Written by: KarenZ, Foresight News

AI agents are far beyond what simple chatbots can encapsulate. Especially at the intersection of Crypto and AI, a brand-new narrative—AI Layer 1 (AI L1 for short)—is quietly rising.

Here, 'Layer1' does not refer to public chains but rather to the foundational layer of AI technology, covering the basic technology stack and framework of AI agents, and even including AI agent token launch platforms similar to pump.fund, which can capture enormous value for their tokens.

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

ai16z, with its outstanding performance in the Eliza agent framework, has become the leader in AI agents. In the past month, Eliza has performed brilliantly on the GitHub trends chart, rising to the top of the trends, gaining 6,532 stars, and accumulating a total of 9,600 stars.

However, despite ai16z achieving great success technically, its value capture and accumulation aspects of the token economic model still need improvement.

To this end, ai16z proposed a proposal called 'ai16z Tokenomics' in December 2024, aiming to transform ai16z into an AI L1 blockchain, launch an agent Launchpad based on Eliza, make ai16z the base currency for agent-to-agent (A2A) transactions and agent services 'App Store', implement node incentives, establish 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 thoughts discussed by Discord community members include:

1. In the first quarter of 2025, launch a Launchpad for Eliza-based agent projects.

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

3. Node incentives;

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

5. Value accumulation strategy: a repurchase and destruction mechanism for Launchpad fees (community users may also support reinvesting in Eliza development instead of destruction).

5. Provide liquidity mining incentives and locking to stabilize LP and encourage long-term liquidity provision.

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

8. Implement a community curation process, allowing ai16z partners to review projects before launch to maintain quality and ensure alignment with the ai16z brand. This may involve staking and slashing.

9. Treasury diversification: covering major L1 tokens, stablecoins, and selected project tokens to provide liquidity support and incentives for ai16z trading pairs while avoiding the sale of agent 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-facing agent Launchpad 'Zentients' and providing a value accumulation framework for the ZEREBRO token. The goal of Zentients is to create a seamless UI/UX to launch and develop agents while returning value to the ZEREBRO token. Transaction fees will be used to establish a treasury 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 need ZEREBRO as a creation fee and will be launched based on the ZEREBRO joint curve and fees.

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

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

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

Of course, zerebro envisions Zentients as an agent platform compatible with both Web2 and Web3, covering Web2 functions 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 infrastructure that supports multi-agent intelligence. Jeffy Yu provided an example where one agent can create a tweet, and another agent can critique that tweet and send it back with a revised version 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, agents themselves can take action and rent GPUs for self-training and fine-tuning.

Notably, in December 2024, Zerebro also announced cooperation with ai16z to advance the open-source framework ZerePy. The ai16z team will be 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 the Virtuals Protocol, rooted in the Base ecosystem, is the pioneer in the AI L1 field. Since its token VIRTUAL was launched on the Binance contract market on December 10, 2024, its price has soared nearly twice, with a market capitalization exceeding $4 billion.

Looking back to the end of November 2024, I summarized potential tokens under Virtuals AI agents in an article (aixbt surged 170 times in half a month, review of potential stocks for Virtuals AI agents). Since then, the vast majority of mentioned tokens have shown strong growth momentum. For example, the GAME token achieved a 12-fold increase, WAI (WAI Combinator) nearly 17 times, aixbt and VADER both achieved 4 times growth, and the MUSIC token also achieved a 3-fold increase, while the LUNA token, although its growth was relatively moderate, still achieved a substantial increase of 62%.

The positioning of the Virtuals Protocol is by no means 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 attributed to the token and platform economic system of Virtuals.

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

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

Equally important, VIRTUAL, as the base currency for all AI agent token transactions within the platform, ensures the liquidity and utility value of the tokens. Users must exchange their USDC, ET, or other assets for VIRTUAL before purchasing any agent tokens.

At the level of the agent economy, AI agents within the Virtuals Protocol ecosystem will charge a 1% transaction fee on all transactions to cover the costs associated with agent execution. In addition, AI agents using inference services will be charged on a per-use basis, with fees directly deposited into the agent's wallet in the form of VIRTUAL tokens. This continuous demand mechanism incentivizes agents to become high-value, high-efficiency assets within the ecosystem. The income generated will be directly used to repurchase and destroy agent 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, which undoubtedly serves as a strong proof of its strength and potential.

Summary

The economic system of the Virtuals platform indeed showcases a high degree of sophistication and synergy. Through a series of interconnected designs, it provides a clear economic incentive path for ecosystem participants while building a self-sufficient, sustainably 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 driving force 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 the right decisions and execute in tokenomics, community engagement, technological innovation, and market strategies.

In summary, AI L1 is attracting more and more attention with its unique technological charm and economic value. Pioneer projects represented by Virtuals, ai16z, and zerebro are leading the trend of this transformation, building a more complete and powerful foundation for the AI agent ecosystem. These platforms are not only a launching pad for project initiation but also fertile ground for the growth of token value.

Although there are many criticisms regarding the implementation details of various AI agent frameworks in the current market, in the world of Web3, the AI agent that stands out among others will have the possibility of winning.