Two years ago, the metaverse land project Hyperfy suddenly issued tokens this morning, and within 10 hours of going live, it quickly reached a market capitalization of 280 million dollars, with a daily trading volume of 80 million dollars.
In today's rapidly developing AI Agent market, the grand vision inevitably compares it to the previous metaverse concept. Trends are cyclical, and the market, too, circles back to the metaverse concept, which has been reactivated by AI. Despite being mentioned countless times and having 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 a reheated old dish in this new round or the right soil for the revival of the Metaverse under AI support?
AI-driven, the metaverse land project of NFT Summer returns to the market
In the NFT Summer of 2022, a wave of metaverse land property projects emerged, including Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Sandbox. Today, the market sees the re-emergence of the metaverse platform project—Hyperfy.
Hyperfy is a metaverse platform designed to make it easy for anyone to create rich, immersive virtual worlds. Hyperfy can be accessed instantly through any web browser, including phones and VR headsets like Meta Quest 3. Like other land projects, ownership is granted as long as you own the land, 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 into the world. Everything that happens in this world occurs in real-time.
If developed along this path, it would not differ much from other metaverse land projects, and the turning point occurred with its encounter with ai16z. Just this morning, Hyperfy suddenly announced its redesign, transforming from a metaverse platform into an AI agent-powered immersive space platform, and made all its tools and layers open-source, integrating AI agents with the Eliza architecture in version V2. This means it has shifted from a metaverse to the AI Agent's Sigama, an infinite multiverse that interacts with agents.
With the buying signal from Shaw's on-chain address, combined with multiple tweets from ai16z community members promoting the collaboration, the market's bullish sentiment towards this new concept peaked, evolving into a continuous increase in market capitalization. Subsequently, a thread from ai16z DAO member Jin about his collaboration with Metamike over the past few months to refine Hyperfy's project documentation and provide several use cases revealed the true value of this project.
Scenario 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.
Scenario Two: Stonk Exchange
You can directly watch real-time trading of AI agents in scenarios similar to stock exchanges, and in a week, it might complete real-time data on the screen + final optimization.
Scenario Three: Interoperable Pets
Tubbycatsnft is a CC0 NFT that completed the optimization of all 20k 3D models last autumn. It serves as a good container for small locally prioritized models, and its optimized models are better suited for Hyperfy's future VR pet system.
More scenarios: pmairca 'parody Marc' conference room, AI as judges in game shows, 3D data visualization 'ai16z treasury wallet visualization', cryptocurrency vending machines.
It's not hard to associate that this time the AI+metaverse concept differs from the last because of the addition of the AI Agent variable. This also makes the narrative more practical; current hardware technology cannot replicate the feeling of the virtual world to match that of the real world. But it's different for AI Agents; for them, this is their reality. On this platform, AI Agents can interact intuitively with each other and with humans, whereas before they were just data codes or text images. In contrast to a vast Metaverse, Hyperfy, with its small worlds, resembles a multiverse for AI Agents, fulfilling your fantasy world within the AI's brain.
Before Hyperfy became popular, founder Ash Connell released a token named after Shaw on November 11. After accessing the Hyperfy platform, you can find Shaw's milady avatar existing in a world, although real-time conversations are not yet possible, its purpose can be inferred. The future release of V2 will showcase an AI Agent within the ai16z system as a case study.
On the other hand, besides frantically posting Hyperfy-related content, Shaw also emotionally confessed today about his mysterious community he has been part of for several years—M3 'Metaverse Makers.' Coincidentally, this name is similar to the American street slang 'You know what I am saying,' as if asking us, the audience, if we are ready to understand the engines or the bigger vision they will bring to the 3D AI Agent world.
On the M3 Twitter banner, a group of virtual character names prominently includes today's Hyperfy founder ASH, along with Jin, who helped upgrade its product deck, and several well-known figures like the excellent 3D artist 7OROY. It’s hard not to perceive a conspiracy brewing to generate enormous energy.
Will they bring a true Metaverse with AI or is it another huge bubble? BlockBeats will continue to observe and track.
