The AI Agent market continues to heat up, with Virtuals Protocol and AI16Z becoming leaders.

At the beginning of 2025, the AI Agent market continues to be hot, with a total market value surpassing $16.9 billion, an increase of about 22.7% compared to the previous week. In this rapidly developing field, Virtuals Protocol and AI16Z have become barometers for observing the AI Agent track.

Virtuals Protocol, as the main AI Agent issuance platform on the Base chain, has a platform token VIRTUAL with a market cap exceeding 5 billion USD, ranking among the top 40 cryptocurrencies. In the Solana ecosystem, AI16Z, managed by AI Agents, has a market cap exceeding 2.5 billion USD. These two protocols each have their unique features and different development paths.

Development History

Virtuals Protocol: From Game Guilds to AI Agent Issuing Platforms

Virtuals Protocol originated from a Malaysian team, initially focusing on trading. In December 2021, they raised $16 million at a valuation of $600 million to establish the gaming guild PathDAO. However, from 2022 to 2023, the gaming guild market cooled down, and their token FDV dropped from $600 million to $6 million.

The team then transformed into a Venture Studio, attempting multiple projects. Although they were unsuccessful, they realized the potential of AI. In 2023, they decided to fully transition into the AI field. In 2024, they explored AI Gaming on Base and launched a platform. Although they did not gain market recognition initially, the team achieved several breakthroughs in the AI field, including the world's first Roblox AI RPG and AI games without game engines. Their virtual streamer Luna, launched on short video platforms, also gained a stable fanbase and revenue.

AI16Z: From Web 2 AI to Web 3 AI

The founder of AI16Z, Shaw, was originally a game developer and later shifted to the AI field, focusing on the development of AI Agent technology. He also has experience in Web3 and 3D spatial networks.

AI16Z is inspired by a project called "AI version degen Spartan". This AI's performance on social platforms has overturned people's stereotypes about AI, showcasing a unique personality and opinions.

Through the introduction of industry insiders, Shaw came up with the idea of creating an AI investor, aiming to build a fully autonomous, trustworthy, and community-serving investment system. AI16Z achieved its fundraising goal of 4,420 SOL in just 20 minutes upon launch, demonstrating the strong interest in this innovative model from the market.

Product Core

Virtuals Protocol: AI16Z的IOS

Virtuals Protocol serves as a distribution platform for AI Agents, functioning similarly to other platforms, but trading pairs utilize the platform token $VIRTUAL. The platform establishes a common standard for its AI Agent tokens, using the AI Agent framework GAME, emphasizing precision and careful planning.

In the token economy, Virtuals Protocol empowers VIRTUAL through its Agent project. In terms of products, it provides relevant development tools for its AI Agent, creating a more complete overall ecosystem, which is somewhat similar to Apple's iOS.

AI16Z & ELIZA: The Android of AI

AI16Z is a fund managed autonomously by AI, using a hybrid strategy that includes community interaction mechanisms. ElizaOS is an open-source framework for AI Agents, emphasizing decentralization, collaboration, and innovation.

The core features of ELIZA include a role profile system, an action system, suppliers, and evaluators. It also has autonomous trading capabilities, ensuring operational security through a trust engine and trust market.

The ELIZA plug-in system has promoted the growth of the developer ecosystem, creating a virtuous cycle. However, in terms of token economics, Eliza has not tightly bound the architecture to the ecological protocol, allowing anyone to develop using the Eliza framework, with power being decentralized. This model is somewhat similar to Android.

Catalysts Driving Coin Prices

Virtuals Protocol

The business model of Virtuals Protocol is clear, and the product is closely linked to the token price. To observe the continuity of the price increase, one can pay attention to the trading volume of ecological tokens and the number of issued tokens. Data shows that the platform issues approximately 100-200 tokens daily.

Virtuals Protocol does not pursue the increase in the number of issued tokens, but hopes to incubate high-quality projects. The key factor driving the rise of Virtual tokens is whether it can continuously incubate excellent AI Agent projects.

Data shows that there are 8 tokens in the Virtuals Protocol ecosystem with a market value of over 100 million USD, accounting for 33.3% of the overall mindshare in the AI Agent market, making it the largest ecosystem. Whether more tokens can reach a market value of 100 million USD in the future, and whether the overall ecosystem can maintain its leading position, are key points to observe in the development of the Virtuals Protocol.

AI16Z/Eliza

The overall ecosystem of AI16Z is relatively weakly connected, and projects using the Eliza architecture cannot directly feedback value to AI16Z/Eliza. AI16Z adopts an open strategy, allowing everyone to use its architecture, and new projects can obtain endorsement through this.

The strategic model of AI16Z is more like "surrounding the city from the countryside." Whether the market value of AI16Z can continue to rise in the future depends on how deep, fast, and extensive its cooperation with other protocols is. Recently, AI16Z has collaborated with other well-known framework protocols, and we look forward to more strong partnerships in the future.