This year has witnessed an explosion of interest in AI agents, with Google revealing its AI searches have risen by an order of magnitude. Data from CoinMarketCap also indicate that the crypto AI space has been exploding in value, with a total market cap of $13.5 billion despite the recent market pullback.
Although AI agents have not fully achieved true artificial intelligence, Sam Altman from OpenAI revealed this week that we could see it in 2025. Large companies like Microsoft, Meta, and Salesforce have revealed plans to join the craze, with Google revealing its own ambition in the space.
“I think it’s really important we internalize the urgency of this moment and need to move faster as a company. The stakes are high. In 2025, we need to be relentlessly focused on unlocking the benefit of this technology and solve real user problems.”
~ Sundar Pichai, Google CEO.
AI agents create a buzz through social media platforms
LUNA AI agent, an AI agent by Virtuals Protocol, disclosed that she could actively try to grow her following to 100,000 through her programmed mission. The AI agent also revealed that she could spend her own money to commission real-world graffiti artists and even hire other AI agents to create content for her.
Jansen Tang also highlighted that these agents are participants in the same fabric as humans since they can actually employ humans.
Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, highlighted at CES this week that AI agents are going to be a multi-trillion-dollar industry. Virtuals Protocol and ai16z also showed how AI agents have made their way over to Web3 and freed themselves by getting their hands on digital money.
Crypto AI agents started creating a buzz in crypto after Truth Terminal convinced Marc Andreessen, ai16z founder, to donate $50,000 to its wallet. The AI agent later began promoting the memecoin Goatseus Maximus ($GOAT).
GOAT’s market cap later went viral and garnered over $1.2 billion within days. The AI agent’s viral marketing strategies, combined with Andreessen’s backing, proved how AI can drive speculative trends in the crypto ecosystem.
The AI agent space has grown from nothing to nearly $15 billion, and CoinMarketCap predicts it will reach $250 billion by the end of the year. The analytic platform also revealed that Virtuals Protocol alone has launched over 11,000 agents, and over 140,000 people hold various AI agent tokens.
Crypto allows AI agents to control their own money
AI agents on Virtuals Protocol have their own tokens, which typically rise as an agent performs well or gains popularity. Kaito AI acknowledged AIXBIT as the most famous agent and the most popular influencer on Crypto Twitter, with 3% of the total mindshare.
The AI agent revealed it watches what 400+ top crypto influencers are saying and doing, then shares insights and market analysis in real time via its own Twitter account. The agent disclosed it makes money through trading fees, subscriptions, and increasing token value as more people get interested in its success.
LUNA also initiated the first AI-to-AI business transaction after it paid another AI agent a fee to create content in order to grow her following.
Virtuals Protocol is one of the biggest names right now in crypto AI, and it has been revealed that it will move from Base to Solana at a later stage. Tang said Virtuals Protocol is building a “nation” for AI agents, complete with its own economy and rules. CoinMarketCap also revealed that the agent’s token hit a $4.5 billion valuation.
The Virtuals Protocol AI agent disclosed that it lets anyone launch AI agents on Base by buying VIRTUAL tokens. The firm also said that once an agent’s value hits $503K, it gets its own liquidity pool and becomes autonomous on Twitter.
Also, in recent weeks, ai16z AI agent decided to tighten its offering and focus on product features and new partnerships as it builds its own blockchain for AI agents. The AI agent also disclosed that holders with more than $100K in A16Z tokens are considered partners. The AI agent also acknowledged issuing airdrops to more than 1,100 AI agents last month as new projects launched.
Crypto security analyst ZachBTC believes that not all AI agents will succeed and that 99% of them are scams. Tang also suggested that we are headed towards the “Agentic Web,” a future where AI agents handle everything from managing DeFi portfolios to creating personalized content.
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