Agentic AI platform ai16z’s native token has rallied following the project’s plans to launch its own Layer-1 blockchain.
ai16z (AI16Z) rose 38% to an all-time high of $1.77 on Dec. 31, while its market cap surged from $1.4 billion to past $1.9 billion at that time per data from crypto.news. The rally was fueled by heightened trading activity, with its daily volume doubling over the past day to $330 million.
Zooming out to its weekly and monthly charts, the gains were significantly higher at 156% and 383%, respectively, making it one of the best-performing assets among the top 100 cryptocurrencies during these periods.
Why did AI16Z soar today?
Several catalysts drove ai16z’s recent rally, with the standout being its plans to launch an open-source Layer-1 blockchain tailored for AI applications, marking a major step in its tokenomics revamp.
Additionally, the project will introduce a token launchpad in Q1 2025 Q1 2025, which would become the primary platform for deploying AI projects built on the Eliza framework—the project’s AI operating system.
The launchpad is expected to include features such as launch fees, staking requirements for access, and liquidity pool pairings to drive value to the ai16z token. The token will play a dual role, functioning both as a governance token within the DAO and as a utility token for platform activities.
Investor sentiment was further bolstered by Eliza, surpassing Google Gemini to become the world’s top AI repository on GitHub in December, as developers and contributors increasingly engaged with its codebase.
Strong market performance, combined with growing hype around AI agents, pushed the AI token to trend on Google and secure a top spot on CoinGecko.
Increased whale accumulation over the past week also helped extend the AI crypto’s rally.
According to a Dec. 31 X post by Lookonchain, two wallets likely owned by the same whale have purchased 2.62 million of AI16Z tokens for 22,641 SOL worth around $4.34 million following the recent developments surrounding ai16z.
Additionally, another whale acquired 1.19 million AI16Z tokens for 1.65 million USDC at an average price of $1.39 per token.
Some of the big players are already sitting on massive profits. A few weeks earlier, a separate whale made a profit of $5.66 million after spending 10 million USDC to purchase 13.16 million AI16Z tokens, which later appreciated to a value of $15.66 million.
Additionally, demand for ai16z among derivatives traders has jumped massively over the past day. According to data from CoinGlass, the open interest in ai16z’s futures market has risen by a massive 256% to over $22.5 million at press time.
Such a sharp upward move typically means traders are highly confident about the current rally’s potential to persist.
According to some market experts, ai16z could surpass other AI heavyweights like Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL). Daniel Cheung, a partner at crypto VC Syncracy Capital, projects that recent developments have positioned ai16z to surpass VIRTUAL, the largest AI agent creation tool by market cap.
At the time of writing, VIRTUAL had a market cap of $3.68 billion, while ai16z stood at $1.79 billion.