USV co-founder Fred Wilson even predicted that in 2025, the chief AI robot of his fund will go out of control, gain access to USV's cryptocurrency wallets, and start seed investments, one of which will eventually generate a handsome return.
However, at present, the AI agents in the cryptocurrency field are mainly hype hotspots, and their actual specific applications still need to be observed and explored.
How do industry leaders and institutions view it?
The AI craze has also made many institutions and investors optimistic about its future development. Binance Labs expects that in 2025, industries that have performed poorly, such as gaming, ZK technology, and privacy solutions, may make a comeback as they transition from development to production, thereby supporting new use cases. In addition, DeSci, RWA/stablecoins, and AI agents, among existing narratives, should continue to perform well with strong momentum.
Ryan Rasmussen, research director at Bitwise, predicts that the tokens launched by AI agents will lead to an even bigger meme coin frenzy than in 2024.
Rob Hadick, general partner at Dragonfly, and David Pakman, managing director at CoinFund, pointed out that the greatest value of AI to the cryptocurrency field is to improve development efficiency, as software development is still the core of the cryptocurrency field. However, Pakman is relatively optimistic about the future of AI agents, believing that cryptocurrencies can provide an ideal payment infrastructure for AI agents.
