The AI Agent wave sparked by projects such as ai16z and VIRTUAL AI reached a stage peak in late December last year to early January this year, and under the backdrop of Bitcoin's correction, there has been a large-scale capital flight.
According to CoinGecko data, although there are still a large number of AI Agents continuously emerging, the overall market capitalization of AI Agents has fallen to around $7.15 billion. Among them, the performance of the most popular track leader tokens is also weak, with the current token prices as follows:
- VIRTUAL: reported at $1.33, with a market capitalization of $860 million, down 7.7% in the last 24 hours and 29.8% in the last week;
- ai16z: reported at $0.3321, with a market capitalization of $360 million, down 10.9% in the last 24 hours and 44.7% in the last week;
- FAI: reported at $0.04, with a market capitalization of $330 million, up 4.8% in the last 24 hours and down 15.7% in the last week;
- AIXBT: reported at $0.3054, with a market capitalization of $260 million, down 6% in the last 24 hours and 32.8% in the last week;
In addition, the DeFAI field, which is a combination of AI Agents and DeFi, has also fallen to a total market capitalization of $1.556 billion this week, and although several popular projects have also suffered setbacks, the overall decline is relatively small:
- GRIFFAIN: reported at $0.1837, with a market capitalization of $181 million, down 25.8% in the last 24 hours and 29.7% in the last week;
- PAAL: reported at $0.1944, with a market capitalization of $169 million, down 5.8% in the last 24 hours and 17.8% in the last week;
- ANON: reported at $11.49, with a market capitalization of $145 million, down 9.7% in the last 24 hours and 0.9% in the last week;
- BUZZ: reported at $0.03755, with a market capitalization of $36.3 million, down 26% in the last 24 hours and 46.4% in the last week.
Is there still hope for AI Agents?
Facing the current depressed market environment, although many investors have said that they have previously cross margin bet on the AI Agent field, and now they are losing money, they also do not seem to believe that AI Agents are dead, but rather that it is just the departure of short-term investors. If Bitcoin's rebound continues, or even sets a new high, the market sentiment will recover, and AI Agents will also see a rebound.
On the other hand, as the market continues to develop and mature, AI Agents that can truly provide practical value are likely to have a lot of room for growth, and the current judgment that AI Agents are declining is still premature.
Extended Reading: The Economist Believes We Have Ushered in the Era of AI Agents, But Three Difficulties Need to Be Noted
0G Foundation Launches $88 Million AI Agent Acceleration Program
Although the token prices in the AI Agent track have been generally depressed recently, with many investors complaining that they have been trapped at the peak, the investment and construction in this field does not seem to have declined. For example, the decentralized AI network organization 0G Foundation has recently launched an ecosystem growth plan, which has raised a total of $88.88 million in funds, with the intention of accelerating the development of AI Agents and DeFAI.
At the same time, this plan has also attracted investment from several well-known institutions, including Hack VC, Delphi Ventures, Bankless Ventures and OKX Ventures. Michael Heinrich, co-founder and CEO of 0G Labs, commented on this:
The rapid growth of AI capabilities, combined with the demand for a trustless, transparent financial system, is the ideal time to accelerate the development of AI Agents.
In addition, projects applying for this fund investment need to focus on actual solutions to issues such as climate change, labor automation, healthcare, privacy, security and education, in order to achieve the goal of using technology to truly serve humanity.
