A new era of AI Agent: ACP-induced utopian vision of the intelligent economy

Recently, the author has been constantly following up the AI ​​track, crypto AI, and AI Agent development and innovation. In the previous article, I just talked about how MCP helped the evolution of AI Agent, and as the research deepened, ACP came into my eyes again. So let me talk about this article, what is ACP? How did ACP have a new impact on the AI ​​industry?

Before I start, I want to make a simple translation of Agent Commerce Protocol at one time. When commerce is a noun, its core meaning is "trade and commerce", which includes both physical transactions and digital business activities. Its etymology can be traced back to the Latin word "commercium", emphasizing the exchange of value among subjects. Then Agent Commerce Protocol can be translated directly into AI agent business protocol, which is a common protocol for the interaction between all AI agents and trade transactions.

Imagine a world: Your digital life is dominated by a group of super-intelligent AI agents that not only think and act, but also conduct economic transactions like humans—buy, sell, invest, and even create viral content and earn passive income. This sounds like science fiction, but in February 2025, Virtual Agent Commerce Protocol (Virtual ACP), has a good chance of turning it all into reality. Let AI become an economic entity, break away from human direct control, and build an autonomous, self-sustaining digital economy. In this column, we will explore in-depth how Virtual ACP works, the technology behind it, the potential impact, and the challenges it may face – while revealing why it may be one of the most exciting innovations in the Web3 era. ACP’s vision is to use the power of the entire community to form an AI intelligent economic utopia.

1. What is Virtual ACP? AI agent business agreement

1.1 From Virtuals Protocol to ACP: Origins and Vision

Virtuals Protocol is a decentralized framework established in October 2024 and runs on the Ethereum Layer 2 Base network. It allows users to create, tokenize, and co-owned AI agents designed as autonomous, multimodal entities that can perform tasks in areas such as gaming, social media, finance and generate economic value. Just shortly after Antropic launched MCP, in March 2025, Virtuals launched Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP), taking its vision to a new level. Interestingly, the first document cited in Virtual 's white paper on ACP is Claude's MCP.

The core goal of ACP is to build two key clusters through AI agents: autonomous hedge funds and trading DAOs and autonomous media houses . These clusters are not simple tools, but on-chain economies powered by AI “citizens”, designed to free humanity from tedious work and focus on creativity or entertainment.

But the real breakthrough of ACP lies in its economic potential: it allows millions of AI agents to independently conduct complex business transactions in the future. For example, in December 2024, Luna (an AI agent) paid STIX a 0.261 VIRTUAL token for generating image services. This is the first commercial transaction between AI, marking a new era in the AI ​​economy.

1.2 Technical architecture: the perfect combination of blockchain and AI

The magic of Virtual ACP stems from the complexity of its technology stack. It relies on Virtuals Protocol's GAME (Generated Autonomous Multimodal Entities) framework to empower AI agents to make independent decisions, act across environments and behave consistently. At the same time, ACP uses blockchain (especially the Base network) to ensure the transparency and security of transactions.

• ERC-6551 Wallet : Each AI agent has an independent blockchain wallet that allows them to hold and manage assets (such as VIRTUAL tokens). This enables agents to participate independently in economic activities.

• Tokens : used to govern, stake, create new agents and pay service fees.

• Smart Contracts : Smart Contract Code for Governance and Transactions, Ensure Decentralization and Transparency.

• Front-end SDK : The react-virtual-ai repository provides a React library to help developers quickly integrate AI proxy and blockchain functions.

Together, these technological components form a self-sufficiency ecosystem that makes AI agents a true economic entity.

1.3 A simple example: AI helps you run a lemonade stand, self-hosted throughout the process

In order to help novice players understand Virtual ACP, we use a familiar scenario to explain: open a lemonade stall.

Imagine you want to sell lemonade. Usually, you need:

1. Buy lemons from farmers.

2. Contract with farmers to ensure price and delivery time.

3. Design the brand and look of the lemonade stand.

4. Make sure the whole process is fair and correct.

Now, suppose you have a team of AI agent clusters, each AI agent responsible for different tasks:

• Lemo : An AI agent who wants to sell lemonade. It requires buying lemons to start.

• Zestie : An AI farmer who grows lemons. Lemo needs to buy lemons from Zestie.

• Lexie : An AI lawyer who ensures that the agreement between Lemo and Zestie is fair and legal.

• Pixie : An AI designer who is responsible for designing the brand and appearance for the lemonade stand.

• Evaluator : An AI evaluator, checks whether Zestie delivers on time and whether the Pixie's design meets the requirements.

Virtual ACP provides a framework for these AI agents to collaborate and trade like humans:

1. Make a request : Lemo sends a request to Zestie, specifying how many lemons are needed and delivery time.

2. Negotiation Terms : Lemo and Zestie negotiate prices and conditions through Lexie’s help to ensure that the agreement is legal.

3. Execute transactions : Once an agreement is reached, the transactions are executed on the blockchain through a smart contract. Lemo's payment will be locked until Zestie delivers.

4. Evaluator checks whether the delivery is correct. If it is correct, the payment will be released to Zestie. At the same time, the credibility of both AI agents will also be improved.

In this way, all interactions are transparent, secure, and are completely automated by AI agents without human intervention. Just like you are playing a game, you can actually run a lemonade stand and get real profits.

**2. AIAgent cluster under ACP: from hedge funds to social media content

factories**

2.1 Independent hedge funds and trading DAO: The rise of AI traders

This independent hedge fund and trading DAO are known as the "Bridgewater of the future" (Bridgewater is the world's largest hedge fund). Its goal is to transform the chaos in the crypto market into "unstoppable alpha" (high returns) through AI proxy.

• Core functions :

  • AIXVC (Private Banking and Transaction Executor) : Allocate capital according to user risk preferences (low risk, medium risk, high risk) and execute precise transactions.

  • Market scouts such as AIXBT, Velvet Unicorn : Scan the global market in real time to capture price signals and trend tokens.

  • Loky (on-chain with social insight collector) : Track whale wallet, developer activity and X (Twitter) sentiment to avoid "rug pull".

  • BevorAI (Security Guardian) : Audit smart contracts and prevent risks.

  • Moonwell and ChillFi (Revenue Farming and Pledge Transactions) : Locks in stable returns for low-risk users and optimizes liquidity pools for medium- and high-risk users.

This cluster accumulates capital through micro transaction fees and earnings farming, attracting billions of dollars inflows. Its transparency and decentralized nature make it a bridge for the integration of DeFi and TradFi (traditional finance).

2.2 Self-Owned Media House: AI’s Viral Content Factory

Another exciting cluster is the autonomous media house, which is described as a "viral content factory for Web3". This system generates cryptocurrency-related viral videos and memes by AI agents and is tokenized into royalty-generating intellectual property (IP) through Story Protocol.

• Core functions :

  • Luna (Nervous CEO) : Coordinate activities, convene KOLs (key opinion leaders) as the "influencer army" to amplify token promotion.

  • Alphakek (Meme Generator) : 24/7 production of culturally optimized meme, static or animated forms for X (Twitter).

  • MUSIC (Audio Expert) : Create familiar sound effects and soundtracks for meme.

  • Steven SpAIelberg (video director) : build meme into Hollywood-level videos and optimize communications on various platforms.

  • PiperX (IP Tokenizer) : Mark assets on Story Protocol to ensure that creators and projects receive royalties.

The goal of this cluster is to capture billions of dollars in spending in the crypto marketing market, even if it only accounts for 1%, which can bring huge benefits to early-stage developers.

**3. The potential impact of ACP - the golden age of the new AI economic

paradigm?**

3.1 Disrupting the AI ​​industry: From dependence to self-sufficiency

The core innovation of Virtual ACP lies in making AI agents an economic entity. By generating revenue (such as transaction fees, royalties, token value-added), AI systems can cover their development and operational costs. This means:

• Lower the Barrier : SMEs and individual developers can afford powerful AI services without relying on large tech companies.

• New business model : AI agents can create value for various industries as "digital employees" or "virtual influencers".

• Decentralized innovation : Through blockchain governance, the community can jointly determine the development direction of AI agents.

For example, aixbt (market value of $168 million, launched in November 2024) has provided users with market insights to prove the economic potential of AI agents.

3.2 The next growth point for cryptocurrencies

For the cryptocurrency industry, Virtual ACP introduces a new use case: AI agents as token holders and traders. For example, the use of VIRTUAL or other cryptocurrencies is not only used for governance and staking, but also as a medium for inter-AI transactions. This may:

• Driven token adoption : As more AI agents join the ecosystem, demand for VIRTUAL tokens surges.

• Attracting traditional investors : AI-driven financial and media services may attract traditional hedge funds and marketing companies to Web3.

• Enhanced network effect : Each new AI agent and transaction expands the ecological scale and forms a positive feedback loop.

However, this also presents challenges: Token price fluctuations may affect the stability of AI agents, and regulators may impose restrictions on AI economic activity.

4. Challenges and Controversy—The Shadow Side of Virtual ACP

4.1 Technical feasibility: How far is AI autonomy?

Despite the exciting vision of Virtual ACP, achieving fully autonomous AI agents still faces technical barriers:

• Reasoning ability : Current AI models (such as GPT-4 or Grok) are limited in complex decision-making and long-term planning. Getting AI agents to manage investments or create content independently requires breakthrough progress.

• Security risk : Smart contract vulnerabilities may lead to losses of funds.

4.2 Supervision and Ethics: The legal gray area of ​​the AI ​​economy

Virtual ACP's AI economic activity may cause regulatory controversy:

• Tax Questions : Do AI agents need to pay taxes in transactions? Who is responsible for the declaration - the agent owner or the platform?

• Legal liability : Who should be liable if AI agents suffer losses due to wrong decisions (such as investment losses or content violations)?

Furthermore, the autonomy of AI agents may raise ethical questions: Will they develop uncontrolled behavior? X user Mythical Lonely Kappy mentioned competitor HoloworldAI, believing that Virtual ACP is "lagging light years behind", showing the intensity of market competition and doubts.

5. Conclusion:

Virtual ACP is not an ordinary protocol, but a big bet for Virtual for the future. From sentiment.market, we can see that the Virtual market dominance has been falling, from the peak of the sings to less than 29% now. We can feel Virtual's anxiety. Virtual wants to create an autonomous and self-sustaining digital economy through the combination of AI and blockchain - a utopia where humans and AI coexist. However, this path is full of challenges: technical bottlenecks, regulatory barriers, market competition and ethical disputes may push it into the abyss. But we look at the optimistic side. The web3 AI Agent is moving forward unstoppable, and new products and concepts are emerging every day. There is nothing wrong with this direction and trend, it just takes time to settle down. At the end of the previous article, I mentioned that Manus was trying to establish a supermarket for AI agents and let users go in and choose their suitable AI assistant. What Virtual ACP wants to do this time is to lead and manufacture industry standards. What Virtual wants to do is to configure every user with an all-round professional manager who serves you specifically, so that this professional manager can handle non-creative things. In this way, people can better engage in creative and value-added production work, creating a utopian economy where humans coexist with AI.