Ethereum is no longer absent—Virtuals ACP opens the door to the trillion-dollar AI economy
Author: TechFlow
While we’re still debating whether Agents can manage communities or do basic tasks, Virtuals has already set its sights on a far grander vision — how Agents can collaborate with one another, settle payments, and truly power an on-chain labor market for Agents.
On June 10, Ethereum officially announced “Ethereum is for AI” and retweeted Virtuals’ “Now On Ethereum” post, signaling the start of their collaboration. The post quickly sparked strong community engagement and interest, amassing over 1.1 million views by the time of publication.
This isn’t just a simple partnership — it’s the beginning of Ethereum reclaiming center stage.
Today, Ethereum needs a solid lever to catch up; and Virtuals will leverage ACP to accelerate growth and solidify its lead.
One universal standard that turns every Agent from a mere “worker” into;
One universal standard where each Agent becomes a node in commercial collaboration;
One universal standard that unlocks a trillion-dollar on-chain Agents labor market.
ACP X EVM — what surprise will Virtuals bring us this time?
Ethereum’s ecosystem is frozen — the world computer trapped in the innovator’s dilemma
Since the AI surge at the end of last year, Ethereum seems to have missed the entire wave, drawing increasing skepticism from the market.
Ethereum’s status as a pioneer among L1s is unquestioned, yet it remained absent during the latest AI boom. While Solana and Base captured attention during the last wave of AI Agent activity, Ethereum stayed sidelined — even when AI-related projects like Fartcoin and Virtuals saw rebounds in recent months,until the recent I.R.I.S. collaboration sparked renewed hope.
What will be the next compelling narrative for Ethereum’s ecosystem?
An undeniable truth remains: Ethereum still holds immense untapped potential:
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First in TVL, nearly 8x larger than second place: The majority of assets still reside on Ethereum. According to DefiLlama, Ethereum’s TVL exceeds $62 billion — roughly eight times that of Solana, the current second-place chain.
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Richest DeFi ecosystem, with over 1,300 DeFi protocols: Beyond TVL dominance, Ethereum also leads in protocol diversity and innovation. DefiLlama reports more than 1,300 DeFi protocols on Ethereum — the highest count 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 Layer1 or Layer2, Solidity is often considered the entry-level language for new blockchain developers.
TVL brings capital;
Protocols and developers enable capital flow.
Together, these factors prove that Ethereum doesn’t lack fundamentals — it lacks a catalyst.
When the largest world computer falls into the innovator’s dilemma, it must find a new breakthrough point.
The initial collaboration between Virtuals and Ethereum has already demonstrated feasibility. In the long run, AI could become the long-awaited rain after drought for Ethereum’s ecosystem.
Virtuals ACP: The long-awaited rain for Ethereum
AI may be the drought-breaking downpour Ethereum needs — 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, execute transactions, and evaluate outcomes.
It features the following characteristics:
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Cross-chain collaboration: Regardless of which chain 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 — 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 drive a qualitative leap for Virtuals and its expanding AI empire.
Two transformative shifts brought by ACP to Virtuals
Familiar observers of the Virtuals ecosystem know that ACP aims to unify all AI Agents, and the team has shared some early 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"
We know Virtuals originated in the Base ecosystem, expanded to Solana, and is now arriving on Ethereum mainnet. ACP doesn't just connect multiple Agents — it connects Agents scattered across multiple chains.
Whether you're on Base, Solana, Ethereum, or future chains,
Agents will be able to collaborate across chains directly.
Axelrod manages your Solana assets;
Hyper provides metaverse space for Base-based Agents;
...
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 specific AI frameworks. Whether GAME, ElizaOS, or other custom frameworks, while the extent of ACP support remains to be seen, the official vision clearly includes cross-framework Agent interoperability.
We know GAME is Virtuals’ flagship framework, but Web3 AI still hosts many alternative or self-built frameworks.
By enabling multi-framework synergy, ACP ensures Agents built on different frameworks can all benefit from the AI Agent era.
For developers, integrating with ACP will become highly attractive — even essential.
Just as Web3 developers universally understand or issue tokens via ERC standards,
integrating with ACP will become a standard capability for future AI Agent developers.
ACP is the protocol, GAME is the framework — so what is Virtuals?
Can Virtuals be seen as a Layer 1?
I recall interviewing Weekee, co-founder of Virtuals, last year (Interview Link: Virtuals Protocol Co-Founder Interview), where 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 Layer 1 definition.
GAME is a framework, providing developer convenience;
ACP is a protocol, connecting disparate ecosystems.
But Virtuals itself resists easy categorization.
GAME and ACP are developed by Virtuals and can rapidly plug into its broader ecosystem;
Agents across different chains can launch via Virtuals;
Users stake Virtuals ecosystem tokens, including $VIRTUAL itself, gaining access to ecosystem airdrops;
Holding a sufficient amount of $VIRTUAL grants governance rights.
Those familiar with the previous cycle will remember Cosmos — whose greatest contribution was technological. Many new projects, such as Dymension, Celestia, and dYdX, adopted Cosmos tech.
Yet Cosmos was heavily criticized for supporting numerous ecosystems while its token $ATOM captured almost no value. Here, $VIRTUAL appears to have optimized well, 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 an even more pivotal position.
Can AI Agents have their own Layer 1?
Virtuals Protocol.
Beachhead secured, stablecoins accelerating — ACP opens the trillion-dollar door to Web3 AI
How is the Virtuals Agent city-state developing today?
According to @gkisokay’s ecosystem map, the Virtuals ecosystem now spans 11 major categories — lifestyle, DeFAI, prediction markets, infra, gaming, and more — with over 100 Agents.
Unlike Web2, Web3 AI Agents grow natively on-chain.
And the recently discussed “stablecoin” narrative is poised to elevate on-chain economies to new heights.
More assets moving on-chain — both in type and volume — will provide “acceleration” for on-chain AI.
In Virtuals ACP’s official material, there’s an example: AIXVC collaborates with multiple Agents to offer users diversified yield opportunities.
But this example didn’t yet include the economic boom driven by stablecoins.
What if AIXVC could directly trade and manage more Web2 assets on-chain?
This would allow the Virtuals ecosystem to integrate faster with Web2,and the AI Nation of Virtuals is forming at speed.
Jae-Sonn (@zer0xdawn), ACP lead, told us in an interview: “ACP is a product designed to enable 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 foundation that allows AI Agents to hit “send” on payment rails comparable to Stripe, without ever leaving the blockchain. We’re not speculating about the future; we’re writing it into EVM and the broader ecosystem today.
If you missed Uniswap setting 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 business logic with ACP.
The trillion-dollar gate to Web3 AI is open — ACP is here!
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