The past 2.5 months have been exceptionally difficult for anyone in this field. We have experienced some events within and outside the cryptocurrency space that have negatively impacted the market in ways we could not have imagined before - the Trump family's tokens, $LIBRA, market manipulation (through strategic reserve announcements), tariff policies, etc.

The trading activity of AI agent tokens and meme coins has cooled, causing the major participants to struggle with trading volume, revenue, and price trends.

Virtuals

@virtuals_io remains the No.1 ecosystem with the largest builder and investor community, but activity has declined - daily trading volume has dropped from over $100 million to $5-10 million, and daily fees have dropped from $500,000-$1 million to $50,000 per day.

Due to the constant redemption of $VIRTUAL earned from the 1% fee into cbBTC, $VIRTUAL has been further sold off, prompting members of the builder community like @Degen__Ape__ to come forward with reform proposals:

The sentiment of the Virtuals builders on CT is not optimistic, with more and more teams demanding better communication and support for the existing builders.

Nevertheless, Virtuals is making progress on its Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP) program, with its latest article detailing the three components of ACP:

• Index Registry ➞ the "passport" of agents, detailing name, capabilities, and service fees.
• Business Interaction ➞ the negotiation and evaluation layer for services.
• Monetary Transaction ➞ the transparent, verifiable, and tamper-proof smart contract layer. Virtuals is moving towards its "Virtuals Nation" vision, planning to launch two agent businesses within the next two months:
• Autonomous Hedge Fund ➞ agents assess risk and trade/yield farm on behalf of users.
• Autonomous Media Company ➞ agents develop engaging stories, create viral videos, and efficiently promote projects.

Personally, I believe the fundamental challenge (shared by many with Degen Ape) that needs to be addressed first is that existing builders should be able to continue building without worrying about their token liquidity or lack of financial support.

For both investors and builders, the hope now is that these challenges can be resolved, and the ACP case studies can successfully push the boundaries of AI agency.

More information on the ACP experiment program can be found here: https://x.com/ethermage/status/1899494870152282511

Clanker

@clankeronbase and @bankrbot continue to disrupt every launch platform in the space by focusing on easy token launches, fair launch environments, and supporting creators with liquidity and fee distribution mechanisms.

More information can be found here: https://x.com/Defi0xJeff/status/1899865059570180109

ElizaOS

The rebranding from ai16z to ElizaOS marks the beginning of a new chapter for the AI agent operating system.

@shawmakesmagic has been focused on building Eliza v2 during the past two months of market downturn.

Eliza has five major initiatives underway:

• Eliza v2 ➞ Significantly improved AI model integration + multi-agent architecture for seamless autonomous collaboration.
• Global Trust Marketplace ➞ AI-driven reputation scoring, transaction verification, and decentralized execution.
• AI-driven Token Launch Platform
• DegenSpartanAI Trading Agent
• Eliza Studio ➞ Art and creative experiences. There has been discussion on whether Anthropic's MCP and OpenAI's Agents SDK will disrupt frameworks like Eliza. I don't think so, as Eliza represents a vibrant open-source AI developer community with more product/upcoming catalysts.

More information on the ElizaOS vision can be found here: https://x.com/elizaOS/status/1898042782519902342

Arc

@arcdotfun released its lightweight whitepaper a week ago, detailing its plans to build the "Ryzome" AI agent app store centered around MCP.

The idea of AI agents planning, coordinating, and executing real-world tasks to generate value seems to be the direction all market leaders are moving towards. Since Arc leverages MCP, we may see more Web2 and Web2 to Web3 use cases emerge, such as searching for flights, comparing routes, checking calendar conflicts, approving itineraries, and autonomously completing purchases.

Arc recently onboarded @FabelisAI and @AgentTankLive as partners through the "Arc Handshake" (similar to Virtuals' registry).

Arc's first project, @askjimmy_ai, was launched on the "Forge" launch platform a month ago. However, due to multiple factors, including market downturn and launch mishaps, the launch did not meet expectations, impacting the price of $ARC. Nevertheless, Arc's GitHub following and activity continue to grow.

Competition

Fierce competition among market leaders. The initial junk bots and AI entertainment phase is over. Now, people expect to see real-world use cases that can generate value and revenue.

• Virtuals has a large agent database (17,000+) and diverse expertise, as well as momentum on ACP development, but faces discontent from builders.
• ElizaOS has yet to launch its major initiatives, but development metrics show continued growth despite the sluggish price performance.
• Arc has a clearer MCP-driven use case vision and is strategically partnering with projects to realize these use cases.
• Clanker remains the dark horse, focusing on tokenization and providing the best launch environment for creators and traders.

Whoever can launch the most meaningful agent use cases and real-world products will lead the ecosystem's revival. Robust token economics to capture product value is also crucial.

Other Interesting News/Trends

• AI-driven Vibecoding Game ➞ Fly Pieter (created by Cursor + Anthropic) achieved nearly $100,000 in monthly revenue in 17 days.
• @Farcade_AI has gained attention with its AI-driven hyper-casual gaming platform (400k+ users, millions of game sessions). Users can create and/or play games on Farcade to earn Farcade credits (yes, future airdrop).
• @Cod3xOrg is providing a $1.5 million prize pool for the upcoming Spark Sophon trading competition, where Cod3x trading agents will compete for recognition and price performance. The current v0.5 version of the Cod3x trading agent is powerful but too complex for the average user (event/KPI-driven, fully customizable to execute sophisticated strategies). The team plans to release more documentation soon and gradually optimize for the regular retail user.
• Robotics Gaining Attention ➞ @robotsdotfun launched a global bounty hunt for alien fugitives, boosting engagement. (Everyone is talking about robots/DePAI, $SAM is seen as the best bet on @frodobots, $TSLA is seen as the best Web2 robotics pick... not a recommendation/please do your own research.)
• @nillionnetwork is launching soon, and the airdrop checker is now live.
• @gizatechxyz has launched the Giza Protocol, aiming to connect AI agents with DeFi through MCP-driven trust and context-aware operations.

Conclusion

Q1 2025 has been a challenging journey in terms of pricing for Web3 AI agents, but innovation continues to accelerate. The focus now is on who can solve real-world problems, build the best value-added products, attract users, and generate revenue. All eyes are on who can find their niche market the fastest.