Author: 1912212.eth, Foresight News
Even though the cryptocurrency market has been consolidating and fluctuating, the capital of AI agent concept coins has been bustling.
On January 2, VIRTUAL surged over 18% in 24 hours, currently priced at $4.72, with a market capitalization reaching a new high of $47.2 billion.
ZEREBRO surged over 16% in 24 hours, priced at $0.72, with a market capitalization exceeding $7 billion, reaching a new high.
AI16Z surged over 31%, currently priced at $2.37, with a market capitalization once exceeding $25 billion, reaching a new high.
COOKIE surged 119%, currently priced at $0.52, with a current market capitalization of $72 million. Even the almost forgotten GOAT surged over 19%, currently priced at $0.6, and ACT surged 18%, priced at $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 Possibilities Are There in Combining with Crypto?
In short, AI agents are efficient intelligent tools 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're still confused, just imagine when you need to buy some fruit, you usually open your phone app, then search, fill in the address, confirm the order, and finally pay. In the AI agent era, now you only need to tell the AI agent, "Help me call and buy $30 worth of mangoes and deliver them to my 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 be delivered.
In the era of everything being AI-enabled, what kind of chemical reaction will occur when the cryptocurrency field is combined with AI? This exploration has become the latest market trend. Aside from the past WLD that focused on the OpenAI Ultraman concept and Arkham for 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 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, intelligent early warning, and yield enhancement. USV co-founder Fred Wilson even predicted that by 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 Experts 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 when transitioning from development to production, thereby supporting new use cases. In addition, existing narratives such as DeSci, RWA/stablecoins, and AI agents should continue to perform well with strong momentum.
Bitwise Research Head Ryan Rasmussen predicted that the tokens launched by AI agents will lead to an even bigger meme coin frenzy than in 2024.
Dragonfly General Partner Rob Hadick and CoinFund Managing Director David Pakman 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.
