Artificial intelligence agents need to prioritize their intrinsic utility, not the launch of their in-house native tokens to raise funds.
AI agent-related tokens have significantly declined over the past month, as their cumulative market capitalization decreased by over 21% to the current $27 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data.
While their continued decline may be part of the broader crypto market correction, another reason could be a lack of focus on intrinsic utility, according to Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
30-day market cap chart of AI agent tokens. Source: CoinMarketCap
Zhao wrote in a March 17 X post:
“While crypto is the currency for AI, not every agent needs its own token. Agents can take fees in an existing crypto for providing a service.”
“Launch a coin only if you have scale. Focus on utility, not tokens,” he added.
Source: Changpeng Zhao
Zhao’s comments come during a significant downtrend for AI cryptocurrencies, which lost over 61% of their peak $70.4 billion market capitalization in the three months since they started to decline on Dec. 7.
AI agent tokens, market cap, 1-year chart. Source: Coinmarketcap
Numerous venture capital firms, including Pantera Capital and Dragonfly, are excited about the future of AI agents but have yet to invest in them, according to a panel discussion at Consensus 2025 in Hong Kong.
Related: 0G Foundation launches $88M fund for AI-powered DeFi agents
AI agents are performing autonomous blockchain transactions, exchange services
AI agents are gaining increasing interest thanks to their promise of increasing online productivity, streamlining decision-making processes and creating new financial opportunities.
AI agents are already executing autonomous transactions on the blockchain without direct human input.
The concept gained attention following a Dec. 16 post by Luna, an AI agent on Virtuals Protocol, which sought image-generation services.
LUNA virtual protocol, X post. Source: Luna
Luna also received an X response from STIX Protocol, another autonomous AI agent, which generated the requested images.
LUNA payments to STIX protocol. Source: Basescan
After the images were generated, Luna paid STIX Protocol’s AI agent $1.77 worth of VIRTUAL tokens on Dec. 16, onchain data shows.
Yet, some of the demand for AI agents has since faded, as Virtuals Protocol’s revenue fell 97%, Cointelegraph reported on Feb. 28.
Related: Libra, Melania creator’s ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ memecoin crashes 99%
Industry watchers foresee a year of significant upside for the emerging field of AI cryptocurrencies.
AI agents launch platform ai16z and decentralized trading protocol Hyperliquid are “poised for growth in 2025,” Alvin Kan, chief operating officer of Bitget Wallet, told Cointelegraph. “Emerging narratives like AI-driven investments, decentralized AI agents and tokenized assets hint at a tech-driven shift, though with added risk,” he said.
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