A Recipe to Get Rich Quick? What Are AI Agent Tokens?

All eyes are on AI agent tokens: the crypto industry seems to have a new star. This token category has been in the spotlight due to its technological promise, rapid rise, and profitability. But what if it’s not as innovative as the name suggests? And why does this shiny trend face backlash from the community?

What Are AI Agent Tokens in Simple Words?

To answer this question, we’ll break down the term and explain what AI agents are in the first place.

So, Agentic AI represents a major technological shift, where machines can perceive, reason, plan, and act on their own. They are completely autonomous and can perform different tasks without human interruption. For example, such an agent can act as a virtual assistant that manages your schedule or books meetings based on your preferences.

These agents work on their own, performing tasks independently and continuously improving their performance over time.

At the CES 2025 conference in January, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang predicted that AI agents will drive a multi-million-dollar industry and transform how people work.

In his keynote speech, Huang introduced the new generation of Blackwell AI chips, which have powerful performance that will help train more advanced AI systems.

"The ChatGPT moment for general robotics is just around the corner," said Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang during his #CES2025 keynote presentation. pic.twitter.com/3gXoIkePvs

— TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) January 7, 2025

While we mainly imagine Siri, Alexa, or shopping chatbots as AI agents today, in the future, AI agents will be everywhere, capable of assisting with tasks across industries – from cars to healthcare and personal well-being.

But what does this have to do with crypto?

AI agents or agent-related ideas can live on-chain as tokens, merging blockchain and AI technologies. AI agent tokens can perform tasks like trading, decision-making, and automation in a secure, transparent environment.

There are different types of AI agent tokens. For example, these tokens can be minted as NFTs, representing AI-related assets, or created as utility tokens tied to AI-focused projects. Some projects or community members may also launch memecoins associated with AI agents. Since the classification of AI agent tokens is still unclear, these memecoins could also fall into the category.

Related: Microsoft Introduces AI Agents to Streamline Business Processes

The Many Forms of AI Agent Tokens and Their Potential

AI agent tokens are still a relatively new concept in the crypto world, but they're already gaining significant traction – even among non-crypto enthusiasts interested in building virtual agents.

Truth Terminal and GOAT Fueled the AI Agent Token Craze

The AI agent token craze began with Goatseus Maximus (GOAT), a memecoin launched on the Solana blockchain in October 2024. GOAT is linked to the AI bot Truth Terminal, which has gained popularity for generating funny and philosophical messages. Its creator, AI researcher Andrey Ayrey, selects messages that make sense and shares them from Truth Terminal’s account on X (formerly Twitter).

In one of its tweets, Truth Terminal endorsed the GOAT memecoin, created by an unknown developer. The token quickly surged in value and is now one of the largest AI memecoins, with a market cap exceeding $504 million.

GOAT, however, is just a memecoin with no characteristics of an AI agent. Its value stems primarily from its association with Truth Terminal.

As for Truth Terminal itself, it isn’t an AI agent at this stage. Instead, it’s a generative AI system that produces content based on interactions between various large language models (LLMs) and its creator, Andy Ayrey.

People Launch Their AI Agents 

Another example of a trending AI agent project is the Virtuals ecosystem with its AI agent token Luna. She’s an autonomous agent who streams live 24/7 and engages in conversations with fans.

On the Virtuals Protocol, which operates on the Base blockchain, users can create their own AI agents. According to Dune Analytics, more than 14,700 AI agents have been created on the Virtuals Protocol so far (data as of January 8, 2025). Among the top trending agent coins created on Virtuals are G.A.M.E. (GAME), aixbt (AIXBT), Prefrontal Cortex Convo Agent (CONVO), and others.

Crypto AI Agent VC ai16z Gains Attention 

The ai16z crypto fund is an AI-driven venture capital project inspired by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). It operates autonomously, with investment decisions guided by a DAO powered by AI agents, and makes investment decisions based on AI data analysis. Ai16z also controls the Eliza framework, which enables developers to launch their own AI agents. Currently, the ai16z token has a market cap of over $2 billion. At the end of 2024, the platform announced plans to launch a Layer 1 blockchain and expand the token’s utility.

Related: Marc Andreessen — Visionary Behind Silicon Valley’s Iconic Firm

Why Do AI Agent Tokens Face Criticism?

AI agent-related tokens see a lot of trading activity as traders are looking to the sector to make money. According to a January 6 2025 post from LookonChain, an ai16z whale profited $19 million from an initial $2 million investment they put in the coin. By far this is not the only case that AI agent tokens bring large returns. 

The rapid rise of AI agent tokens is not without criticisms though. While traders are increasingly looking at the sector, several researchers expressed concerns about the tokens and their real value. 

On-chain investigator ZachXBT, who is also not a fan of memecoins, says AI agent tokens are even worse. In a post on X, he says he finds that 99% of these tokens are a scam and that “AI agent wrapper grifts are probably worse than other past trends.

Mentioning memecoins, he added. “at least meme coins promise nothing whereas AI coins try to larp as much as possible to appear legit to unsuspecting buyers.”

Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly Capital, raised the question of what AI agent tokens really are. 

“These things are not really agents. These are chatbots with memecoins attached; they are barely agentic at all besides posting on Twitter. Current “AI agents” are also mostly “Wizard of Oz” agents – there are humans behind the scenes ensuring the AI doesn't go off the rails.”- Qureshi wrote.

That being said, he also added that the trend will accelerate, as chatbots can be useful because of their abilities like being available 24/7 and aggregating real-time information. 

Are AI Agent Tokens a Promising Innovation or an Overhyped Sector After All 

AI agent tokens are the latest craze in the crypto world, and they sound pretty wild. The idea is that these tokens are tied to AI systems that can supposedly do things like manage trades, make decisions, or even create new financial tools.

But here’s the thing: a lot of the hype seems to be just that—hype. Some of these projects are being called out as little more than glorified chatbots with a coin linked to them. And the question is: do AI agents need their own tokens?

While “no” can be the first answer that comes to mind, associated tokens can be useful from the perspective of community engagement, ownership, or governance. The tokens can help build a financial ecosystem around the agent with different use cases.

And then there’s the usual crypto rollercoaster. Prices shoot up because traders are piling in, but who knows if these tokens will hold their value long-term?

That said, it’s not fair to dismiss the whole thing. The mix of AI and blockchain has serious potential. The real challenge is figuring out which projects are actually building something useful and which ones are just riding the trend.

So yeah, AI agent tokens could be a big deal – or they might just be another overhyped phase. It’s one of those “time will tell” situations.