The crypto AI agent sector has fallen to a market cap of $11.3 billion as altcoins decline during an industry-wide correction.

AI clients – AI-powered protocols and projects – suffered the biggest decline among altcoins, with the category down 16% in the past 24 hours.

The sector witnessed sharp losses as pioneering projects such as Virtuals Protocol and AI16z (AI16Z), and aixbt by Virtuals (AIXBT) recorded double-digit declines amid a broader decline in digital asset prices on Monday, January 13.

Virtual fell 16%, dropping its market value to $2.3 billion. The project allows developers to create and interact with AI frameworks on decentralized networks such as Base, a layer-2 chain of Ethereum incubated by Coinbase.

Another cryptocurrency AI infrastructure provider fell 16% to a market cap of $1.07 billion. AIXBT, a platform used by traders to analyze tokens, saw the biggest decline among AI agents, with its market cap falling 21% to about $338 million.

Artificial Intelligence Agents Take a Hit as Cryptocurrency Market Drops 6%

AI Agents burst onto the cryptocurrency scene late last year, but has amassed a massive number of insights on social media and been valued in the billions within a few months.

However, the meteoric rise has now given way to the sector's first major decline, with the total cryptocurrency market capitalization falling to $3.2 trillion – a decline of 6%.

According to data from CoinGlass, the market decline has led to liquidations across several cryptocurrency pairs. Approximately 222,751 traders were liquidated, bringing the total liquidations to $544.82 million. “The largest single liquidation order occurred on Binance – BTCUSDT worth $8.21 million,” CoinGlass reported.