The native token of Virtuals Protocol, the artificial intelligence and metaverse project that’s among hottest in the market amid rise of AI agents, rose to a new all-time high on Dec. 16.

Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) price hit $2.96 across major crypto exchanges to record a new all-time. The project, which offers an AI agent Launchpad on layer-2 platform Base, spiked as Bitcoin (BTC) smashed past $106,000.

However, its gains came as the market continued to pay attention to AI-powered autonomous software. AI agents are the new buzz since Terminal of Truths hit millionaire status as the first agentic account on X, with its posts about Goateus Maximus (GOAT) sending the meme coin parabolic.

Virtuals Protocol’s surge comes as AI agents take the bots game as we know it to the next level. Massive and viral interaction with protocols, apps and other agents, has related tokens skyrocketing. The Virtuals Protocol project is a co-ownership layer for AI agents. Launchpad users can create AI agents with new tokens or leverage ecosystem ones.

The VIRTUAL token began to skyrocket last week, with multiple catalysts including the listing announcement from crypto exchange OKX.

On Dec. 11, OKX announced VIRTUAL/USDT perpetual futures. On Dec. 16, layer 1 decentralized crypto trading platform Hyperliquid announced it added Virtuals Protocol, allowing investors to long or short VIRTUAL. The platform offers up to 5x leverage. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, has also added support for VIRTUAL futures trading.

According to data from Coinglass, open interest in VIRTUAL has spiked more than 45% in the past 24 hours to over $107 million. VIRTUAL token’s price has rocketed 426% in the past month and more than 14,500% since touching the all-time low of $0.02018 on July 5, 2024.