However, Qureshi anticipates that the novelty surrounding AI agents will see a “sudden reversal” by 2026.
In a recent social media posting, Dragonfly Capital managing partner Haseeb Qureshi predicted that meme tokens will continue to lose market share this year to “AI agent” cryptos.
AI agent cryptos are typically projects that feature an AI-powered assistant akin to Chat GPT. Not long ago, the market capitalization for the top AI coins reached $49 billion.
The market cap for meme coins, such as Doge Coin (DOGE-USD) and Shiba Inu (SHIB-USD), was substantially greater at $120 billion in December. However, in a post on X, Qureshi suggested that the market cap of AI agent coins will continue to catch up with the market cap of meme coins.
The top AI agent tokens by market cap include Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL-USD), Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET-USD) and Zerebro (ZEREBRO-USD), according to coinmarketcap.com.
Qureshi’s X posting, which garnered over 365,000 views as of Friday morning, contains multiple predictions about this year’s cryptocurrency market.
Per Qureshi’s posting, the “‘AI agent’ craze will continue probably throughout 2025” but “will die off eventually”.
Qureshi contends that novelty will drive the market’s fascination with AI agents in 2025. “Right now, these chatbots are fascinating to us because they are so novel… I think this novelty and market eagerness continue throughout 2025. Crypto takes a while to get bored of the shiny thing,” he explains.
However, Qureshi anticipates that the novelty surrounding AI agents will see a “sudden reversal” by 2026.
Analysis: Understand the risks
It’s bold for Qureshi to provide a timeline for the hype-and-fall interest arc of AI agents and the cryptocurrencies representing them. Generally, it’s difficult to time the rise and fall of market trends such as this one.
For what it’s worth, Qureshi doesn’t seem to be averse to trading AI agent tokens and/or meme coins while the AI agent trend arc plays out. “In the meantime, sure, trade AI-flavored memecoins”, he proposes.
This suggestion comes with a warning, though. “But real agents are going to have a lot more impact than tweeting and pumping their own tokens”, Qureshi cautions.
His point is duly noted, and traders should understand the risks of AI agent tokens and meme coins. There are no guarantees that the AI agent trend will follow Qureshi’s expected timeline, so it’s wise to trade only small positions and be prepared to deploy an exit strategy.
