With their explosive gains, meme coins have transformed the fortunes of many investors virtually overnight. However, their dominance in the market is under threat.
According to Dragonfly Capital managing partner Haseeb Qureshi, meme coins will lose market share to “AI agent” coins. Qureshi described this shift as a migration from “financial nihilism to financial over-optimism.”
Rise of AI Agent Tokens
In his recent post on X, Qureshi said that meme coins, known for their reliance on internet culture and speculative appeal, are being overshadowed by AI-themed tokens linked to autonomous systems or chatbots. While these “AI agents” are currently rudimentary and often rely on human intervention so that it doesn’t go “off the rails,” they are attracting attention due to the public’s growing fascination with artificial intelligence.
Qureshi stated that the buzz around AI agent coins comes from their perceived utility and the trend of using AI in different industries. However, he is skeptical about their long-term success, predicting that interest will fade as the novelty wears off and the technological limitations become clearer.
“Right now these chatbots are fascinating to us because they are so novel. It’s like seeing an elephant paint. The first time you see it, you don’t really care that the painting is not very good – it’s spectacular to see. But the 1000th time, the novelty wears thin. I believe that will start to happen as these chatbots plateau.”
By 2026, he expects market sentiment to shift, wherein users would possibly favor human-led projects over AI-driven ones. While AI agent coins may dominate attention in 2025, he warns that their impact could be temporary, driven more by hype than substantive advancements.
AI Meme Coins Surpass $10B Market Cap
On January 2, AI meme coins collectively reached a market value of over $10 billion, as per CoinGecko, as it increased by more than 26% in the past 24 hours alone. During the same period, the trading volumes hit $2.46 billion. ai16z topped the charts with almost a $2.66 billion market cap, while Fartcoin and Zerebro followed suit with $1.3 billion and $770 million in value, respectively.
The growth comes after last month’s slump as December saw an $18% drop in the meme coin sector, with its value falling from a $137 billion high on December 9 to a little over $98 billion at month’s end. Scams and rug pulls were key factors in the $40 billion loss.
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