A Comparison of New and Old AI Concept Coins: Chasing the Morning Sun Once Again Before the Dusk Sets in

Author: Wenser, Odaily Planet Daily

At the CES 2025 in the United States on January 7, Jensen Huang, the founder of Nvidia and a leading figure in the AI industry, stated: "AI Agents are expected to become the next robotics industry, with a market scale of trillions of dollars." Although the audience at the event reacted lukewarmly to this bold claim, the crypto industry has long since bought into AI Agents—tokens related to AI Agents such as VIRTUAL, ai16z, and swarms have become some of the few focal points of attention in the recent market, and their price trends have performed notably better than the overall market; in contrast, many established AI concept projects, such as FET, WLD, and ARKM, have recently appeared somewhat desolate, with their price performances significantly down from their highs.

Odaily Planet Daily will conduct a comparative analysis of new and old AI concept tokens in this article, providing a glimpse into market trends.

Status of New and Old AI Concept Tokens: AI Agent Tokens in High Demand, AI Concept Tokens Encountering Coldness

From a market perspective, AI Agent tokens represented by VIRTUAL, ai16z, and swarms are undoubtedly the most eye-catching projects at present. Compared to AI concept tokens like FET, WLD, and ARKM, the former not only integrates the AI concept but also presents a more grand narrative, lower participation barriers, and greater expected returns. Upon closer examination, I personally believe the reasons mainly include the following aspects:

Market Inertia of Favoring the New Over the Old: New Cars Attract More Attention, Old Cars Are Too Heavy

As an industry that operates 24/7, the cryptocurrency market's enthusiasm for new hotspots and technologies can be said to be a common trait, leading to the practice of "favoring the new over the old" in token trading: for market retail investors and the crypto community, compared to the "old AI coins" that have a large number of buyers, concentrated chip distribution, and a wide range of trapped groups, the new coins related to AI Agents are undoubtedly more attractive—lower entry barriers, whether in terms of the price of a single token or the overall market capitalization, provide more opportunities to get involved with AI Agent tokens.

More Attractive Narratives: AI Agents Are Far More Engaging Than "Riding the AI Concept"

From the narrative perspective, which is the most discussed in the cryptocurrency industry, events such as issuing tokens, trading tokens, and interacting with fans on social media related to AI Agents are undoubtedly more interesting, fun, and conducive to discussion than trying to "hard shape" a serious project to ride the AI concept.

With the emergence of Truth Terminal (GOAT), the cryptocurrency industry has essentially opened a Pandora's box for AI Agents, liberating the power of AI in ways that many had not previously anticipated, endowing cryptocurrency with a stronger technological attribute, futuristic quality, and a narrative with greater imaginative space—AI Agents in the crypto field can do more than just help humans produce content; they also have the potential to directly participate in human social and economic activities and currency transactions.

Differences in Project Roadmaps: Teams, Technologies, and Development Directions Vary Greatly

In terms of project development roadmaps, the current AI Agent and token projects exhibit certain differences compared to the established AI concept token projects.

On the team level, AI Agent and token projects are often backed by independent developers in their early stages. On one hand, AI and AI Agents provide developers and even ordinary people with a lower-cost, lower-barrier development path; on the other hand, relatively independent developers can respond more quickly to market hotspots and adjust project directions based on market feedback, with lower decision-making and optimization iteration costs, which aligns more with the "grassroots" positioning. In contrast, established AI concept projects often start with mature teams that have grand missions and visions, aiming to attract high-value investments through grand narratives, with project development measured in years and being more accountable to investors rather than originating from the community. For example, FET (Fetch.ai) is a typical case, having raised $5 million in March 2021 and $40 million in March 2023, and being the second crowdfunding project issued through Binance IEO, which can be seen as a product of top-tier resources.

On the technology level, previous AI concept token projects tended to view technology as a tool and packaging, emphasizing practical use cases and user scenarios, but the actual business implementation was often far from AI, creating a strong sense of distance from users; whereas the current AI Agent and token projects are relatively more straightforward, with their technological origins rooted in the AI technology that has emerged after a technological explosion, making the understanding barrier lower and the technological extensibility stronger, allowing users to personally engage in practical operations, with user education on technology being more direct and in-depth.

In terms of development direction, established AI concept token projects emphasize building the future digital economy with AI, which sounds more like "pie in the sky," with limited relevance to market and user interests; while AI Agent and token projects not only have specific visual images for users to interact with, but also offer more direct token trading, whether for speculative trading or social media interaction, better satisfying market demands.

In summary, AI Agent token projects, including VIRTUAL, ai16z, and swarms, resemble meme coins dressed in AI clothing; while AI concept tokens, including FET, WLD, and ARKM, are closer to the "VC coin" concept, being more distant from the community, with meme attributes vastly different from the former, making it difficult to compare their discussion levels with the newly emerging hotspots of AI Agents and their underlying tokens and developers, naturally drifting further away from value discovery.

Overview of Established AI Concept Tokens: Projects Progressing Steadily, Token Deflation, Dumping, and Unlocking Vary

Despite the relatively flat market performance, various established AI concept token projects have still made varying degrees of progress recently. Here are the specific updates:

FET: 5 Million Tokens to Be Burned on January 10

The project behind FET, the Artificial Superintelligence Alliance, announced on January 5 that it plans to burn 5 million FET tokens on January 10, creating deflationary pressure within its ecosystem. This milestone is also part of its roadmap's ASI Train model.

Perhaps the heat in the AI sector has made it difficult for FET to remain indifferent, necessitating efforts to garner more market attention for token performance and project development.

WLD: Project Progressing Steadily, Token Transfers Ongoing

Worldcoin previously launched Worldchain and introduced the new World ID Passport Credential last November, currently piloting in countries such as Chile, Colombia, Malaysia, and South Korea. The World ID credential allows individuals to link valid forms of ID (starting with NFC-enabled passports) to their World ID without sharing any information with TFH, the World Foundation, or any other third party. Meanwhile, the World Foundation is providing WLD tokens to individuals with valid World ID passport credentials.

Additionally, according to an email from Worldcoin to users, the number of participants in the Worldcoin community has reached 20 million. Regarding the tokens, in early December last year, according to monitoring by Pie Shield, an Alameda-marked address transferred approximately 5 million WLD (worth about $16 million) to addresses 0xd9C4 and 0xEF90.

ARKM: Platform Functionality Updates, Derivatives Exchange Promotion Ongoing

Once gaining significant attention from numerous crypto KOLs in the Chinese community due to its "previous indifference, now unattainable" stance, Arkham continues to cultivate its blockchain data analysis platform. On January 6, according to an official announcement, Arkham introduced a new Market Data page, supporting users in tracking important token data for spot, futures, and options products across multiple CEXs.

Last November, Arkham officially announced the launch of the derivatives exchange ARKHAM PERPETUALS EXCHANGE, followed by the introduction of a trading points system (ARKHAM EXCHANGE POINTS) to encourage users to trade and earn points. Subsequently, the official account has made efforts to drive registrations through multiple tweets on the X platform, but the results so far have been minimal.

For the platform, attracting new users remains the top priority.

Market Overview: Established AI Tokens Have Experienced Historical Declines of Up to 81%

As of the time of writing, the market performance of representative "established AI concept tokens" is as follows:

• FET is currently priced at $1.35, with a 24-hour decline of 13.11%, a historical high of $3.48, and a historical decline of approximately 61.5%; market capitalization is currently reported at $3.54 billion.
• WLD is currently priced at $2.27, with a 24-hour decline of 13.21%, a historical high of $11.96, and a historical decline of approximately 81%; market capitalization is currently reported at $1.96 billion.
• ARKM is currently priced at $1.40, with a 24-hour decline of 15.98%, a historical high of $2.70, and a historical decline of approximately 48%; market capitalization is currently reported at $468 million.

Meanwhile, the market capitalization of AI Agent-related tokens has been on the rise, currently stabilizing at key nodes. According to Coingecko data:

• VIRTUAL is currently priced at $3.59, with a market capitalization of approximately $3.59 billion.
• ai16z is currently priced at $1.83, with a market capitalization of around $2 billion.
• swarms is currently priced at $0.35, with a market capitalization of around $350 million.

To some extent, in terms of market performance and discussion levels, AI Agent-related token projects have become equally noteworthy.

Conclusion: Can Old Trees Bloom Again? It Depends on the Response of Established Projects

In conclusion, we can only make a phased judgment that established AI concept token projects are temporarily lagging behind the latest hotspots of AI Agent token projects; whether these established projects can rejuvenate, find new growth points, and regain market attention largely depends on their follow-up and iteration on new technologies, new routes, and new hotspots.

If they remain indifferent, everything will come to an end; if they strive to catch up, perhaps there will be different results and answers.