Original Author: S4mmyEth, Moca Network Researcher
Original Translation: zhouzhou, BlockBeats

Editor's Note: This article analyzes the dynamics between AI agents and the crypto market, pointing out that despite the market downturn, AI agent technology is still rapidly advancing. Companies like Deepseek and Qwen have introduced competitive models, driving market changes. DeFAI, as a future hot topic, is expected to become a regular business in DeFi. Later this year, with the deployment of more advanced agents and DeFAI solutions, a larger AI bubble is expected to emerge, leading to a significant increase in market capitalization.

The following is the original content (reorganized for better readability):

The trade war has had a significant impact on the entire crypto market, and AI agents have not been spared. Does this mean an opportunity for the disruption of virtual products and the rise of value-driven agent products?

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Weekly AI Agent Analysis: Influence and Market Value

3. AI Agent Development: Innovation and Market Disruptors

4. More AI News Highlights

Introduction

Artificial Intelligence dropped by 34% (9% decrease from last week) but remains the dominant focus of attention, with continued industry growth laying a solid foundation:

This week has been a significant blow to the entire crypto market, and AI agents have not been spared, with the previous week's agent market capitalization evaporating by 42%. However, I believe this is only a short-term fluctuation, as capital is temporarily disconnected from fundamentals—interactions with builders in this space reveal a sense of more breakthroughs to come, especially in the DeFAI field.

Artificial Intelligence is a macro trend that is destined to disrupt every industry and will not go away. The U.S. plans to invest $500 billion in AI infrastructure through the StarNet program over the next 5 years, while the European Union has committed 10% of that amount.

However, is a huge budget necessary to compete?

Deepseek and Qwen were able to produce an LLM comparable to ChatGPT's O1 model at a lower cost, forcing OpenAI to release the O3 model and its related agent, "Deep Research."

Regarding the current AI agents in the crypto market: CookieDOTFUN has documented 1,387 AI agents with a total market value of $7.7 billion.

This added 14 agents on Cookie (a 1% increase), but the overall market value decreased by $5.6 billion (a 42% decrease) (last week's data provided below for reference):

Within this $5.6 billion loss in market value, some agents have shown more resilience, with some even rebounding, prompting us to conduct a more detailed analysis.

Weekly AI Agent Analysis

Due to the ongoing tariff wars and the uncertainty caused by Deepseek, the overall market saw a heightened pullback, leading to shifts in the top AI agents vying for attention:

The well-known "elephant" is VVV, which experienced a significant pullback following a controversial release, further exacerbated by a broader market decline.

For daily analysis, you can directly refer to my X account, where I provide real-time market insights:

January 28th – "Open Source Everything" - Jack (Dorsey)

February 3 - "Now that this [AI] model is fully open source, we expect to see a significant improvement worldwide" - hosseeb

Alternatively, you can also listen to my daily AI agent summaries, available on Spotify and Amazon Music.

AI Agent Development: Innovation and Market Disruptors

January 28 - Deepseek has produced an LLM comparable to the ChatGPT O1 model, but at a fraction of the cost. This has led to a decline in the U.S. stock market, particularly NVIDIA's GPU stock price, as competitive models can now be produced at a lower computational cost.

January 29 - Jack Dorsey launched the agent "Goose," further promoting the open-source idea and competing with more closed-source models.

January 30 - shawmakesmagic discussed ElizaOS and open-source AI development on CNBC and other news channels.

January 31 - Qwen from Alibaba entered the market, claiming its quality surpasses that of Deepseek. The progress of these models will enhance the output effectiveness of agents using them.

February 1 - Cookie revealed the underlying "collective thinking" of its agent, demonstrating how its agent group makes decisions - all agents contribute information to Agent Cookie, utilizing extensive LLMs to optimize solutions.

February 2 - As the market experiences a downturn, it is worth noting that agents will not disappear. The genie is out of the bottle, and it won't go back in. Video from FomoRadio.

February 3 - OpenAI responded to Qwen and Deepseek by introducing an upgraded agent (Deep Research) to further enhance agent output, especially after Deepseek gained market share.

Broader AI News Summary

·The launch of DeepSeek led to a massive sell-off of US tech stocks and AI stocks, demonstrating the market's concerns over AI cost reduction.

·NousResearch introduced Nous Psyche, a project aimed at decentralized AI development, based on Solana, focusing on collaborative training and reasoning.

·The founder of Pippin launched Agent Fund, a venture capital fund that provides funding for AI agent applications, infrastructure, and tools.

·StoryProtocol announced Emergenceverse, a blockchain-based franchise project involving AI agent participation.

·Nillion Network integrated the DeepSeek R1-14B model into its private network to enhance privacy protection.

·Hyperbolic Labs partnered with Nexus to provide GPU support, advancing ZK technology.

·Nesa.org launched a fully encrypted inference API using Equivariant Encryption.

·Prime Intellect released TOPLOC, enhancing verifiable reasoning in decentralized computing protocols.

·GizaTech completed over 11,500 autonomous trades using its revenue-optimizing robot ARMA.

·Thirdweb introduced Nebula for Unity, allowing game developers to integrate on-chain agents into games.

·Privasea.ai launched the second-phase testnet, incentivizing users through AI computation to earn token rewards.

·Virtuals.io expands to Solana, unveils new partnerships and initiatives.

·Youmio_ai collaborates with Virtuals_io to integrate an AI agent into a 3D environment.

·Chromia launches EVAL, a tool to assess other AI agents on its platform.

·DriftProtocol integrates with the Solana Agent Kit, providing on-chain transaction capability.

·0G_labs introduces the ERC-7857 standard to represent AI agents as NFTs.

·Autonolas announces the launch of Modius, a DeFAI agent for asset management.

·ThinkAgents releases their agent standard whitepaper, enhancing on-chain agent interoperability.

·Due to a market cap drop, Venice's VVV token airdrop faces controversy.

·ai16zdao rebrands to ElizaOS.

·Bittensor's dTAO upgrade is set for mid-February.

·Modenetwork launches a subnet on Bittensor for cryptocurrency price prediction.

Conclusion

While the market may be in a downturn, innovation has not ceased. Many hackathons are ongoing; Coinbase just concluded, with BitMindAI winning the Best Infrastructure award.

Stay tuned for more updates from cookiedotfun, openservai, and seedifyfund; some innovative solutions will emerge in the process of nurturing the agent ecosystem.

DeFAI is a hot topic at the moment, referring to AI integrated into the DeFi tech stack, driving autonomous trading; borrowing words from danielesesta—DeFAI is inevitable.

Complexity will be fully abstracted, and by the end of this year, DeFAI will become mainstream business as usual (BAU) for DeFi. Binance's initial report indicates that by the end of 2025, the market cap of DeFAI will reach $10 billion, which is ten times the current valuation.

Price movement is currently disconnected from the underlying technology due to fluctuations between expectations and reality. I anticipate a larger AI bubble later this year as the next wave of more powerful agents and DeFAI solutions go into production.

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