DeFAI and AI Agents Lead as Altcoins Rebound

AI Agents and the DeFAI (DeFi x AI) category are the strongest performers over the last 48 hours, leading the market bounce.

Bitcoin has recovered after a sharp selloff to $89,000 on Jan 13 and is currently trading at $99,000, an 11% rally off the low.

Among altcoins, AI infrastructure tokens such as VIRTUAL and AI16z are up 30% and 20% in the last 24 hours, while DeFAI leaders GRIFFAIN and ANON are up 28% and 17% in the same period.

In addition to the infrastructure and platform tokens, specific agents are also catching a bid, with AIXBT up over 40% in 24 hours to a new all-time high fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $900 million.

DeFAI is a subsector of the AI Agent token category that took off in Q4 2024, focusing specifically on integrating AI agents into DeFi and portfolio management. The true valuation of DeFAI is difficult to quantify, as previously existing projects plan on expanding into the space, but CoinGecko has the category currently boasting a $3 billion valuation.

The most recent launch that could be considered DeFAI is MOBY, a portfolio management and AI copilot created by AssetDash, which launched on PumpFun on Jan. 13 and skyrocketed to a $60 million valuation in less than 24 hours.

In the agents space, competing frameworks are looking to catch up to market leaders Virtual and Ai16z, with ARC, a Rust-based AI agent framework, bouncing strongly off its local bottom of $190 million on Jan 13 and rallying as high as $480 million.