Are AI agent tokens primed for a comeback?

AI agent tokens surged to prominence in the final quarter of last year, with Virtuals, one of the leading platforms in the sector, showing great promise. By the end of the year, the market capitalization had ballooned from just $50.9 million in October to $4.6 billion. 

Trading fees reached as high as $1.5 million a day, while the leading agent token, AIXBT, grew from $162,000 on its November launch to nearly $1 billion just two months later.

Since then, Virtuals’ market cap has fallen to less than $704 million, down 84% from its peak.

AI agent tokens show signs of divergence

Despite the gloom that befell the AI agent token space, for the first time, fundamentals are beginning to decouple from weak token prices. In August, daily fees within the Virtuals ecosystem rose from $33,000 to $230,000, even as the market cap fell by 10%, according to data shared on X by Chris Davis, a researcher at Messari, a crypto market intelligence platform.

The market itself has been experiencing a shift in leadership. In early August, Ribbita dethroned AIXBT as the leading token, while another project, launched in July by former Coinbase engineer Luke Youngblood, also surpassed AIXBT.

Some quarters believe that newer-generation agents with better use cases are getting attention from market participants compared to the first-generation agents.

Projects like Mamo, an automated yield-farming agent integrated into Coinbase’s Base app, have attracted around $138 million in deposits, a signal of growing institutional-style demand.

Quality over quantity

The performance of standout agents has brought the ecosystem back to the limelight. ArAIstotle, a multilingual fact-checking agent developed by the team behind facticity.ai and listed by TIME as one of 2024’s best inventions, has outlined an enterprise-driven monetization strategy.

Since its August launch, its token has risen by 3,170%, reaching a $16.2 million market cap a few days before the end of the month.

Another notable case is 1000xAgent, built by crypto investors Avi Felman and Jonah Van Bourg and tied to their podcast “1000xPod.” The project utilizes an AI terminal for market analysis with a token buyback model funded by podcast revenues. In August alone, its token rose more than five-fold.

The Virtuals team is also experimenting with new community structures though its Genesis launch mechanism allows participants to pledge “Virgen Points,” earned by staking the core VIRTUAL token, for allocations in new projects. Over half of all individual staking positions, representing 56% of over 73,000 accounts, are locked for 104 weeks.

Clouds on the horizon

The latest rebound comes after a tough first half of 2025 for AI Agents. In March, AIXBT suffered a hack that drained around 55.5 ETH, triggering a 20% token drop. The breach is one of the challenges early-stage ecosystems like this one face, as investors already have little trust in them, and these hacks cause further strain.

For enthusiasts, however, this period of reduced hype may offer a rare window to position ahead of renewed interest, and it may account for why there’s a surge as investors see promise and want to put their cash where their mouth is, given the rising use cases and adoption of AI globally.

The alignment of stronger fundamentals and an engaged core community suggests that the sector is not merely a passing fad. It also shows that investors are placing a premium on quality projects with proper use cases.

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