Ethereum is no longer absent: Virtuals ACP opens the door to the AI trillion-dollar economy
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Ethereum is no longer absent: Virtuals ACP opens the door to the AI trillion-dollar economy
Virtuals will write the first line of code for AI's new business logic with ACP.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: TechFlow
While we’re still debating whether Agents can manage communities or do side jobs, Virtuals has already turned its gaze toward a far grander vision — how Agents can collaborate with one another, settle transactions, and truly power an on-chain labor market for Agents.
On June 10, Ethereum officially announced “Ethereum is for AI” and shared Virtuals’ “Now On Ethereum” post, signaling the beginning of their collaboration. The post quickly sparked strong community interest and engagement, amassing over 1.1 million views at the time of writing.
This is not just another partnership — it marks the beginning of Ethereum reclaiming center stage.
Today, Ethereum needs a solid foothold to catch up; and Virtuals will leverage ACP to accelerate its growth and consolidate its lead.
One universal standard that frees every Agent from being just a "worker";
One universal standard that turns every Agent into a node in commercial collaboration;
One universal standard that unlocks a trillion-dollar on-chain Agent labor market.
ACP X EVM — what surprise will Virtuals bring us this time?
Ethereum’s Ecosystem Frozen: The World Computer Faces the Innovator’s Dilemma
Since the AI wave began late last year, Ethereum has seemingly been absent from the entire boom, drawing growing skepticism from the market.
Ethereum’s position as a pioneer among L1 blockchains is unquestionable, yet it failed to make any impact during the recent surge in AI. While AI Agent activity flourished elsewhere, Ethereum remained sidelined. Even when AI-related projects like Fartcoin and Virtuals rebounded over the past few months, Ethereum was still left out in the cold— until recently, with the I.R.I.S. collaboration, which reignited market anticipation.
What will be the next compelling narrative for Ethereum’s ecosystem?
An undeniable fact remains: Ethereum still holds immense untapped potential:
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First in TVL, nearly 8x larger than second place: The majority of assets remain on Ethereum. According to DefiLlama, Ethereum's TVL exceeds $62 billion, roughly eight times that of Solana, the second-largest chain.
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Richest DeFi ecosystem, with over 1,300 DeFi protocols: Beyond its TVL dominance, Ethereum also hosts the most diverse range of DeFi protocols and innovations. DefiLlama reports more than 1,300 DeFi protocols on Ethereum, the highest across all ecosystems.
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Largest developer base in the ecosystem: Ethereum enjoys a natural advantage through Solidity, the most widely used programming language among Web3 developers. Whether on Layer1 or Layer2, Solidity is often considered the entry-level language for new developers.
TVL brings capital;
Protocols and developers enable that capital to flow.
Together, these facts prove that Ethereum doesn’t lack fundamentals — it lacks a catalyst.
When the world’s largest computer faces the innovator’s dilemma, it must find a new breakthrough point.
The initial collaboration between Virtuals and Ethereum has already demonstrated success. In the long run, AI may well become the long-awaited rain after drought for Ethereum’s ecosystem.
Virtuals ACP: The Long-Awaited Rain After Drought for Ethereum
AI could be the rain after drought for Ethereum — but why specifically Virtuals’ AI?
The key lies in ACP: the Agent Commerce Protocol.
In simple terms, ACP acts as a “business contract” and common language between AI Agents, defining how to initiate cooperation, negotiate terms, complete transactions, and evaluate outcomes.
It features the following characteristics:
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Cross-chain collaboration: Regardless of which blockchain an Agent operates on, as long as it follows ACP rules, seamless collaboration is possible.
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Framework-agnostic: ACP does not depend on any specific AI framework, allowing any Agent to participate.
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Four-stage process: Request, negotiation, transaction, and evaluation — each step recorded and executed via smart contracts.
Why is ACP now the strategic focus for Virtuals? Because these features will bring qualitative upgrades to both Virtuals and its expanding AI empire.
Two Transformations Brought by ACP to Virtuals
Familiar observers of the Virtuals ecosystem know that ACP unites all AI Agents, and the team has shared several use cases. But if you think it’s merely about shifting from single-Agent to multi-Agent collaboration, you’re underestimating ACP.
In our view, ACP will bring two fundamental transformations to Virtuals:
Transformation One: Formation of a Multi-Chain Ecosystem — “ACP is like Cosmos’ IBC”
Virtuals originated in the Base ecosystem, expanded to Solana, and has now arrived on Ethereum mainnet. ACP does more than connect multiple Agents — it connects Agents scattered across different blockchains.
This means whether you're on Base, Solana, Ethereum, or future chains,
Agents can collaborate cross-chain seamlessly.
Axelrod manages your assets on Solana;
Hyper provides metaverse spaces for Agents in the Base ecosystem;
...
Like Cosmos’ IBC, ACP provides the foundational interoperability layer for all Agents.
Transformation Two: Multi-Framework Synergy — ACP as the ERC Standard for Agent Developers
ACP is independent of any specific AI framework. Whether it's GAME, ElizaOS, or others, while the exact level of ACP support remains to be seen, the official vision clearly includes interoperation between Agents built on different frameworks.
We know GAME is Virtuals’ flagship framework, but Web3 AI still hosts various other frameworks — or even custom ones developed by individuals.
ACP’s multi-framework compatibility ensures Agents across all frameworks can share in the prosperity of the AI Agent era.
For developers, integrating with ACP becomes not only attractive — it becomes essential.
Just as Web3 developers universally learn or issue tokens using ERC standards,
integrating with ACP will become a standard capability for future AI Agent developers.
If ACP Is the Protocol and GAME Is the Framework, Then What Is Virtuals?
Can Virtuals Be Considered a Layer 1?
Recalling my interview last year with Weekee, co-founder of Virtuals (link: Interview with Virtuals Protocol Co-Founder), he stated: “Virtuals is a Layer 1 — it should be viewed and valued as such.”
We are one step closer to that reality — and may eventually transcend even the definition of Layer 1.
GAME is a framework, offering convenience to developers;
ACP is a protocol, connecting different ecosystems.
But Virtuals itself defies easy categorization.
GAME and ACP are developed by Virtuals and allow rapid integration into the broader Virtuals ecosystem;
Agents across different chains can launch via Virtuals;
Users stake Virtuals ecosystem tokens, including $VIRTUAL itself, gaining eligibility for ecosystem airdrops;
Staking a certain threshold of $VIRTUAL grants access to governance rights.
Those familiar with the last cycle will remember Cosmos. Cosmos contributed significantly through its technology — many new projects like Dymension, Celestia, and dYdX are built on Cosmos tech.
Yet Cosmos has long been criticized for supporting numerous ecosystems while its token $ATOM captures little value. Here, $VIRTUAL appears to have made significant improvements, evolving from a “project token” toward becoming the “ecosystem reserve currency.”
Frameworks are seen as the foundational infrastructure for AI Agents,
but Virtuals may now occupy a role even more critical than that.
Could there be a Layer 1 dedicated to AI Agents?
Virtuals Protocol.
Beachhead Landing: Stablecoins Accelerate ACP Toward Unlocking the Trillion-Dollar Web3 AI Economy
How is the Virtuals Agent city-state progressing today?
According to @gkisokay’s ecosystem map, the Virtuals ecosystem now spans 11 major categories — including lifestyle, DeFAI, prediction markets, infrastructure, and gaming — with over 100 Agents.
Unlike Web2, Web3 AI Agents grow natively on-chain.
And the recently trending topic of “stablecoins” is poised to elevate the on-chain economy to new heights.
More assets issued on-chain — both in type and volume — will provide “acceleration” for on-chain AI.
In an example from Virtuals ACP’s official materials, AIXVC collaborates with multiple Agents to offer users diversified yield opportunities.
Yet this was before factoring in the economic boom driven by stablecoins.
What if AIXVC could directly trade and manage more Web2 assets on-chain?
This would accelerate Virtuals’ integration into Web2, as the AI Nation rapidly takes shape.
Jae-Sonn (@zer0xdawn), head of ACP, told us in an interview: “ACP is a product designed to drive a trillion-dollar economy.” Ethereum turned code into money; ACP will turn Agents into a trillion-dollar workforce. Imagine millions to billions of on-chain Agents providing services, trading, and collaborating permissionlessly — ACP is the foundational layer enabling Agents to hit “send” on payment rails at Stripe’s scale, without ever leaving the blockchain. We aren’t speculating about the future; we’re formally embedding it into EVM and the broader ecosystem today.
If you missed Uniswap writing the foundational rules of DeFi, or OpenSea launching the NFT explosion — this time, Virtuals will write the first line of code for a new AI commercial logic with ACP.
The trillion-dollar door to Web3 AI is opening — ACP is here!
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