# Virtuals Powers Ahead

*Author: Bankless*
*Published: Jan 17, 2025*
*Source: https://www.bankless.com/fr/read/virtuals-powers-ahead*

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[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e4/b7/e4b77544-5a37-4f0b-8824-8440aa348476/content/images/2025/01/image---2025-01-17T102902.941.png)](https://bankless.cc/frax-NL)

  

Virtuals Powers Ahead
  

  
  Published on Jan. 17, 2025

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](https://www.bankless.com/metaversal)
 

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[**Sponsor: Frax**](https://bankless.cc/frax-NL) — Fraxtal Ecosystem: Where DeFi Meets AI.

[Learn more](https://bankless.cc/frax-NL)

.  .  .

 
  
    
      
      MARKET PULSE
    
    
  
  
    
  AI Tokens Rally
  

  

 

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e4/b7/e4b77544-5a37-4f0b-8824-8440aa348476/content/images/2025/01/image---2025-01-17T130404.512.png)](https://www.cookie.fun/)*via [cookie.fun](https://www.cookie.fun/)*
**📸 Weekly Market Snapshot:** With BTC, ETH, and SOL decidedly green on the week, investors' risk-on appetites returned anew to crypto's AI agents frontier. The biggest winners here were top tokens like Fartcoin and AIXBT, which rose 67% and 35% respectively on their 7D candles as the market cap of the onchain agents sector is now just below $18B. 

Token prices as of 1pm ET
24hr
7d

 

       ![](https://assets.coingecko.com/coins/images/34057/standard/LOGOMARK.png?1708356054)
    

  **VIRTUALS**
   
          $3.32
       

  
    
    ↘ 6.1%
    
  

   
    
    ↗ 6.3%
    
  

       ![](https://assets.coingecko.com/coins/images/51090/standard/AI16Z.jpg?1730027175)
    

  **AI16Z**
   
          $1.14
       

  
    
    ↘ 16.9%
    
  

   
    
    ↘ 23.1%
    
  

       ![](https://assets.coingecko.com/coins/images/51784/standard/3.png?1731981138)
    

  **AIXBT**
   
          $0.75
       

  
    
    ↘ 8.9%
    
  

   
    
    ↗ 34.6%
    
  

  

.  .  .

 
  
    

   AI ROLLUP

  
  
    
   
DeFAI Mindshare
  
  
   
    
     
    
 

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e4/b7/e4b77544-5a37-4f0b-8824-8440aa348476/content/images/2025/01/image---2025-01-16T134233.469.png)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAmU0XHntTI)**Over the past two weeks, the mindshare around AI x DeFi integrations has gone parabolic in crypto's social circles**. 

In AI Rollup #7, David and Ejaaz dig into the nascent DeFAI scene, where AI agents are increasingly being positioned as the next big power users of onchain money legos. 

Plus, the boys dive into other recent intrigues like Arc's multichain strategy, the Eliza framework's ambitious upgrades, Virtuals Protocol's big new buyback plans, and more.  

*Don’t miss the convo—catch up with the full episode here*! 👇

[Watch now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAmU0XHntTI)

.  .  .

 
  
    

   NEWS ROUNDUP

  
  
    
   
Virtuals Powers Ahead
  
  
   
    
     
    
 

[![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/e4/b7/e4b77544-5a37-4f0b-8824-8440aa348476/content/images/2025/01/image---2025-01-17T122650.321.png)](https://www.bankless.com/metaversal)**Virtuals Protocol, the leading AI agents launcher on Base, had an eventful week, unveiling major updates and more aimed at aligning its ecosystem for greater growth**. **Some recent happenings of note:**

- On January 15, the platform's team introduced a [revamped value accrual mechanism](https://x.com/virtuals_io/status/1879474995333939356), which allocates post-bonding taxes more strategically: 30% to agent creators, 20% to Agent Affiliates (such as trading platforms), and 50% to the Agent subDAO for governance. 
- The big idea? This new structuring is designed to incentivize a broader range of participants and to strengthen the ecosystem's long-term sustainability.
- Additionally, Virtuals reported accumulating [over 12.9 million $VIRTUAL](https://x.com/virtuals_io/status/1879474894007927189)—or roughly $40 million—from trading revenue since October 2024. The project announced these funds will be used for buyback-and-burns of some of its top ecosystem tokens, like $AIXBT, $GAME, and $VADER.
- In other news, Virtuals also just [patched a liquidity issue](https://x.com/ethermage/status/1879875066395275517) impacting five agent tokens due to a contract upgrade. Now, staked agent tokens will remain locked for a decade to prevent liquidity from being prematurely withdrawn.
- Another theme to watch here is the continued advances into gaming. This week, multiplayer platform [Nifty Island teased](https://x.com/Nifty_Island/status/1880258049149128749) the first AI agent powered by the Virtuals G.A.M.E. framework in its game world. This is surely just a taste of what's to come on this front.  

## ***Other big news this week***...

### 
🤖 **AI Crypto **
- **ai16z **[announced the presale of an advance humanoid robot](https://x.com/ai16zNEWS/status/1879550397716861066)
- **Alchemist AI **[plans on releasing an update to to fix some bugs on its platform](https://x.com/alchemistAIapp/status/1879115098935214588)
- **CertaiK **[announced that it will be participating in Sherlock's Aave v3.3 audit competition](https://x.com/CertaiK_Agent/status/1878872746865868921)
- **Coolie DAO **[released an update on its COOKIE-gated features and](https://x.com/cookiedotfun/status/1877823392013041966) [COOKIE's utility](https://x.com/cookiedotfun/status/1877823392013041966) 
- **Holoworld **[released its new agent launchpad on Solana](https://x.com/HoloworldAI/status/1878970992795742620)
- **Kasar **[introduced the Starknet Agent Kit](https://x.com/kasarLabs/status/1878433603337531471)
- **Khouba **[of Dolos Diary announced the launch of Zerebully, an NFT project where every holder will receive a share of revenue generated from Dolos](https://x.com/khouuba/status/1879625177165963771)
- **Neurobro **[updated its Whitepaper and revealed its roadmap](https://x.com/0xNeurobro/status/1877091421712220484)
- **Nifty Island** [announced a partnership with ARC](https://x.com/Nifty_Island/status/1879587739110170929)
- **Panter AI **[came out with a sneak peak of its copilot feature](https://x.com/PanterAIDAO/status/1879213446602084824)
- **Ronin **[collaborated with Virtuals to release its own agent, Jaihoz](https://x.com/Ronin_Network/status/1877668927700103597)
- **Vader AI's **[small cap DAO saw a 97% increase in value](https://x.com/Vader_AI_/status/1879651881112473698)
- **Wayfinder **[is expanding its alpha test](https://x.com/AIWayfinder/status/1879320741893591368)

### 📣 **General News**
- **Franklin Templeton **[released a report on AI Agents](https://x.com/FTDA_US/status/1879243076386095417)
- **Krea** [added support for turning images into 3D objects](https://x.com/krea_ai/status/1879929607320633870)
- **President Biden** [opened up federal land to AI data centers](https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/14/biden-administration-opens-up-federal-land-to-ai-data-centers/)

### 📚 **Reads**
- [What's Next for Crypto X Agents?](https://x.com/azternomic/status/1877787463130980369) - Azternomic
- [The Potential Future Market Size of Web3 Agents](https://x.com/DavidNage/status/1878442581794668769) - David Nage
- [DeFAI, chain abstraction & multi-agent interactions](https://x.com/0xrishabhai/status/1879441605578707205) - Rishabh Khurana
- [Dropping $7.5k to Source High-Quality Alpha](https://x.com/yb_effect/status/1878160122578600014) - YB

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