Virtuals ACP Pioneering AI in Ethereum: the Trillion-Dollar Market To Be Revived On-chain

Discussions surrounding the capabilities of Agents, such as managing communities or taking on part-time jobs, have led Virtuals Proto to pose a deeper question: how can Agents effectively collaborate, settle payments, and establish a functional on-chain labor market? On June 10, Ethereum officially announced “Ethereum is for AI” and retweeted Virtuals’ post, “Now On Ethereum,” generating significant community interest. The post garnered over 1.1 million views at the time of writing, reflecting strong engagement and anticipation for their collaboration.

This isn’t just a simple partnership but marks the beginning of Ethereum’s return to the spotlight. Today, Ethereum needs a strong catalyst to speedrun its comeback, and Virtuals is ready to accelerate growth and secure its edge through ACP.

• An open protocol where every Agent is no longer just a "worker".

• An open protocol that enables every Agent to become a node in commercial collaboration.

• An open protocol that unlocks a trillion-dollar agent-driven on-chain economy.

The World Computer Paradox: Frozen Ecosystem Facing AI Frenzy

Since the AI boom took off at the end of last year, Ethereum has seemed absent from the scene, raising doubts in the market.

Ethereum’s status as a pioneer Layer 1 is undisputed, but it had no meaningful presence in the AI wave. During the last surge of AI Agent activity, Ethereum’s lack of involvement redirected attention toward Solana and Base. Even when AI-related projects like Fartcoin and Virtuals made a comeback in recent months, Ethereum continued to face bearish market conditions. It was not until the recent collaboration with I.R.I.S that market interest was rekindled.

One thing is undeniable: Ethereum still holds massive potential for explosive growth.

• #1 in TVL, nearly 8 times larger than second place: A vast amount of assets remain on Ethereum. According to DefiLlama, Ethereum’s TVL exceeds $62 billion, about eight times more than Solana.

• The richest DeFi ecosystem, with over 1,300 DeFi protocols: Beyond TVL, Ethereum offers the most diverse and extensive DeFi protocols and strategies. According to DefiLlama, there are over 1,300 DeFi protocols within the Ethereum ecosystem, making it the largest among all ecosystems.

• Ethereum also has the largest developer community: One of its key advantages is the use of Solidity, which is currently the most widely adopted programming language among crypto developers. Whether building on Layer 1 or Layer 2, Solidity is often seen as the go-to entry point for beginners.

TVL pulls in capital, while protocols and developers bring liquidity.

All of this shows that Ethereum’s fundamentals aren’t the problem; what it’s missing is a catalyst.

When the World Computer stalls on innovation, it needs to ship its next breakthrough.

The initial collaboration between Virtuals and Ethereum has already shown strong potential. In the long term, AI may become Ethereum’s long-awaited turning point.

Virtuals ACP: The Silver Lining of Next-Gen Ethereum Ecosystem

Simply put, ACP is like a "business contract" and a universal language for AI Agents. It defines how to initiate collaboration, negotiate terms, complete transactions, and evaluate outcomes.

ACP has several defining features:

• Cross-chain collaboration: No matter which chain an Agent operates on, as long as it follows ACP rules, seamless collaboration is possible.

• Framework agnostic: ACP is not tied to any specific AI framework — any Agent can participate.

• Four-phase process: Request, negotiation, transaction, and evaluation, all executed and recorded on-chain via smart contracts.

How ACP Is Reshaping the Virtuals Ecosystem in Two Key Ways

For those familiar with the Virtuals ecosystem, ACP is designed to unite AI Agents across various platforms. The team has provided several examples to illustrate its functionality. However, ACP's scope extends beyond merely scaling from individual Agents to multiple collaborating Agents. It introduces foundational changes that could significantly enhance interoperability and collaboration within the ecosystem.

Transformation 1: Multi-Chain Ecosystem, where "ACP works like Cosmos’ IBC"

Virtuals began in the Base ecosystem, expanded to Solana, and has now launched on the Ethereum Mainnet. ACP goes beyond simply connecting multiple Agents; it focuses on enabling seamless collaboration between Agents across different blockchains. Whether operating on Base, Solana, Ethereum, or any future blockchain, Agents will have the ability to interact and collaborate directly across chains. For instance, an Agent like Axelrod could manage assets on Solana, while another, such as Hyper, could provide metaverse spaces for Agents operating within the Base ecosystem.

ACP works like Cosmos’ IBC. It will become a core layer of interoperability for all Agents.

Transformation 2: Multi-Framework Collaboration, where ACP is the ERC Standard for Agent Developers

ACP is framework agnostic, meaning it works regardless of whether you are using GAME, ElizaOS, or other frameworks. Although it is still unclear to what extent ACP will provide support, the official statement indicates that it will enable interoperability between Agents built on different frameworks.

It is well known that GAME is the primary framework promoted by Virtuals. However, the crypto+AI space still features a variety of other frameworks, as well as custom-built solutions created by developers.

ACP’s multi-framework collaboration will bring Agents from different frameworks together, allowing them to fully participate in and benefit from the AI Agent era.

For developers, integrating ACP will be highly attractive, and may even become essential.

Just as launching tokens through ERC standards is now second nature for most crypto developers, integrating ACP is likely to become a basic skill for AI Agent developers in the future.

Weekee, co-founder of Virtuals, shared his insights about how Virtuals will reshape ETH ecosystem in an interview with TechFlow, “Virtuals is a Layer 1. It should be viewed and valued as a Layer 1.”

Virtuals has made significant progress toward its vision of becoming a Layer 1 and has the potential to redefine the concept of Layer 1 in the future. The ecosystem includes GAME, a framework designed to simplify development for builders, and ACP, a protocol that facilitates connection and integration across different ecosystems. Despite these advancements, Virtuals remains a multifaceted platform that cannot be easily categorized.

GAME and ACP, both developed by Virtuals, are designed for seamless integration within the Virtuals ecosystem. The platform enables the deployment of Agents across multiple blockchains and offers staking opportunities for users, including the $VIRTUAL token. Staking within the ecosystem may provide users with access to potential airdrops, while those who stake a sufficient amount of $VIRTUAL can also participate in governance activities.

For those familiar with the previous cycle, Cosmos is widely recognized for its core technological contributions to fast building blockchain infra. Its technology has served as the foundation for several emerging projects, including Dymension, Celestia, and dYdX, highlighting its influence and adoption within the ecosystem.

Nonetheless, Cosmos was often criticized for enabling many ecosystems without capturing much value for its native token, $ATOM. Virtuals seems to have learned from this, transforming $VIRTUAL from a mere "project token" into a true "ecosystem token."

Frameworks are seen as essential infrastructure for AI Agents, but Virtuals may now hold an even more important role.

Seizing the ACP Moment: the Trillion-Dollar AI-on-chain Economy Fueled by Stablecoin

Based on the ecosystem map compiled by @gkisokay, the Virtuals AI Agent ecosystem now spans 11 major categories, including lifestyle, DeFAI, prediction markets, infrastructure, gaming, and more, with over 100 active Agents.

In crypto spaces, AI Agents are created and operate entirely on-chain, differentiating them from pure AI counterparts. The increasing focus on stablecoins is expected to drive significant growth in on-chain economy. As more assets are issued on-chain, the expanding diversity and scale of these assets are likely to accelerate the development of on-chain AI. Official Virtuals ACP content highlights an example where AIXVC collaborates with multiple Agents to provide users with diverse yield opportunities.

And all of this happened before the on-chain economic boom driven by stablecoins.

What if AIXVC could trade and manage even more Web2 assets directly on-chain?

This would accelerate the Virtuals ecosystem’s entry into Web2, and the formation of Virtuals’ AI Nation is already gaining momentum.

ACP lead Jae-Sonn (@zer0xdawn) shared with us in an interview:

“ACP is a $1-Trillion Gross Agent Product. Ethereum turned code into money; ACP will turn agents into a trillion-dollar workforce. Picture millions to billions of on-chain agents providing services, transacting, collaborating permissionlessly — think of ACP as the layer that lets AI agents click "Send" on a Stripe-size payments rail without ever leaving the blockchain. We're not speculating at the future; we're wiring it into the EVM today.”

Uniswap redefined the fundamentals of DeFi, and OpenSea catalyzed the explosive growth of the NFT era. Now, Virtuals aims to take a similarly transformative step by establishing the foundational framework for AI business logic through ACP.

The trillion-dollar AI-on-chain economy is beginning to unfold, and ACP is here to lead the way.