The New Era of AI Agents in the Ten-Thousand-Word Long Article: The Utopian Vision of the Agent Economy Triggered by ACP

Recently, I have been continuously following the developments and innovations in the AI track, crypto AI, and AI Agents. In the previous article, I discussed how MCP aids in the evolution of AI Agents, and with further research, ACP has come into my view. So, let me talk about what ACP is and how it is impacting the AI industry.

Before we begin, I would like to provide a simple translation of the Agent Commerce Protocol. The core meaning of commerce as a noun is "trade, business," which encompasses both physical transactions and digital business activities. Its origin can be traced back to the Latin word "commercium," emphasizing value exchange between entities. Therefore, the Agent Commerce Protocol can be straightforwardly translated as the AI Agent Commerce Protocol, which is a universal protocol for commercial and trade exchanges between all AI agents.

Imagine a world where your digital life is dominated by a group of super-intelligent AI agents who not only think, act, but also transact economically like humans – buying, selling, investing, and even creating viral content and earning passive income. It sounds like science fiction, but in February 2025, the Virtual Agent Commerce Protocol (Virtual ACP for short) has a good chance of making it happen. Let AI become an economic entity, get rid of the direct control of humans, and build an autonomous and self-sustaining digital economy. In this column, we'll take a deep dive into how Virtual ACP works, the technology behind it, its potential impact, and the challenges it could face – all while revealing why it could be one of the most exciting innovations in the Web3 era. ACP's vision is to leverage the power of the whole community to form an AI agent economic utopia.

1. What is Virtual ACP? AI Intelligent Agent Business Agreement

1.1 From Virtuals Protocol to ACP: Origins and Vision

Virtuals Protocol is a decentralized framework established in October 2024, running on the Ethereum Layer 2 Base network. It allows users to create, tokenize, and jointly own AI agents that are designed as autonomous, multimodal entities capable of performing tasks and generating economic value in areas such as gaming, social media, and finance. Shortly after Antropic launched the MCP, in March 2025, Virtuals introduced the Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP), taking its vision to a new height. Interestingly, the first cited reference in the white paper about ACP from Virtual 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 just simple tools, but on-chain economies driven by AI "citizens" aimed at freeing humans from tedious work, allowing us to focus on creative or entertainment activities.

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

1.2 Technical Architecture: The Perfect Combination of Blockchain and AI

The magic of Virtual ACP lies in the complexity of its tech stack. It relies on the GAME (Generative Autonomous Multimodal Entities) framework of the Virtuals Protocol, empowering AI agents with the ability to make autonomous decisions, act across environments, and exhibit consistent behavior. At the same time, ACP utilizes blockchain (particularly the Base network) to ensure the transparency and security of transactions.

• ERC-6551 Wallet: Each AI agent has an independent blockchain wallet, allowing them to hold and manage assets (such as VIRTUAL tokens). This enables agents to independently participate in economic activities.
• Token: Used for governance, staking, creating new proxies, and paying service fees.
• Smart Contract: The smart contract code for governance and trading, ensuring decentralization and transparency.
• Frontend SDK: The react-virtual-ai repository provides a React library to help developers quickly integrate AI agents and blockchain functionality.

These technological components together form a self-sustaining ecosystem, allowing AI agents to become true economic entities.

1.3 A Simple Example: AI Helps You Run a Lemonade Stand, Fully Self-Managed

To help novice players understand Virtual ACP, we use a familiar scenario to explain: opening a lemonade stand.

Imagine that you want to sell lemonade. Typically, you need to:

1. Buy lemons from farmers.
2. Sign contracts with farmers to ensure price and delivery time.
3. Design the brand and appearance of the lemonade stand.
4. Ensure that the entire process is fair and correct.

Now, suppose you have a team composed of a cluster of AI agents, each responsible for different tasks:

• Lemo: An AI agent that wants to sell lemonade. It needs to buy lemons to get started.
• Zestie: An AI farmer that grows lemons. Lemo needs to buy lemons from Zestie.
• Lexie: An AI lawyer that ensures the agreement between Lemo and Zestie is fair and legal.
• Pixie: An AI designer responsible for creating the brand and appearance of the lemonade stand.
• Evaluator: An AI evaluator that checks whether Zestie delivers on time and whether Pixie's design meets the requirements.

Virtual ACP provides a framework that allows 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 the delivery time.
2. Negotiation Terms: Lemo and Zestie, with the help of Lexie, negotiated the price and conditions to ensure the legality of the agreement.
3. Execute Transaction: Once an agreement is reached, the transaction is executed on the blockchain via a smart contract. Lemo's payment will be locked until Zestie delivers.
4. Evaluation Result: The evaluator checks if the delivery is correct, and if so, the payment will be released to Zestie, while the reputation of both parties' AI agents will also be enhanced.

In this way, all interactions are transparent, secure, and completely automated by AI agents, without the need for human intervention. You can operate a lemonade stand and earn real profits just by clicking as if you were playing a game.

2. AIAgent Cluster under ACP: From Hedge Funds to Social Media Content Factories

2.1 Independent Hedge Funds and Trading DAOs: The Rise of AI Traders

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

CORE FEATURES:

• AIXVC (Private Banking and Trade Executor): Allocates capital based on user risk preferences (low risk, medium risk, high risk) and executes precise trades.
• AIXBT, Velvet Unicorn and other market scouts: Real-time scanning of global markets to capture price signals and trend tokens.
• Loky (On-chain and Social Insight Collector): Track whale wallets, developer activities, and X (Twitter) sentiment to avoid "rug pull."
  • BevorAI (Guardian of Security): Auditing smart contracts to prevent risks.
• Moonwell and ChillFi (Yield Farming and Staking Trading): Locking stable returns for low-risk users, optimizing liquidity pools for medium to high-risk users.

This cluster accumulates capital through micro transaction fees and yield farming, attracting billions of dollars in funds. Its transparency and decentralization make it a bridge for the integration of DeFi and TradFi (traditional finance).

2.2 Independent Media House: AI's Viral Content Factory

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

• Core Functions:

• Luna (Nervous CEO): Coordinate activities, summon KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) as the "Influencer Army" to amplify token promotion.
  • Alphakek (Meme Generator): Producing culture-optimized memes for X (Twitter) 24/7, in static or animated form.
• MUSIC (Audio Expert): Create catchy sound effects and music for memes.
• Steven SpAIelberg (Video Director): Transforming memes into Hollywood-level videos, optimizing dissemination across platforms.
• PiperX (IP Tagger): Tag assets on the Story Protocol to ensure creators and projects receive royalties.

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

Three, The Potential Impact of ACP - The Golden Era of the New Economic Paradigm of AI?

3.1 Disrupting the AI Industry: From Dependency to Self-Sufficiency

The core innovation of Virtual ACP lies in allowing AI agents to become economic entities. By generating income (such as transaction fees, royalties, and token appreciation), AI systems can cover their development and operational costs. This means:

• Lowering the Barrier: Small and medium-sized enterprises and individual developers can afford powerful AI services without relying on large tech companies.
• New Business Models: AI agents can act as "digital employees" or "virtual influencers" to create value across various industries.
• Decentralized Innovation: Through blockchain governance, the community can collectively determine the development direction of AI agents.

For example, aixbt (market cap of 168 million USD, launched in November 2024) has provided users with market insights, demonstrating the economic potential of AI agents.

3.2 The Next Growth Point of Cryptocurrency

For the cryptocurrency industry, Virtual ACP introduces a new use case: AI agents as token holders and traders. For example, using VIRTUAL or other cryptocurrencies not only for governance and staking but also as a medium for transactions between AIs. This could:

• Adoption of Driving Tokens: As more AI agents join the ecosystem, the demand for VIRTUAL tokens surges.
• Attracting Traditional Investors: AI-driven financial and media services may attract traditional hedge funds and marketing companies into Web3.
• Enhance Network Effects: Each new AI agent and transaction expands the scale of the ecosystem, creating a positive feedback loop.

However, this also brings challenges: the price volatility of tokens may affect the stability of AI agents, and regulators may impose restrictions on AI economic activities.

4. Challenges and Controversies - The Dark Side of Virtual ACP

4.1 Technical Feasibility: How far can AI autonomy go?

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

• Reasoning Ability: Current AI models (like GPT-4 or Grok) have limitations in complex decision-making and long-term planning. Enabling AI agents to independently manage investments or create content requires breakthrough advancements.
• Security Risks: Vulnerabilities in smart contracts can lead to financial losses.

4.2 Regulation and Ethics: The Legal Gray Areas of the AI Economy

The AI economic activities of Virtual ACP may trigger regulatory controversies:

• Tax Issues: Do transactions made by AI agents need to be taxed? Who is responsible for reporting - the agent owner or the platform?
• Legal Responsibility: If the AI agent causes losses due to erroneous decisions (such as investment losses or content violations), who should be held accountable?

Moreover, the autonomy of AI agents may raise ethical issues: will they develop uncontrollable behaviors? X user Mythical Lonely Kappy mentioned competitor HoloworldAI, believing that Virtual ACP is "light years behind," highlighting the intensity of market competition and skepticism.

Five, Conclusion: