"VIRTUAL Token Plunges 17% After Upbit Listing Boost"

VIRTUAL, the native token of the AI launchpad Virtuals Protocol, has experienced a significant decline, falling to approximately $1.30, which marks a 17% drop in the last 24 hours. This reversal comes after a brief but notable 28% surge following the announcement by South Korea's leading crypto exchange, Upbit, that it would list the token.

On Jan. 31, Upbit announced the listing of VIRTUAL across multiple trading pairs, namely KRW, USDT, and BTC. The announcement exposed the token to South Korean traders, pushing the price up to $2.61 during European trading hours. However, the price hike has proven to be short-lived. As of the latest CoinMarketCap data, VIRTUAL price has shaved 50% off its post-listing peak in the last 24 hours. On the broader weekly and monthly timeframes, it’s down by 30% and 68% respectively.

VIRTUAL’s market cap has also suffered a 31% decline over the past week, placing it among the hardest-hit AI tokens. However, AIXBT and AI16Z, the two of its major competitors, have suffered even steeper losses: -43% and -45% respectively.

Despite the recent price decline, VIRTUAL’s liquidity remains strong at $66.77 million, according to cookie.fun data. Additionally, its 24-hour trading volume has seen a nearly 7% increase, though the nature of this increase remains unclear. A recent X post by Kyle Chasse may offer some insight on the matter. In his recent post on X, Chasse hinted that VIRTUAL is "doing something special," suggesting a bullish outlook on the token and the broader AI agent narrative.