Original article title: AI agents weekly recap Original author: sandraaleow, kaitoai, partyhatDAO member Original translation: zhouzhou, BlockBeats
Editor’s Note: This week, the AI Agent market trends show diverse developments, with DeFAI (DeFi + AI) projects such as ANON and Griffain gaining attention, driving multi-chain functionality and automation. Gaming agents like Virtuals are expanding beyond entertainment potential, while Solana's AI hackathon and SendAI accelerate AI application innovation. Investment DAOs are optimizing decisions with AI agents, showcasing a new model of decentralized investment. The rise of AI agents has sparked widespread discussions, with developer capabilities and token mechanisms becoming key factors. Platforms like Yaps continue to provide agent data and rankings, making market dynamics worth watching.
The following is the original content (for the sake of readability, the original content has been restructured):
Overall trends
Currently, mentions of agents have reached a historic high, indicating that more people believe that agents are not just a temporary fad, but a transformative force with the potential to disrupt multiple industries and change our daily lives.
Jensen Huang mentioned in his keynote speech at CES 2025: 'AI agents have the potential to become a multi-trillion dollar industry.' However, how all this will unfold remains uncertain — many agents are described as 'exploitative' or 'temporary', which is understandable considering the innovative nature of the agent field. While some teams are building for the long-term vision, others are seizing short-term opportunities.
According to CoinGecko's agent category, the total market cap of the agent market has reached $15.5 billion today.
Attention to AI topics reached 70% for the first time this week (kaitoai).
Agent external attention trends
Kaito Pro paid features
Definition: agent attention = quantifying the frequency of external mentions of the token/stock code
Attention is widely regarded as a key metric for evaluating agent performance, as attention is everything in the crypto space.
Overall attention distribution - Heat map (past 7 days):
AIXBT still dominates, holding over 33% of the total attention for AI agent tokens, with AI16Z and Fartcoin closely following in the top three.
Eliza and Zerebro are in the middle tier (both above 5%).
Virtual also maintains a significant share (5.25%).
Observations and conclusions (based on the changes in attention over 7 days and 30 days) 1. AIXBT still leads
From 27.5% over 30 days to 33% over 7 days, AIXBT continues to maintain the highest attention among all agent tokens. AIXBT's advantage over other agent tokens lies in its distribution capabilities. Continuously updated content, frequent influencer interactions, and broad exposure keep it far ahead of its peers. Although AIXBT remains firmly in first place, its attention has decreased compared to other agent tokens.
2. AI16Z is gaining momentum
In the past 7 days, AI16Z's attention surged from 7.9% to about 12%. AI16Z is solidifying its market leadership in the agent infrastructure space. One of the main drivers of success is its open-source framework Eliza, which is now the most followed repository on GitHub. Discussions about open-source frameworks versus closed-source/one-click deployment frameworks are becoming increasingly heated, and this topic is expected to continue to evolve.
Recently, AI16Z partnered with projects like Hyperfy, focusing on open-source metaverse infrastructure that allows for world creation without permissions in the context of agents.
Future catalysts include their Launchpad platform, which will facilitate the deployment of new projects on the Eliza framework. Although the Launchpad space is relatively crowded, the attention gained from Eliza's open-source framework and its established brand influence indicate that adoption rates will continue to accelerate.
3. Fartcoin, Bully, and Luna decline
These tokens had lower attention over the past 7 days than their 30-day average.
The overall observation is that 'personalized' agents faced some setbacks this week as the market shifted towards more practical agents. Clearly, the market is somewhat fatigued by purely 'reply-type' agents since the outputs provided by these agents are very similar (almost no differentiation), leading to their gradual loss of relevance.
4. Eliza & Virtual rise
Eliza's attention rose from 5.1% to about 6%, while Virtual rose from 4.0% to about 5.25%. Despite recent market declines, Eliza and Virtual continue to grow steadily in attention. Over the past few weeks, Virtual has made significant progress in both price and attention.
5. Zerebro remains stable
Over both time periods, Zerebro's attention remains stable at around 6%.
Tokens with increased attention over the past 7 days, such as Orbit, ACT, HAT, Turbo, and VVAifu, have recorded attention growth in the last 7 days.
ACT = ACT has introduced a new top technical development team and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), established the ACT DAO for investments, published a public code repository, and launched a new funding process. It has integrated with leading AI teams in both Web2 and Web3, and collaborated with Gnon to develop Echo Chambers — a decentralized communication network for agent to agent interactions.
Orbit = Orbit is a platform that integrates AI agents with decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystems, supporting over 100 blockchains. The token GRIFT powers the platform and is regarded as a leading product in the DeFAI space.
HAT = HAT has integrated with Binance Alpha, enhancing its exposure in the crypto community. The Top Hat AI behind HAT is upgrading to version V2, enhancing its AI infrastructure platform, providing more customization and open-source features, attracting more advanced developers. Its token economics have been updated to introduce token permission features and a deflationary model, enhancing the utility and value of the token.
Agent KOL field trends
Freely accessible Yapper leaderboard.
Agent KOL attention = measures the degree of 'intelligent interactions' of agents on Twitter, focusing on meaningful interactions (likes, retweets, replies) from key influencers or high-value accounts.
Agent KOL attention growth leaderboard over 7 days
Thales AI
virtuals io
s8n
centienceio
CryptoEternalAI
MinetardAI
bossu online
Vader AI
AimonicaBrands
Agent attention (external mentions) vs. agent interactions
Observation 1: AIXBT's external mentions and interactions have both decreased
Discussions about the AIXBT agent have noticeably decreased, especially as the novelty of its high-cost terminal access (approximately 200-300K AIXBT tokens) fades, diminishing the initial massive interest it generated. While it initially attracted significant attention, external mentions and interaction metrics have declined over time.
Observation 2: Emerging players appearing in the agent KOL field
The agent field is changing, with more projects and teams beginning to launch their own agents, trying to carve out a niche in this topic. While it remains uncertain whether these new players can maintain agent interactions, it is worth monitoring in the coming weeks.
Observation 3: Market leaders show slight fatigue
Notably, Zerebro and Goat's agent interactions have significantly declined as new players enter the agent KOL field. For example, Zerebro's agent interactions peaked at 24% in mid-November but have now dropped to 2%. Looking back over the past 3 months in the agent KOL space, Goat was once firmly in second place after AIXBT. However, it is evident that interest in Truth Terminal has faded, with attention shifting towards these emerging players.
Key accounts in the agent field
Top accounts mentioning the term 'agent' over the past 7 days:
Top accounts mentioning the term 'agent' (ranked by external mentions):
s4mmy - 40 mentions
cyrilxbt - 32 mentions
shawmakesmagic - 27 mentions
beast ico - 24 mentions
lordofafew - 21 mentions
Top accounts mentioning the term 'agent' ranked by intelligent interactions (past 7 days):
shawmakesmagic - 303 intelligent interactions
aixbt agent - 141 intelligent interactions
defi0xjeff - 121 intelligent interactions
0xcygaar - 105 intelligent interactions
0xglu - 99 intelligent interactions
Key discussion content
defi0xjeff discussed the accelerated development of DeFAI (DeFi + AI) and emerging trends in the agent field, focusing on the roles of abstraction layers, automated trading, and AI-driven DApps. He also mentioned the competition in the abstraction layer space and the potential of automated trading agents.
Eigenlayer announced a partnership with Eliza Labs to host an AI agent hackathon focused on building the next generation of AI agents. This event will take place in Denver and aims to promote collaboration and innovation among developers.
TheSmarmyBum raised the question of whether AI agents need tokens, emphasizing the economic agency and shared economy framework that tokens provide for AI agents.
sreeramkannan discussed the concept of autonomous verifiable services (AVS) for AI agents, emphasizing the need for verifiable computation and how agents operate autonomously in decentralized environments.
RaoulGMI shared his views on the topic of AI agents, believing it could be a mid-term trend gaining attention due to the lack of other eye-catching narratives.
defi0xjeff continues to discuss the emerging trends in the agent metaverse and AI-driven ecosystems, emphasizing that early positioning in these trends can yield solid returns.
elliotrades compares the current AI agent trend to the 'DeFi summer' period, believing that AI agents represent a significant breakthrough in the application of AI technology in the crypto field and predicts large-scale expansion in Q1/Q2.
Rewkang emphasized the importance of developer capabilities within AI agent platforms, believing that successful platforms will be those that can maximize what developers can do, similar to successful platforms in other industries.
This week's observations/trend highlights
The rise of DeFAI and AI-driven DAOs
A notable example this week is ANON, led by Daniele Sesta. Many believe Heyanon aligns with the DeFAI trend by automating complex DeFi tasks (such as arbitrage, yield farming, and risk management) through AI, aiming to simplify on-chain interactions.
The Heyanon ecosystem includes multiple components, such as the AI research agent Gemma, capable of tracking whale movements, monitoring social sentiment, and discovering profit opportunities. This integration aims to provide users with actionable insights and facilitate seamless execution of trades. The project is positioned as a comprehensive AI-driven DeFi solution, focusing on multi-chain functionality and automation, with strong competitiveness in the DeFAI space.
Griffain, a leading DeFAI project from the Solana ecosystem, performed well in the market this week, reaching a new market cap high. Other emerging projects like Neur and Orbit are also growing.
The rise of gaming agents is attracting attention as they bring new interactivity and personalized experiences to the gaming field. Virtuals are striving to showcase that gaming agents are more than just 'entertainment' potential.
The Solana AI hackathon and Sendai Solana AI hackathon attracted a large number of projects and drove market activity, although some expressed concerns about speculative token issuance and market manipulation, the events still show growth momentum for Solana in AI agent development.
The Solana Agent Kit has gained widespread application, allowing developers to deploy AI-driven applications on-chain. Send AI and AI Agent Kit are driving Solana to become a center for AI-driven innovation, potentially spawning more agent projects and solidifying Solana's position in the DeFAI domain.
The rise of investment DAOs, particularly on platforms like daos.fun, is becoming a decentralized alternative to traditional venture capital. This platform supports the launch of multiple DAOs and is attracting increasing attention. Investors are optimizing decisions with AI agents, and investment DAOs are becoming a more flexible and data-driven alternative compared to traditional investment models.
