The native token of Agentic AI platform ai16z became a roaring bull, increasing 38% from its value of Dec. 31 to a new all time high of $1.77. As such, the project’s market cap has surged past $1.9 billion after rallying, up from $1.4 billion just days ago. Trading activity, which has doubled to $330 million a day, is driving the spike in ai16z’s value, data indicates.
While the gains on the daily chart are impressive, they are not the only ones. In fact, ai16z has soared 383 percent in the past month and an incredible 156 percent in the past week, to make it one of the best performing assets on the top 100 cryptocurrencies.
To say that ai16z’s recent rally was the result of its news that it’s bringing out an open source Layer 1 blockchain especially for AI applications, is an understatement. This will be a significant step forward on the tokenomics of the platform and puts ai16z at the forefront in the world of AI.
ai16z Launchpad to Boost Token Value and Utility
Aside from the blockchain launch, ai16z is also looking to introduce a token launchpad in Q1 2025. It will be the primary platform of putting an AI project, built based on the Eliza framework (ai16z’s own proprietary AI OS), out on a launchpad.
Features of the launchpad will be launch fees, staking needs to access, and liquidity pool pairings that will all add value to ai16z token. The token will be a dual purpose token, meaning it will be governance token within the platform’s DAO, but also a utility token used within the platform activities.
Recent developments relating to the AI repository, Eliza, built by ai16z has also been further fuelling investor sentiment. By December, Eliza had become the world’s biggest AI repository by greater than Google Gemini on GitHub. Taking into account the success that ai16z has been having recently, this milestone has attracted attention from developers and the contributors, which has helped ai16z get even more exposure into the market.
Certainly, the popularity of AI agents has fostered ai16z’s performance. It has been trending on Google & CoinGecko itself, adding momentum to the booming hype about the AI-powered technologies.
There has been a notable trend on the rise: Crypto whales are accumulating more and more ai16z. Blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain said two wallets, presumably belonging to the same whale, bought 2.62 million AI16Z tokens for around $4.34 million on Dec. 31. In addition, another whale bought 1.19 million AI16Z tokens for 1.65 million USDC at a mean price of $1.39 per token.
But some whales have already made a killing off their investments. A whale that spent $10 million USDC to buy 13.16 million AI16Z tokens saw those tokens appreciate to $15.66 million, for a net profit of $5.66 million in another transaction.
Input also indicates growing interest in ai16z in the derivative market. CoinGlass data shows that ai16z’s futures market open interest on the token has jumped 256% from $7.6 million to more than $22.5 million, reflecting huge investor faith that its rally continues.
The good news is that market experts are enthusiastic about the future of ai16z and have mentioned that it could soon outstrip other AI-focused tokens like the Virtuals Protocol. According to Daniel Cheung, a partner at crypto VC Syncracy Capital, ai16z’s recent developments make it well positioned to take the lead out of Virtuals Protocol, the current leader in the space of creating AI agents based on market cap.
Virtuals Protocol currently has a market cap of $3.68 billion, and ai16z’s is $1.79 billion at the time of writing. With the imminent blockchain and launchpad initiatives for ai16z, it is able to become a major player in the AI and cryptocurrency markets in the year ahead.
