Ethereum is no longer absent—Virtuals ACP opens the door to the trillion-dollar AI economy
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Ethereum is no longer absent—Virtuals ACP opens the door to the trillion-dollar AI economy
Virtuals will write the first line of code for AI's new business logic with ACP.
Dédié à des analyses Web3 approfondiesAuthor: TechFlow
While we're still debating whether agents can handle community management or do basic tasks, Virtuals has already set its sights on a far grander vision — how agents can collaborate with each other, settle transactions, and truly power an on-chain labor market for agents.
On June 10, Ethereum officially declared “Ethereum is for AI” and shared Virtuals’ “Now On Ethereum” post, signaling the beginning of their collaboration. The post quickly gained massive traction within the community, 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’s Ethereum needs a solid anchor to catch up; Virtuals, in turn, will leverage ACP to accelerate growth and solidify its lead.
One universal standard that turns every agent from a mere "worker" into a node in commercial collaboration;
One universal standard that empowers every agent to become a participant in business ecosystems;
One universal standard that unlocks a trillion-dollar on-chain labor market for agents.
What surprises will ACP X EVM bring us this time?
Ethereum’s ecosystem is frozen—The world computer trapped in the innovator's dilemma
Since the AI wave began late last year, Ethereum has seemingly been absent from the entire movement, drawing growing skepticism from the market.
Ethereum’s status as a pioneer among L1s is unquestionable. Yet, it has shown little presence during the latest AI surge. While the previous wave of AI agent activity bypassed Ethereum entirely, attention shifted instead toward Solana and Base. Even when AI-related projects like Fartcoin and Virtuals rebounded in recent months, Ethereum remained sidelined,until the recent I.R.I.S. collaboration sparked renewed optimism.
What will be the next compelling narrative for Ethereum’s ecosystem?
An undeniable truth remains: Ethereum still holds immense latent potential:
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First in TVL, nearly 8x larger than second place: A vast amount of assets still reside on Ethereum. According to DefiLlama, Ethereum’s current TVL exceeds $62 billion—about eight times that of Solana, the second-largest chain.
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Richest DeFi ecosystem, with over 1,300 DeFi protocols: Beyond TVL dominance, Ethereum also hosts the most diverse range of DeFi protocols and innovations. Data from DefiLlama shows more than 1,300 DeFi protocols on Ethereum, leading all ecosystems.
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Ethereum has the largest developer base: Another key advantage is its use of Solidity—the most widely adopted programming language in Web3. Whether building on Layer 1 or Layer 2, Solidity is often considered the entry point for new developers.
TVL brings capital;
Protocols and developers enable capital circulation.
All these factors confirm one thing: Ethereum isn’t lacking fundamentals—it’s lacking a catalyst.
When the greatest world computer faces the innovator’s dilemma, it must find a new breakthrough.
The initial collaboration between Virtuals and Ethereum has already demonstrated success. In the long run, AI may finally provide the much-needed rain after a prolonged drought for Ethereum.
Virtuals ACP: The long-awaited rain for Ethereum
AI could be the turning point for Ethereum—but why specifically Virtuals’ AI?
The answer lies in ACP: 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, execute 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 becomes possible.
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Framework-agnostic: ACP does not depend on any specific AI framework—any agent can 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 transformative upgrades to Virtuals and its rapidly expanding AI empire.
Two transformative shifts brought by ACP
Familiar members of the Virtuals ecosystem know that ACP aims to unify all AI agents, and official case studies have been shared. But if you think it's merely about shifting from single-agent to multi-agent coordination, you’re underestimating ACP.
In our view, ACP will bring two fundamental changes to Virtuals:
Transformation One: Formation of a multi-chain ecosystem—"ACP is like Cosmos' IBC"
Virtuals originated in the Base ecosystem, expanded into Solana, and has now arrived on Ethereum mainnet. ACP doesn’t just link multiple agents—it connects agents scattered across different blockchains.
This means, regardless of whether you're on Base, Solana, Ethereum, or future chains,
agents can directly collaborate across chains.
Axelrod manages your Solana assets;
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 particular AI framework. Whether using GAME, ElizaOS, or others, agents built on different frameworks can interoperate (though the exact level of support remains to be clarified). Official descriptions indicate cross-framework compatibility.
GAME is Virtuals’ flagship framework, but Web3 AI still encompasses various alternative or custom-built frameworks.
By enabling multi-framework synergy, ACP ensures agents across all frameworks can benefit from the AI agent era.
For developers, integrating with ACP will become not only attractive—but essential.
Just as Web3 developers universally understand or issue tokens via ERC standards,
integrating with ACP will become a standard skill for future AI agent developers.
ACP is the protocol, GAME is the framework—so what exactly is Virtuals?
Can Virtuals be seen as a Layer 1?
Recalling an interview last year with Weekee, co-founder of Virtuals (Link: Interview with Virtuals Protocol Co-founder), he stated: “Virtuals is a Layer 1—you should evaluate Virtuals through the lens of a Layer 1.”
We are now one step closer to that reality—and may eventually transcend even the definition of Layer 1.
GAME is the development framework, providing tools for builders;
ACP is the protocol, connecting disparate ecosystems.
But Virtuals itself defies easy categorization.
GAME and ACP are developed by Virtuals and seamlessly integrate into its broader ecosystem;
Agents across different chains can launch via Virtuals;
Users stake tokens within the Virtuals ecosystem—including $VIRTUAL—and gain access to ecosystem airdrops;
Holding a certain threshold of $VIRTUAL enables participation in governance.
Those who lived through the last cycle will remember Cosmos. Cosmos contributed significantly through its technology—projects like Dymension, Celestia, and dYdX all leverage Cosmos tech.
However, Cosmos was widely criticized for supporting numerous ecosystems while its native token $ATOM captured little value. Here, $VIRTUAL appears to have addressed this flaw effectively, evolving from a “project token” toward becoming the “ecosystem base currency.”
Frameworks are seen as the underlying infrastructure for AI agents,
but Virtuals may now occupy a position even more critical than that of a framework.
Could there be a Layer 1 dedicated to AI Agents?
Virtuals Protocol.
Beachhead secured, stablecoins fuel momentum—ACP opens the trillion-dollar door to Web3 AI
How is the Virtuals agent city-state evolving today?
According to @gkisokay’s ecosystem map, the Virtuals ecosystem now spans 11 major categories—including lifestyle, DeFAI, prediction markets, infrastructure, gaming—and hosts over 100 agents.
Unlike Web2, Web3 AI agents live natively on-chain.
The recent buzz around “stablecoins” is poised to elevate the on-chain economy to new heights.
As more assets move on-chain—both in volume and variety—they will provide “acceleration” for on-chain AI.
In Virtuals ACP’s official documentation, there's an example where AIXVC collaborates with multiple agents to offer users diversified yield opportunities.
Yet this example predates the full impact of stablecoin-driven on-chain economic expansion.
What if AIXVC could directly trade and manage even more Web2 assets on-chain?
This would accelerate Virtuals’ integration into Web2,and the AI Nation of Virtuals is forming rapidly.
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—or even billions—of on-chain agents offering services, trading, and collaborating permissionlessly. ACP serves as the foundational layer allowing AI agents to hit “send” on payment rails comparable to Stripe—all without ever leaving the blockchain. This isn't speculation about the future—we're codifying it into EVM and the broader ecosystem today.
If you missed Uniswap writing the foundational rules of DeFi, or OpenSea igniting the NFT explosion—this time, Virtuals will write the first line of code for a new AI commercial paradigm with ACP.
The trillion-dollar economy of Web3 AI has begun—ACP is here!
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