Protocols leveraging the x402 standard are soaring, while the Virtuals ecosystem mounts a comeback.
The small-cap coin trenches have been struggling since the TRUMP memecoin launch in January, but there are renewed signs of life in the artificial intelligence (AI) coin space, driven by the Virtuals ecosystem and the rise of x402 protocols.
VIRTUAL is up 84% over the last week, and leading coins in its ecosystem, such as TIBBIR and AIXBT, are up 27% and 54% in the same timeframe, likely catalyzed by Coinbase providing its users access to all Virtuals-based AI agent tokens on Oct. 24.
Virtuals led Base activity to all-time highs during the AI agent craze of 2024, when its token rallied more than 10,000% to $5 in January 2025 from just $0.04 in October 2024. The token has since retraced alongside the rest of the altcoin market and currently changes hands at $1.46.
x402 Protocols Skyrocket
The excitement is also being fueled by the rise of x402 protocols, which enable AI agent payment systems and increase the practicality of agentic AI-led finance. Coinbase’s x402 is leading the charge, alongside PayAI, whose token is up 2000% over the last month as a result.
Total x402 transactions are also exploding, with their cumulative count surging to 1.51 million today from just 60,000 at the beginning of October, according to Dune Analytics.
Further out on the risk curve, vintage AI agent tokens from 2024 are also rebounding as traders speculate on a renewed bid for projects that are able to adapt to the x402 meta.
DeFi0xJeff on X, a former researcher at The Spartan Group, published an x402 thesis on X over the weekend, where he said, “Although it’s going to take a while for the x402 stack to get built out, the AI agent narrative is back — AI agent ecosystem leaders are recovering their losses and smaller AI agent plays are rebounding 200-1000%+ during the past week.”
“Similar to the previous run, this run up is mostly fueled by speculation from the x402 memecoin trench side of things. Most of these agent plays won’t be able to sustain their gains. Only some whose products are fleshed out or close to the commercialization stage will survive,” he concluded.
