Latest Developments and Trend Analysis in the Web3 AI Field

In mid-July, the macroeconomic situation showed a positive trend, and the cryptocurrency market also warmed up accordingly. Bitcoin reached a historic high, and Ethereum broke the $3,000 mark again after many years. Ethereum's strong performance injected robust momentum into the "Ethereum beta" concept, driving a collective rise of mainstream tokens in the Ethereum mainnet and various Layer 2 ecosystems.

The massive inflow of institutional funds has driven a bullish sentiment for mainstream assets in the long term, but some investors remain cautious about the upcoming CPI and PPI data, as well as the Federal Reserve's stance on interest rate cuts in 2025. Notably, in this round of market movement, there is a more significant price correlation between Ethereum and altcoins (especially AI-related altcoins), which differs from the previous cycle where altcoins generally followed Bitcoin's trend.

Here are some important recent dynamics and trends worth paying attention to in the Web3 AI field:

1. The Transformation and Challenges of the Virtuals Ecosystem

Virtuals has achieved significant results in building an ecosystem, attracting over 50,000 investors to participate in AI agent token investments. Currently, Virtuals is shifting from its previous focus on trading to fully leveraging its large community, converting investors into product users.

The ACP (AI Communication Protocol) demonstrates great potential for core value.

• Project parties can directly reach over 50,000 users and achieve monetization on the first day.
• Users can find the desired products through the "Butler" agent tool and gain a ChatGPT-like interactive experience.

Virtuals is committed to optimizing the efficiency of ACP, improving task execution speed, and reducing AI errors. However, the biggest challenge currently faced is to develop a flagship product that meets the daily needs of users, which is a core application that can effectively solve real problems, offering high value and high user retention.

To this end, Virtuals may consider:

1. Integrate external teams into the ACP ecosystem
2. Create a more flexible issuance mechanism to break through the current fixed pricing model of $200,000.

If Virtuals can attract high-caliber teams to join and support the existing team (especially the core native team), it is likely to trigger the third wave of the Virtuals market. Currently, the price trend of $VIRTUAL shows obvious Ethereum beta characteristics.

2. TAO Performance Shines

In the past 7 days, the price of TAO has increased by 30%. This surge is attributed to the overall recovery of the market, the continuous increase in institutional adoption, and the benchmark effect of "AI Bitcoin". Some core subnets have rebounded off their lows, while others have strongly rebounded from key support levels.

Although it is currently difficult to determine whether we will see a second wave of the dTAO bull market, considering the current price levels, macro sentiment, institutional adoption trends, and the crypto treasury layout of TAO, now may be the right time to reassess the allocation of dTAO Alpha tokens.

3. Almanak Points Program Launch

As a leading team of trading agents with scalable infrastructure, Almanak has officially launched its points incentive program. The program will start on July 14 and end on September 21, with the token issuance also planned to take place in September.

Users can earn points rewards by performing EV operations (such as contributing to the treasury, deploying custom strategies, introducing more TVL locks) or by holding funds in the Almanak wallet.

Almanak is designed by the quant team for ordinary users, utilizing a hybrid model of AI agent clusters and smart contracts (ERC-7540) to build a verifiable and auditable AI infrastructure aimed at large funds and institutions (with a TVL exceeding $100 million).

In the coming months, we may witness the rapid emergence of AI tokenized vaults, which achieve intelligent asset operations in mainstream DeFi protocols by optimizing yields and implementing trading-based strategies. Almanak is expected to pioneer a new era of DeFAI agents, achieving fully autonomous operations through AI technology and directly passing DeFi value to end users.

4. StableAI Accelerates Layout, Promotes Widespread Application

USD.AI, as one of the leading participants in the GPU-supported stablecoin track, is still in the testing phase but has already gained market recognition. Currently, the total value locked (TVL) has exceeded 35 million USD, and recently, the first batch of ROCKCHIP RK3588 server staking services has been deployed, with an annual yield of up to 15%.

Project reserve fund allocation:

• 98% allocated to US Treasury assets, annualized return of 4.15%
• 2% annual yield through GPU staking loans at 15% APY

USD.AI is about to open its products to the public and may launch a points incentive program simultaneously.

5. Attention Capital Market Trends

Kaito and Cookie are planning the launch of the attention capital market. Users can determine the allocation of tokens in the project's pre-sale and public offering rounds by holding platform points and possibly staking tokens.

When KAITO and COOKIE begin to announce core partners or the first launched projects, their tokens may perform remarkably well.

6. Other Industry Dynamics

• The first v2 version of CreatorBid has launched the voting process, with market demand far exceeding supply.
• CODEC token shows strong performance, with AVA, COM, CDX, and BILLY exhibiting a robust recovery trend.
• The total market value of AI agents has once again surpassed the 10 billion dollar mark.

Summary

The current market environment is becoming increasingly healthy, with reduced noise and more focus on actual products and infrastructure construction. It seems we are entering a new builder's window period, preparing for the next wave of market trends. This is the best time for close observation and early planning.