Crypto Market Weekly Report: The AI sector continues to heat up, and market confidence is gradually recovering

Market Overview

This week, the crypto market has shown signs of recovery, with the market sentiment index rising from 10% to 19%. Although it is still in the panic zone, it has shown a trend of improvement. Despite the fact that market liquidity has not fully recovered during the New Year holiday, funds have begun to gradually flow back. Overall, Altcoins are performing better than the market, but it is expected that they will remain in sync with the market in the short term.

The total locked value of DeFi projects ( TVL ) increased from 52.7 billion dollars to 53.2 billion dollars, ending two consecutive weeks of decline. The performance of Gun Pool and Prep DEX projects was outstanding, mainly benefiting from the rise in base interest rates and the decrease in holiday liquidity.

The AI Agent track continues to be hot, with a market size reaching $12.2 billion and a week-on-week growth of 12%. The focus has shifted from AI Meme to AI infrastructure projects, with notable performances from projects like Phala Network. The Meme coin market is mainly concentrated on AI-related projects, reflecting a pursuit of AI concepts while also showing an increase in speculation.

Public chain projects have performed well in this round of rebound, especially public chains supporting AI development such as Solana and zkSync Era. This indicates that public chains are developing towards AI infrastructure.

Hot Track Analysis

AI Agent

The AI Agent track continues to be a market focus, mainly driven by AI's autonomous token issuance. Some Meme coins issued through Virtuals and ai16z have surged significantly, creating a wealth effect that attracts investors. The market attention has shifted from AI Meme to AI infrastructure projects. AI infra projects like Phala Network have performed outstandingly and are worth close attention.

DeFi

The TVL of DeFi projects has ended two weeks of negative growth, with a month-on-month increase of 0.95% to $53.2 billion. The Gun Pool and Prep DEX projects performed the best:

• Resolv: Successfully launched a new type of liquidity pool, completed cross-chain expansion on the Base network, and collaborated with several well-known projects.
• Bluefin: Integrating Sui Bridge, upgrading payment system, will be listed on Bitget soon.
• StakeStone: Launched the multi-chain Berachain Vault, achieving cross-chain functionality, in deep cooperation with Uniswap and others.
• Euler: The number of users is growing rapidly, collaborating with multiple projects to launch high-yield products.
• Hyperliquid: Mainnet launch of staking, added support for leveraged trading of AI-related tokens

public chain

The better-performing public chains include:

• Zircuit: Collaborating with the AI team to develop a smart vault, launching a multi-reward program.
• Hyperliquid: Launching staking functionality, introducing AI token leveraged trading
• Toncoin: Develop a permissionless bridging solution for BTC, USDT circulation exceeds 1 billion USD
• zkSync Era: Released the 2025 development declaration, receiving positive community response.
• Solana: Launched AI Agent Development Toolkit, multiple GameFi projects announced development plans.

Market Outlook

Next week, the United States will release employment data, which may affect the Federal Reserve's interest rate cut decision and is expected to bring market volatility. With the end of the holidays, institutional investors are returning, and market liquidity is expected to recover. Investors are advised:

1. Maintain a defensive allocation and increase the proportion of top assets such as BTC and ETH.
2. Moderately participate in high-yield gun pools and Prep DEX projects
3. Pay attention to the development of AI-related projects
4. Strictly control the position and do a good job in risk management.