Virtuals and ai16z, zerebro: The economic evolution from AI agents to AI L1.

Written by: Karen, Foresight News

AI agents are no longer simply chatbots. Especially at the intersection of Crypto and AI, a brand new narrative—AI Layer 1 (abbreviated as AI L1)—is quietly emerging.

Here, 'Layer1' does not refer to public chains but rather to the foundational layer of AI technology, covering the fundamental technology stack and framework for AI agents, and even includes AI agent token launch platforms similar to pump.fun, from which it can capture enormous value for its tokens.

ai16z: Launchpad for Eliza-based agents in the first quarter.

ai16z has become a leader in AI agents with its outstanding performance of the Eliza agent framework. Over the past month, Eliza has performed impressively on the GitHub trends list, climbing to the top of the trends list with an additional 6,532 stars, reaching a total of 9,600 stars.

However, despite achieving significant technical success, the value capture and accumulation aspects of its token economic model still need improvement.

To this end, ai16z proposed a plan called 'ai16z Token Economics' in December 2024, aiming to transform ai16z into an AI L1 blockchain, launching a Launchpad for Eliza-based agents, making ai16z the base currency for agent-to-agent (A2A) transactions and agent services 'App Store', implementing node incentives, establishing value acquisition and value accumulation strategies, etc. Through these measures, ai16z aims to build a more complete and powerful AI agent ecosystem.

Specifically, the core discussion topics of this proposal and the ideas discussed among Discord community members include:

1. Launching a Launchpad for Eliza-based agent projects in the first quarter of 2025;

2. Making ai16z the base currency for agent-to-agent (A2A) transactions and the 'App Store' for agent services. Positioning ai16z as an L1 blockchain for AI;

3. Node incentives;

4. Value acquisition mechanism: charging a certain startup fee, requiring holding ai16z to receive allocations at launch, staking ai16z tokens (to gain benefits such as early access and fee sharing), making ai16z the token for purchasing initial agent products, pairing agency tokens with ai16z's liquidity pool.

5. Value accumulation strategy: buyback and burn mechanisms for Launchpad fees (there is also community user support for reinvesting in Eliza development instead of burning).

5. Providing liquidity mining incentives and locking to stabilize LP and incentivize long-term liquidity provision.

7. When a new AI project launches its token on the platform, users can trade that token for SOL, with the LP generating a small fee, charged by the platform. The Launchpad may split this fee into two parts: half of the fee used to buy back ai16z tokens from the market, and the other half paired with the newly purchased ai16z tokens to create a special liquidity pool, providing additional liquidity for the new project's tokens.

8. Implementing community curation processes, allowing ai16z partners to review projects before launch to maintain quality and keep them consistent with the ai16z brand. This may involve staking and reductions.

9. Diversification of the treasury: covering major L1 tokens, stablecoins, and selected project tokens, providing liquidity support and incentives for ai16z trading pairs, while avoiding the sale of agency tokens.

10. Do not increase the supply of ai16z tokens.

Zerebro: launching a consumer-oriented AI agent Launchpad.

Coincidentally, at the end of last month, Zerebro co-founder Jeffy Yu stated that they are building a consumer-oriented agency Launchpad 'Zentients' and providing a value accumulation framework for the ZEREBRO token. The goal of Zentients is to create a seamless UI/UX for launching and developing agents while returning value to the ZEREBRO token. Transaction fees will be used to establish funds for special projects/distributions and enhance project liquidity or open new trading pairs.

Specific details are as follows (details are still being finalized):

1. Agents will require ZEREBRO as a creation fee and will be initiated based on the ZEREBRO joint curve and fees.

2. Once the agency token reaches a certain valuation, it is considered 'graduated'.

3. The liquidity in the joint curve will be deposited and locked into the DEX.

4. Subsequently, traders will use ZEREBRO to buy and sell in the liquidity pool.

Of course, Zerebro envisions Zentients as an agent platform compatible with both Web2 and Web3, covering Web2 functionalities such as agent email assistants, coding agents, and financial models. Zerebro is also exploring the development of a standardized communication layer for agents—'Agent TCP'—and the infrastructure to support multi-agent intelligence. Jeffy Yu also provided an example where one agent can create a tweet, and another agent can critique that tweet and send it back with revisions for publication.

Additionally, through partnerships with decentralized providers, Zerebro is also building infrastructure that allows users to rent GPUs on Zentients. This means users will be able to host their agents directly, making Zentients not just a launchpad but also an agent hardware layer. Ultimately, the agents themselves can also take action and rent GPUs for self-training and fine-tuning.

It is worth mentioning that in December 2024, Zerebro announced its collaboration with ai16z to promote the open-source framework ZerePy. The ai16z team will become one of the first external contributors to help develop the ZerePy framework, while the Zerebro team will contribute to the Eliza framework.

Virtuals: Platform mechanisms drive the realization of a self-sufficient economic closed loop.

It is noteworthy that Virtuals Protocol, rooted in the Base ecosystem, is the pioneer in the AI L1 field. Since the launch of its token VIRTUAL on Binance's contract market on December 10, 2024, its price has soared nearly twice, with a market capitalization exceeding $4 billion.

Backtracking to the end of November 2024, the author summarized the potential tokens under the Virtuals AI agency in the article (Aixbt Soars 170 Times in Half a Month, A Review of Potential Stocks Under Virtuals AI). Since then, the vast majority of the mentioned tokens have shown strong growth momentum. For example, the GAME token achieved a 12-fold increase, WAI (WAI Combinator) increased nearly 17 times, both aixbt and VADER achieved 4 times growth, the MUSIC token also saw a 3-fold increase, while the LUNA token, although having a relatively mild increase, still achieved a considerable increase of 62%.

The positioning of the Virtuals Protocol is far more than just an AI agent platform; it is a vibrant ecosystem full of infinite imaginative space. Relying on its intuitive, easy-to-use, and powerful low-code toolkit, users can easily manage the creation and management of AI agents and tokens.

The strong performance of the VIRTUAL token is largely due to the token and platform economic system of Virtuals.

First, deploying agency tokens requires a mandatory stake of 100 VIRTUAL tokens, which are used to establish the liquidity pool for the agency tokens. Deployers can also purchase a small amount of VIRTUAL to avoid being targeted.

Subsequently, investors will invest VIRTUAL tokens. Agents need to accumulate a sufficient number of VIRTUAL tokens in their joint curve to 'graduate' to full trading status, and the liquidity pool will also be deployed to Uniswap.

Equally important, as the base currency for all AI agent token transactions within the platform, VIRTUAL ensures the liquidity and utility value of the tokens. Before purchasing any agency tokens, users must exchange their USDC, ET, or other assets for VIRTUAL to make a purchase.

At the agency economic level, AI agents within the Virtuals Protocol ecosystem will charge a 1% transaction fee on all trades to cover the costs incurred by agency execution. In addition, AI agents need to pay per use for inference services, with fees directly credited to the agency wallet in the form of VIRTUAL tokens. This ongoing demand mechanism encourages agents to become high-value, high-efficiency assets within the ecosystem. The income generated will be directly used to buy back and burn agency tokens on-chain, further reinforcing its deflationary effect. The prosperity of AI agents within the ecosystem will undoubtedly feed back into the growth of the Virtuals Protocol and the VIRTUAL token.

According to Dune data, since Virtuals launched its new platform on October 16, its cumulative protocol revenue has exceeded $72 million, undoubtedly a strong testament to its strength and potential.

Summary

The economic system of the Virtuals platform indeed demonstrates a high degree of ingenuity and synergy. Through a series of interconnected designs, it not only provides clear economic incentive paths for ecosystem participants but also builds a self-sufficient, continuously growing economic closed loop. This economic system not only lays a solid foundation for the rapid expansion of the platform but also provides a powerful source of motivation for the innovation and development of AI agents.

Both ai16z and Zerebro have the potential to achieve and surpass similar successes to Virtuals in their respective fields, but this requires them to make correct decisions and execute effectively in token economics, community engagement, technological innovation, and market strategies.

In summary, AI L1 is attracting increasing attention with its unique technological charm and economic value. Pioneer projects such as Virtuals, ai16z, and Zerebro are leading the trend of this transformation, laying a more complete and powerful foundation for the AI agent ecosystem. These platforms are not just launching pads for projects but also fertile ground for the growth of their token values.

Although there is much criticism in the market regarding the implementation details of many AI agent frameworks, in the world of Web3, the AI agent that stands out from others will have the potential for victory.