Author: Ignas, Crypto KOL
Compiled by: Felix, PANews
Forget the memecoin super cycle; AI Agents surpass everything, and much more. The following chart compares the price performance of AI Agents with other narratives:
In the past 3 months, the overall market cap of the AI Agents narrative has increased by 7000% (driven by new products), while Memecoins have only increased by 15.19%.
As shown in the chart below, considering the volatility of newly launched AI tokens, AI Agents have performed equally well over the past 30 days, rising by 75%, while Memecoins have dropped by 25%.
There are several reasons to compare Memecoins with AI Agents:
First of all, the rise of the memecoin craze was driven by low float, high FDV VC tokens. Most AI Agents keep these cautionary tales in mind and launch with little or no VC funding.
More importantly, many AI Agents tokens are launched in a manner similar to memecoins on platforms like Pump.fun or AI incubation sites like Virtuals. They start trading at lower market caps, allowing early buyers to profit from the rise. Without memecoins, the performance of AI Agents could be completely different.
Secondly, AI Agents have a distinct, self-updating culture that even resembles a 'cult meme,' along with some practicality.
Just like aixbt continuously adapts to current narratives and themes. They are also native cryptocurrencies, whereas OG memecoins are a culture imported from Web2 (with few exceptions, like $PENGU).
In contrast, OG memecoins are stagnant and require constant support from the human community to maintain relevance/vitality.
As crypto KOL redphone said, 'Nothing is more exhausting than memecoins.'
Finally, AI Agents successfully seized market attention from memecoins and achieved corresponding liquidity transfer. The author previously witnessed the changes in one of their wallets:
A Degen hot wallet can trade at will, chasing popular narratives, with its portfolio completely swapped from pure memecoins to AI Agents without even realizing it. The profits of this wallet have significantly increased, but if it still held those memecoins, the returns would be dismal.
So, is this an AI Agents super cycle or simply a narrative rotation?
Crypto KOL redphone mentioned in a 2025 prediction that 'ordinary' memecoins will launch mascot/ambassador robots (or memecoins will slowly fade away until they become insignificant).
This is a bold prediction, but if it really happens, it shouldn't come as a surprise.
Related Reading: Year-End Review of the Crypto Market: 25 Predictions for 2025 and 23 Most Promising Coins