Cryptocurrency investors who dismissed the artificial intelligence hype may leave the bag as their prices fall and smart currency investors sell.
Virtual Protocol (BIRTHDAY), one of the best performing cryptocurrencies in 2024, has fallen below $3 after a 43% drop from this year's peak.
Likewise, ai16z (AI16Z), the third largest Solana (SOL) dog meme, has fallen more than 50% from its January high. Together, the brands have lost more than $2 billion in market value.
While this fall is free at the same time as the continuation crypto crash, a closer look at their chain metrics shows that smart money investors and profit leaders have started selling their positions.
Ai16z Profit Leaders Sell Tokens
According to Nansen, the most profitable ai16z trader made more than $39 million. This person basically sold all of their tokens.
Similarly, the third most profitable trader made $19 million and sold almost all of his tokens at a huge profit.
While most profitable traders still hold their ai16z signals, many have sold most of their profits to take profits.
Another important data from Nansen shows that smart money investors have also missed their cues. There are now just 80 ai16z smart currency investors with 934 million tokens.
There were 124 of these investors with more than 1.24 billion tokens in December. Nansen defines smart money investors as those who build a long history in the crypto industry (Bitcoin was first mined in 2009, marking the first decentralized cryptocurrency).
VIRTUAL price drops as big leaders sell
The same sale has happened for the VIRTUAL token as most of their profit leaders have sold their tokens. LVT Capital, the most profitable investor with more than $5.5 million in profits, has sold all its holdings, generating a 4,082% return on investment. Many more VIRTUAL investors have also left, while smart money investors have sold.
This investment behavior is common in the crypto and stock market industries. Many retail investors succumb to the fear of missing out (FOMO) when an indicator begins to go parabolic. Original investors sell, and many are left holding the bag.
A good example is the recent performance of many of the most popular meme coins, such as PNUT, GOAT, Mother Iggy, and Kekius Maximus. As the chart below shows, these indicators first went up and then went down when the hype ended.
AI agent signals have been hyped in recent months as the topic of artificial intelligence has continued to flourish.
Studies show that the AI agent industry is growing and that there is more room to go soon. One of these reports predicts that the industry will be valued at $5.29 billion in 2024 and have a compound annual growth rate of 40% through 2035.
Virtuals Protocol hosts hundreds of projects like GAME, which has a market cap of $212 million, aixbt with a valuation of $411 million, and Luna's $65.2 million.
