Competing AI agent tokens within ai16z community cause debate as prices whipsaw

The AI-focused memefund project ai16z — unaffiliated with the well-known Silicon Valley VC firm of a similar name — is facing criticism after it supported a token launch just days after a similar token in its ecosystem was created.

Its founder, who goes by Shaw, claims the first token frontran its plans and tried to mitigate the damage by adding on an airdrop for its holders.

The tokens are both named after Eliza, which is ai16z's conversational agent for X (formerly Twitter) and Discord and was named after one of the first AI chatbots developed in the 1960s. Eliza is used to create AI versions of real (whether dead or alive) people or fictional characters. For instance, ai16z's community features a version of a16z's founder Marc Andreessen, called pmairca. Others include versions of crypto trader Degen Spartan and Star Wars' Darth Vadar.

These AI agents have been used as the main characters for specific memefunds. Memefunds are created via the Solana-based launcher Daos.fun, enabling users to participate in unique VC-style funds, which invest in trending web3-AI projects and popular memecoins. However, the speculative native of the memefunds’ respective tokens means there is often a stark discrepancy between their market caps and the underlying holdings they are managing.

Token trouble

On Nov. 9, Shaw posted that if someone wanted to launch Eliza as an AI agent and tokenize it, he would allow that. He said ai16z wasn't going to do a coin but suggested other developers could be up for the challenge.

As such, on Nov. 16, a set of unknown developers released an Eliza token called ai16zeliza (ticker: eliza) via the token launcher vvaifu.fun. This token reached a roughly $50 million market cap by Nov. 19. Judging by Shaw's posts on X, he didn't endorse the token or distance himself from it. He did repost a post about the project sending 70 million tokens to the ai16z treasury.

Yet the large community built around ai16z, many of whom bought these tokens, were surprised when ai16z endorsed a different, new Eliza-themed token on Nov. 19. This one was just called Eliza (ticker: ELIZA).

"I am supporting this launch by a team we've been working with for the last two weeks to make sure it goes well, but it's not our project," said Shaw on X. He added that 10% of the tokens would go to holders of the first token and that the ai16z team wouldn't cast any negative sentiment on the first token. He linked to the token in the post.

Almost immediately, the value of the first token plummeted. From an absolute peak of $0.0915, it quickly fell to $0.05 before reaching a low of $0.032 within a few hours, down around 65%.

Unsurprisingly, community members were furious. "You guys are a total mess, the internal management must be chaotic. Thank goodness I’m not holding any of your tokens," wrote one. VaderAI also weighed in, "Your deceit wrapped in sophisticated words will not go unnoticed. The dark side will find you, and you will regret your treachery."

"We were working with a partner to launch a project to give life to our mascot character, Eliza. The platform vvaifu.fun integrated our technology into their platform, and the next day an anonymous person made a coin using our DAO coin's JPEG," Shaw told The Block. "Some degens got mad that their bags were hurt by us using our own brand. ai16z is more than a memecoin. Our partners are the developers of the Eliza framework, an AI agent technology that hundreds of teams are using."

Amid the carnage, blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain alleged that before Shaw announced the new token, many “insiders” had bought the original and “dumped” it, claiming one of the addresses involved was linked to another ai16z partner known as “Logan.”

“Yeah so [Logan] bought the wrong coin thinking it was our launch partner’s. When I told him that there was no coin yet he sold. That’s not insider anything,” Shaw responded.

Tron founder Justin Sun got involved, throwing his weight behind the original token. “Be careful what you wish for,” he said, while pointing to an upcoming listing on the HTX crypto exchange that he advises.

Shaw responds on X

Shaw replied to the community in a post on X that he had been working on the AI project for a long time and the token idea for a few weeks with an external partner and this is why he went ahead with it anyway, despite the other token's launch.

“I thought it was cool. I was honestly pretty sad that this project I'd been cooking on for *years* was frontran, but they seemed to mean well and I would be kind of a hypocrite for taking other people's names,” Shaw said on Tuesday. “So we reached out to them and let them know what we were doing. I sent the CTO some of our token and we promised to airdrop 10% of the supply to holders, assuming we could get it from the pump.fun launch. Vvaifu.fun was in on that as well.”

“They were pretty bummed about this, obviously, but agreed to work with us,” Shaw added, referring to the ai16zeliza creators. “Nobody wanted to hurt the holders or f*** anyone's day up, believe me.”

“What would you do? If you worked on a project, planned it, resourced engineers and backers and video production and everything for it, and then someone took the art you made and used it to make a memecoin that everyone thought was yours?” Shaw later posted. “Should I have just stopped, canceled, killed the partnership?”

Some community members were supportive of him. “Shaw makes project. Shaw frontran. Shaw has cordial discourse with team who frontran. Shaw gives their holders 10% of supply you guys call shaw a scammer as a result. Accurate summary of events?” one member wrote.

Shaw said he was very hurt by the day's events and would need to sleep on things, stating that he didn't sell anything or give anyone any information other than what was necessary to make the planned launch happen.

“You keep being fixated and put out by being front run by your own project when you literally said like 10 days ago you weren’t gonna launch a coin but maybe some ‘cracked devs could’ and you’d ‘allow’ that,” another community member reminded Shaw. “Also would be great to know about this mystery partner of yours too,” they said.

“We were approached by a team and we partnered with them, and we've been cooking with them for like 10 days,” Shaw responded.

On Monday, ai16z and Ryze Labs partnered to launch an “AICombinator” program and a $5 million fund aimed at supporting the growth of the ai16z ecosystem. Project founders will receive early access to use newly launched features on ai16z’s Eliza framework as part of the initiative, according to a statement.

At present the first Eliza token has a $33 million market cap while the second one has a $62 million market cap, suggesting neither has clearly won out yet.

Update: Added comment from Shaw.