With the price of Solana (SOL 0.81%) falling to nearly $163 on Feb. 18, investors are right to assume it'll take a powerful cocktail of catalysts and new tailwinds to send its price back up toward $300. Something like a totally new category of cryptocurrency investments finding its home on the chain would probably do the trick.
And there's evidence that such a new category is emerging, with Solana as one of the quickly developing hotspots of activity within the segment. But what is this new trend, and is it investable? Let's dissect this trending group of projects and determine how it affects the case for buying Solana.
CRYPTO: SOL
Key Data Points
Mixing two hot concepts might be a winning recipe
Solana saw more than $6.2 billion in trading volume in the 24-hour period ending at roughly noon on Feb. 18. Given that it's the chain of choice for ill-fated investors to gamble on meme coins, that volume isn't too surprising. But it's also one of the leading chains in infrastructure projects for artificial intelligence (AI) on the blockchain, which is a relatively new segment of the cryptocurrency sector.
Such infrastructure projects aim to create automation-friendly interfaces that enable AI agents to hold capital, transact, and potentially even launch coins of their own. The catch is that there haven't really been any such AI agents with a demonstrated use case that would be sufficient to drive investors to buy Solana itself, at least not yet.
Nonetheless, there have been AI agents launched recently without a demonstrated use case -- which is to say, there are now AI agents that are essentially also meme coins. And that's the emerging segment that could drive huge returns to investors in Solana, even if it's a fairly frivolous endeavor.
With the advent of the Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL 1.92%) and other infrastructure coins that make it easy for developers to create new AI agents on the chain, as of early 2025, there are already a handful of AI agent meme coins, and their capabilities will probably surprise you.
Some agents (many of which are not launched from Virtuals) maintain 24/7 live streams with a digital avatar, interacting directly with any users via chat and soliciting tips in exchange for further interaction with or promotion of the user's project on social media. Others create rudimentary works of art, entertaining memes, and even music.
More than one of these AI agent projects has opted to launch additional meme coins to cash in on their own popularity. These capabilities will only get more advanced over time, though it's unclear exactly what the endgame is for the agents generating value for those who hold their tokens.
Excitingly for Solana holders, 1% of all trading fees incurred as a result of AI agents launched from Virtuals will be reinvested into Solana, which will provide some buying pressure for the coin over time. Other AI agent or AI infrastructure projects may opt for similar policies to ensure the chain benefits users directly, but it's too early to expect that just yet. If the category takes off aggressively in the near future, and it probably will, the tailwind for the chain will be even stronger.
CRYPTO: VIRTUAL
Key Data Points
Play this opportunity in the safest way for now
AI agent meme coins are a positive development for the Solana ecosystem, and they support part of the investment thesis that the coin will be a home for AI on the blockchain. But that doesn't mean you need to invest in them directly. Like all meme coins, they aren't investment grade, and there's a lot they would need to do to prove otherwise. They're simply too risky, and most see their prices trend toward zero promptly after launch.
Instead, the move here is to invest in Solana and hold it long enough for this trend to play out. A couple of years should do, but it's very possible that the coin's price will rise above $300 this year as well, thanks to a handful of positive tailwinds currently in play.
If AI agents with no defined purpose except to entertain humans continue to develop into a fully fledged category within cryptocurrency, right now, it looks like Solana would be the home for the majority of that activity. That will drive more demand for the coin directly in addition to community-friendly policies, like reinvesting the gains from AI agent coin trading volume.
There's no need to take big risks here. If the next Elvis Presley is an AI, you'll hear about it with more than enough time to invest and be early.
