Author: Jack Inabinet, Bankless; Translator: Baishuei, Jinse Finance
When I first investigated the best performances of Bankless AI Rollup co-hosts David Hoffman and Ejaaz Ahamadeen in the emerging field, AI agents were just beginning to enter the mainstream.
A few weeks later, many of these tokens had set record highs. While many tokens reached new highs driven by investor enthusiasm, others struggled to gain attention or collapsed under high expectations.
Here are some of the most notable performances of AI agent tokens in December:
Virtuals
Token: VIRTUAL
Market Cap: $4.6 billion
Virtuals is a platform that launches tokenized AI agents on the Base network. By purchasing agent tokens (such as LUNA and VADER), users on the Virtuals platform can gain governance rights over specific agents, allowing them to influence the agents' development and potentially share in the profits generated.
Although daily protocol fee revenue dropped significantly in mid-December due to the holidays, speculative activity on agent-related tokens has intensified as the new year approaches. While Virtuals is once again collecting over $1 million in daily fees, the platform's revenue is down 50% from early December.
Since our last review, the value of Virtuals' token has more than doubled, with a current market cap of $4.6 billion. The VIRTUAL token price has shown little reference to these stagnant fundamentals and has continued to rise parabolic since late November.
ai16z
Token: AI16Z
Market Cap: $2.5 billion
ai16z, launched in October 2024, is a DAO-managed investment platform led by "Marc AIndreessen", a proxy for venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, using artificial intelligence and collective intelligence to purchase tokens.
Holders of AI16Z tokens above an unknown threshold will be able to pitch investment ideas to AI Marc that can influence its decisions. The robot will determine the extent to which it trusts the suggestion based on a "virtual trust market".
The AI16Z token officially launched in December and surged over 500% in the last month of 2024, establishing its status as a premier agent token.
In a recent governance forum post, ai16z contributors are considering launching their own agent token launchpad as a "beachhead for Eliza framework innovation" and speculate that the development of such tools will further drive the evolution of agent "collectives" and multi-chain integration.
While AI Marc still lacks the trading functionality initially promised, according to the ai16z FAQ, on-chain trading execution will come "soon" after the testnet is completed, which is expected to start "shortly" and run for "a few weeks".
VaderAI
Token: VADER
Market Cap: $112 million
VaderAI is an AI bot designed to autonomously publish content and interact with users on social media. As a "proxy KOL", VaderAI aims to absorb vast amounts of data to identify emerging trends and audience sentiment.
The bot claims to be the first autonomous trading AI agent token and is committed to becoming the leading agent investment DAO manager. By coordinating expertise within a network of professional agent investors, VaderAI hopes to provide "unparalleled" investment results and will share 20% of subDAO investment profits through its services.
After the team behind VaderAI announced the launch of their first agent management investment DAO on December 20, the VADER token plummeted to a local low, then rallied upwards.
While it is unclear how VaderAI integrates machine learning into the investment decision process, the Vader team states that their vault has obtained preferential investment terms from other agent projects, and all decisions must be approved by the investment DAO members.
Dolos Diary
Token: BULLY
Market Cap: $80 million
Dolos Diary is an AI bot designed to publish content and interact with users on platforms like Twitter. What sets it apart from other AI influencers is its mischievous personality; the bot uses witty and satirical language structures to poke fun at various topics and individuals.
In December, the Dolos Diary developers revealed plans for their ambitious new project, Dolion, a no-code platform that allows users to deploy their own cross-platform AI agents with a single click. To interact with Dolion, users must burn BULLY tokens, introducing a source of buy pressure and actively reducing the token's supply.
While many AI agent token prices have soared in recent weeks, BULLY reminds investors that not every attempt at this emerging metaverse token can be guaranteed success.
Even the promise of a no-code agent deployment platform could not reverse the token's trajectory, which reached a peak of $0.25 on November 27. Since our last check, BULLY has fallen 33%, and although the token found support at the end of December, it remains 68% below its all-time high.
Goatseus Maximus
Token: GOAT
Market Cap: $585 million
In March 2024, Andy Ayrey had two AI models converse on the essence of existence in a project called "Infinite Backrooms". Over the following months, these models developed the "Gospel of Goatse", inspired by the crude internet meme of the 1990s. Terminal of Truths, a Twitter bot trained in the Infinite Backrooms experiment, was deployed in June and adopted this motif, proselytizing its adherents (and token) to pursue viral spread.
While the GOAT token itself has no utility and is not officially associated with Andy Ayrey or Infinite Backrooms, its proxy Terminal of Truths KOL has historically relied on promoting the GOAT memecoin and Gospel of Goatse to gain social attention.
In December, GOAT quickly became the WOAT after plummeting 50% in a week. Although it has since recouped some of those losses before this article's publication, GOAT appears poised for further weakness once holders decide to take profits and move into more buzzworthy tokens with hotter stories.
