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Virtual Protocol: From AI Powerhouse to $500-a-Day–What Went Wrong?
A few months ago, Virtual Protocol was flying up the charts. Its AI agent technology, previously estimated at billions of dollars, was gaining traction by allowing users to quickly build and market artificial intelligence-powered agents. Now, it’s April, and things have changed dramatically; the revenue is now only $500 per day, and the platform token is now down by over 90% of its previous peak.
A Dramatic Fall
Based on Blockworks researcher Sharples, it’s been nearly one week since the first new AI agent was introduced on Virtuals. This is a stark contrast from November of last year, when the platform was adding more than 1,000 agents per day. This was driven by the ever-growing excitement of the AI and crypto-related communities.
On January 2, it was a brighter day. The token that is native to the platform VIRTUAL reached a record of $4.61 as well and daily revenues reached over $500,000 as per Blockworks statistics. This moment appears to mark the highest point in the AI agent buzz period. A late-January expansion up to Solana was not enough to reverse the trend.
On April 7, it was a grim time. The Virtuals earned just $500 per day in earnings, and the price of tokens dropped to $0.42.
The Bigger Picture: AI Agent Sector Struggles
Virtuals isn’t just the one platform that is under pressure. The overall AI agent marketplace is decreasing. Based on Dune Analytics, the total market value of AI agents has risen to $153.81 million. This includes nearly 50% of that–$76.6 million–linked to AIXBT. An instrument used to analyze social media trends about X (formerly Twitter).
However, AIXBT isn’t faring as well. It’s fallen by a staggering 92% from its previous record high of $0.90. The stock is at $0.07 as per CoinMarketCap.
Why the Sudden Decline?
Many factors have contributed various factors have contributed to Virtual’s decline. The market has experienced a significant reduction in the past several months, owing to the huge market for global finance and crypto, which is now uncertain. The tariffs argument and, particularly the measures taken by the Trump administration have generated concerns of a recession.
There may be inner factors to consider. According the DeGen Capital’s Mardo, Virtuals may be harming their ecosystem itself because it is not paying token taxes, which other platforms generally give to their developers. It is likely to discourage builders from building and launching agents for Virtuals.
Are AI agents overly hyped?
A few in the AI community say that the whole idea of AI agents being hyped is wrong from the outset.”ChatGPT wrappers are not cool anymore,” said BitDuke Grandly, furthering the recent common crusade in the AI community that says the AI agents of the present moment are not useful at all. A prominent speaker in the field, DHH, added: “You’re delusional if you think any AI agent is full-on replacing a great programmer today.”
But, there aren’t many who are dismissing this technology. Infinex CEO Kain Warwick recently stated that even though this “first version of AI slop agents” has been found to be unproductive, it is possible for the industry to grow and then rebound.
What’s Next?
As of now, it appears that Virtual Protocol is facing a long and difficult journey ahead. The ability to change direction and innovate, or survive the storm, is to be judged. There’s one thing that’s for certain: initially, the hype surrounding cryptocurrency-powered AI systems has subsided as investors and builders are looking for more than shiny tokenomics or elegant interfaces.
