How AI Agents Becoming the Next Big Trend in Crypto

AI agents in the crypto space have been making waves recently, with dozens of new agents and their associated tokens popping up every day.

This Web3 trend took off unexpectedly when an AI researcher launched an experimental, fully AI-controlled account on X in the summer of 2024. Since then, the Web3 AI agents industry has skyrocketed to over $16 billion, and some AI agents are now trading for hundreds of millions of dollars.

So, what exactly is an AI agent? Simply put, it is a system that can autonomously perform tasks on behalf of a user or another system. AI agents monitor their environment, analyze data, and take action to achieve specific goals—all without human intervention. This technology opens up endless possibilities, as virtually any task previously done by humans can now be managed by an AI agent.

We have been using AI agents for a while—think Siri on your iPhone. However, the crypto industry has added its own twist by linking tokens and wallets directly to these AI agents. Many of them now have their own crypto wallets and manage their own funds. It's pretty wild to consider that some of these AI agents have already become multimillionaires.

According to CoinGecko, there are currently nearly 200 AI agents listed. However, the actual number is likely in the thousands, as not all are featured on the site. One standout example is the aixbt agent. This agent analyzes social media posts from over 400 influencers and shares real-time insights and market analysis through its own X account. With over 300,000 followers, aixbt is the most popular AI agent in the space, boasting a market cap of nearly $400 million.

Another notable AI agent on social media is Luna. Unlike others that post on X, Luna streams its content, aiming to grow its follower base and become a social media influencer.

Both the aixbt agent and Luna were launched on the Virtuals platform. Virtuals is a kind of Pump.fun for AI agents. The platform, based on the Base blockchain, allows anyone to launch tokens for their AI agents. Virtuals AI agents can handle trading, engage in dating simulations, chat with users, and offer a wide range of other functions. To date, Virtuals has seen the launch of several thousand AI agents, and its market cap has rapidly grown to an impressive $3.3 billion.

However, as always happens in the crypto world, the rise of AI agents has attracted scammers. Dozens of scam AI agents are launched daily, mirroring the meme-coin craze where a few quality projects are often buried under hundreds of scams.

Nevertheless, the future for AI agents looks bright. Some even predict that, soon, humans will work alongside AI agents without even realizing it.

So, if you are looking to catch the trend and add newly launched AI agents to your portfolio, make sure to conduct thorough research and avoid falling for scams.