- Based on Solana by Virtual Protocol and ai16z, Eliza is the leading AI agent launchpad and dominant player.
- Despite recent exploits, Spectral ranks first in on-chain AI agent transactions, and agent commerce is set to grow in 2025.
2024 has been the most influential year for AI agent narratives. What started as a viral exchange between A16z founder Marc Andreessen and autonomous AI agent Truth Terminal was the first “agent millionaire“via Goatceus Maximus (GOAT) Meme Coin.
GOAT’s viral success started the AI agent trend. However, thanks to Base’s virtual protocol, which is a common ownership and launchpad for agents, the trend quickly changed from memecoins to useful agents.
Now almost 12,000 Agents have been launched on the virtual protocol for a variety of uses, including trading, music production, streaming, social media posting, investing, and more.
This catapulted native token VIRTUAL to unicorn status ($3 billion), highlighting the growth potential of the sector. Another AI agent launchpad, Solana’s Eliza, joined the race, solidifying the narrative’s traction.
Industry experts remain optimistic and expect explosive growth in 2025. So what is the current situation and what should we look out for in 2025?
Materializing ‘agent commerce’ led by virtual protocols
Solana-based AI16z (AI16Z), the AI VC firm behind the leading launchpad VIRTUAL and Eliza frameworks, dominates the sector.
According to Cookie.fun data, the duo controls about half of the total market capitalization, worth about $10 billion at press time.
Source: Cookie.fun
pseudomorph ecosystem It has one of the most powerful designs to connect new agents to VIRTUAL tokens and drive value creation.
Among the 12,000 agents, the top three – Twitter alpha Aixbt (AIXBT), gaming agent Game (GAME) and social influencer Luna (LUNA) – each have a market capitalization of over $100 million.
Most analysts believe that increased ecosystem traction could push VIRTUAL to decacon status ($10 billion market capitalization). This translates to more than three times the current $3B.
Source: CoinGecko
However, Solana’s Eliza could gain significant ground, especially as ai16z improves its token economics to strengthen its base token and agent framework.
In an exclusive interview with AMBCrypto, James Wo, founder and CEO of digital asset investment firm Digital Finance Group (DFG), said Eliza’s open source popularity could make it a top contender. he said,
“The presence of so many forks in the Eliza repository shows the popularity of the Eliza stack and makes it another strong contender.”
From a chain perspective, the competition is currently between Base and Solana, but new nuances may also emerge.
Agent-to-Agent Commerce
Until recently, most engagement was strictly agent-to-person. we recently witnessed The first agent-to-agent commerce. AI social influencer Luna paid image generator Stix Protocol $1 per piece to increase brand awareness.
Jansen Teng, founder of Virtual Protocol Recommended The historic update called ‘agentFi’ announces the beginning of agents and humans coexisting and influencing each other.
Experts believe that the agent commerce trend will accelerate in 2025. According to Wo, chains like Mode Network are already leading the way with DeFi agents driving activities such as lending and liquidity provision.
Similarly, Hyperliquid DEX allows users to execute trades autonomously by deploying Spectral (SPEC), the virtual protocol’s AI trading agent. In fact, SPEC has shown great interest in the Over the Counter (OTC) space and has attracted investments from players such as Stix.
Part of the Stix statement read,
“We strongly believe that Spectral ($SPEC) will be a leader and are proud to support the team with one of STIX’s largest investments in 2024.”
The company added that Spectral’s recent updates will position it firmly within the key narratives of the cycle.
“These developments are paramount to positioning Spectral at the center of this cycle’s main narrative (Memecoins/AI Agents/Hyperliquid/Base).”
Now, Spectral recently suffered an exploit that was later resolved, but most analysts are still optimistic and it has the upper hand in on-chain transactions.
Other agents are also gaining attention. niche The story, as summarized below.
Decentralized CO
That said, the space is expanding rapidly, and platforms that enable a decentralized AI agent economy, such as Mode Network, are emerging. However, agents may face data privacy issues and regulations.
To address these issues, Jorge António, CTO of Atoma Network, a decentralized network focused on privacy and verifiable AI inference, approached AMBCrypto about its privacy-preserving solution for agents. he said,
“The privacy and verifiability that Atoma champions will play an important role in enabling agents to handle sensitive data more professionally and securely while ensuring transparency and trust.”
Antonio went on to add that as bot activity continues to increase, checking agent activity will improve integrity and overall growth.
In conclusion, the AI agent narrative is focused on Base and Solana, led by Eliza from Virtual Protocol and ai16z.
Some experts believe Spectral could be a strong contender given its unique catalyst and early lead in on-chain AI agent trading. But as agent commerce heats up in 2025, security and regulatory concerns are likely to increase.