Two years ago, the metaverse land project Hyperfy suddenly launched its token this morning and reached a market cap of $280 million within 10 hours of going online, with a daily trading volume of $80 million.
In today's rapidly developing AI Agent market, the grand vision inevitably reminds people of the previous metaverse concept. Trends are cyclical, and the market similarly revolves back to the metaverse concept, reactivated by AI. Although it has been brought up countless times and failed just as many, the market seems unwilling to let go of this cyberpunk-style future concept, as if an invisible hand is pushing us infinitely towards that technological singularity. Is Hyperfy truly a reheated meal in a new round, or is it a suitable soil for the revival of the Metaverse under AI support?
AI-driven, NFT Summer's metaverse land projects return to the market.
During the NFT Summer of 2022, a series of metaverse land property projects emerged, such as Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Sandbox. Today, another metaverse platform project—Hyperfy—has appeared in the market.
Hyperfy is a metaverse platform aimed at allowing anyone to easily create rich immersive virtual worlds. Hyperfy can be used instantly through any web browser, including mobile phones and VR headsets like Meta Quest 3. Like other land projects, owning land grants you ownership, and its built-in tools can create almost any scene—galleries, venues, clubs, shops, portfolios, educational experiences, games, and recreational spaces. Users can directly import 2D and 3D NFTs from their wallets or drag and drop 3D models, images, audio, and video directly into the world. Everything that happens in this world occurs in real-time.
If it develops along this path, it is not much different from other metaverse land projects, and the turning point occurs at its encounter with ai16z. Just this morning, Hyperfy suddenly announced its revamp on Twitter, transforming from a metaverse platform to an AI agent-powered immersive space platform, open-sourcing all its tools and layers, and integrating with the Eliza architecture's AI Agent in its V2 version. This means it has turned from metaverse into AI Agent's Sigama, an infinite multiverse that can interact with Agents.
With the buying signals from Shaw's on-chain address, combined with multiple tweets from ai16z community members promoting collaboration, market bullishness towards this new concept reached its peak, and the sentiment evolved into continuous increases in market cap. Subsequently, ai16z DAO member Jin's thread about helping hyperfy refine project documentation and providing several usage scenarios over the past few months revealed the true value of this project.
Scene One: AI Council
AI agents trained in working groups, different projects, or user case studies can discuss proposals and assist in decision-making, with V2 ready for integration with ElizaOS.
Scene Two: Stonk Exchange
You can watch AI agents' real-time trading directly in a scene similar to a stock exchange, with real-time data on the screen + final optimization possibly completed in a week.
Scene Three: Interoperable Pets
tubbycatsnft is a CC0 NFT, and last autumn, the team optimized the assembly of all 20k 3D models, making it a good container for small local-first models, with its optimized models more suitable for future Hyperfy's VR version pet system.
More scenes: pmairca 'parody Marc's' conference room, a game show world where AI serves as judges, 3D data visualization 'ai16z treasury wallet visualization', cryptocurrency vending machines.
It is not hard to associate that this time's AI + metaverse concept differs from the previous one by adding the variable of AI Agents. This makes the narrative more practical; current hardware technology cannot replicate the feeling of the real world in a virtual environment. However, this is not the case for AI Agents, as this is their reality. On this platform, AI Agents can communicate most intuitively with each other, and humans can communicate with AI Agents, whereas before they were merely data codes or textual images. Compared to a vast Metaverse, Hyperfy's individual worlds resemble a multiverse for AI Agents, satisfying your fantasies within the AI brain, akin to an AI version of Figama.
Before Hyperfy became popular, founder Ash Connell had launched a token named after Shaw on November 11. After opening Hyperfy's platform, you can find Shaw's milady image existing within a world, although real-time conversations are not yet possible, its purpose can be seen. The upcoming V2 will actually showcase an AI Agent within the ai16z framework as a case study.
On another note, besides the frenzy of Hyperfy-related content, Shaw also expressed his deep feelings for his mysterious community—M3 'Metaverse Makers,' coincidentally sharing a name with the American street slang 'You know what I am saying,' seemingly asking us viewers if we are ready to understand the engine or larger vision they will bring to the 3D AI Agent world.
M3's Twitter banner prominently features the names of a group of virtual characters, including today's issuer of Hyperfy, founder ASH, along with Jin, who helped upgrade its product deck, and notable 3D artist 7OROY, among others. It is hard not to sense a conspiratorial hint of creating enormous energy within this.
Can they truly bring a real Metaverse with AI or is it another massive bubble? BlockBeats will continue to observe and track.
