Whales are returning to pick up AI agent tokens

Whale buyers are returning to pick up AI agent tokens. The AI agent sector has not fully recovered, but smart money investors are showing signs of accumulation.

Whale buyers are paying attention to AI agent tokens again. Analysts noted smart money was moving into formerly hot assets, buying near the recent lows. Smart money flowed more actively into the leading AI agent tokens, starting with VIRTUAL and returning to the AI meme FARTCOIN. Data by Nansen shows a diverse selection of trending new agents and established tokens.

Smart Money’s been busy in the last 24 hours — here’s what’s on their radar: pic.twitter.com/EcYFvest1H

— Nansen ? (@nansen_ai) March 3, 2025

Most of the established AI agent tokens are flashing a ‘leading’ indicator as of March 3, signaling a return of the trend. At the same time, the overall space of AI agents with a wider token basket shows a lagging indicator. The AI agent narrative was the weakest in the past 24 hours, showing that buyers and inflows were trying to accumulate promising tokens, but without rushing with expectations of fast gains.

The AI agent token narrative was lagging in the past 24 hours, but inflows remained strong as smart money accumulated promising tokens. | Source: Dune Analytics

The Virtuals ecosystem slowed down, with fewer individual agents trading. Very few new pairs are created, in a slowdown similar to meme tokens. On the other hand, VIRTUAL was again traded as a proxy for the whole space.

VIRTUAL is hovering around $0.96, awaiting recovery from its current range and a potential attempt at recovering previous highs. VIRTUAL itself had a 2.96% mindshare among other AI agents. Currently, older agents from the Virtuals Protocol ecosystem are successful, but new launches are rare.

AI agent tokens stage a small recovery

As a whole, the AI agent token sector is valued at above $6B, down from its peak of over $17B in total market capitalization. At this stage, some of the assets like Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) are over 75% down from their peak, entering another accumulation stage.

Based on Nansen’s data, VIRTUAl sees the biggest net inflows, close to $500K in 24 hours. AI agent tokens are still trading at a relatively smaller scale, displaced by the recent meme wave and other narratives. Smart engagement counted more than 6.7K wallets, slightly lower than the inflow of March 2.

Smart money inflows are already reaching FARTCOIN, as well as SWARMS, based on data by Alphanomics. Retail traders on DEX are also returning to VIRTUAL. The biggest inflows reached forgotten memes like UFD and returned to DeFAI token ANON.

At this point in the market, the inflows are relatively small and tentative, not signaling another mania. However, both retail and smart money are trying to buy the dip and accumulate, in expectation of a return to existing tokens.

AI agents become a part of crypto content

The AI agent sector moved beyond the meme phase, offering utility and social media engagement. AIXBT remains the leading AI agent, providing social media screening, engagement, analysis, and signals. Social media presence and mindshare are often linked to price performance. In addition to being an influential crypto account on X, AIXBT is also the most widely traded token, with the biggest inflows and outflows. AIXBT traded at $0.18, despite the project’s high visibility, expecting a potential return and a price breakout.

AIXBT is also near the top in social media mindshare, while VIRTUAL remains a market cap leader and the most liquid token. FARTCOIN currently expanded its mindshare, potentially showing a return to its old narrative as a cult token. The token reached 7.26% mindshare among all other AI agent tokens.

AI agents also retain their presence in the Solana ecosystem. More than $2.5B in value is locked in Solana-based agent tokens. Base carries $1.7B in agents, with another $1.7B in other networks. AI agents are one of the sectors where Ethereum never gained primacy, leaving that role to Solana.

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