I have been following up on the AI track, crypto AI, and the development and innovation of AI Agents recently. In the last article, I talked about how MCP helped the evolution of AI Agents. As I continued to research, ACP caught my eye. In this article, let me talk about what ACP is and how it has a new impact on the AI industry.
Before I start, I would like to give a simple translation of Agent Commerce Protocol. When commerce is used as a noun, its core meaning is "trade, business", which includes both physical transactions and digital business activities. Its etymology can be traced back to the Latin word "commercium", which emphasizes the value exchange between entities. Then Agent Commerce Protocol can be directly translated into AI intelligent agent business protocol, which is a universal protocol for all AI intelligent agents to interact with each other for business and trade.
Imagine a world where your digital life is dominated by a group of super-intelligent AI agents that can 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, the Virtual Agent Commerce Protocol (Virtual ACP for short) is likely to make all this a reality. Let AI become an economic entity, get rid of direct human control, and build an autonomous and self-sustaining digital economy. In this column, we will explore in depth the operating mechanism of Virtual ACP, 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. The vision of ACP 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: Origin and Vision
Virtuals Protocol is a decentralized framework founded in October 2024 and runs on the Ethereum Layer 2 Base network. It allows users to create, tokenize, and co-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, finance, etc. 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 driven by AI "citizens" that aim to free humans from tedious work and allow us to focus on creative or entertainment activities.
But the real breakthrough of ACP lies in its economic potential: it enables thousands of AI agents in the future to conduct complex commercial transactions autonomously. For example, in December 2024, Luna (an AI agent) paid STIX 0.261 VIRTUAL tokens for generating image services. This was the first commercial transaction between AIs, marking a new era in the AI economy.
1.2 Technical architecture: the perfect combination of blockchain and AI
The magic of Virtual ACP comes from the complexity of its technology stack. It relies on the Virtuals Protocol's GAME (Generative Autonomous Multimodal Entities) framework to give AI agents the ability to make autonomous 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 in economic activities independently.
Tokens : used for governance, staking, creating new agents, and paying for services.
Smart Contracts : Smart contract codes for governance and transactions, ensuring decentralization and transparency.
Front-end SDK : The react-virtual-ai repository provides the React library to help developers quickly integrate AI agents and blockchain functions.
Together, these technical components form a self-sufficient ecosystem that enables AI agents to become true economic entities.
1.3 A simple example: AI helps you run a lemonade stand, all self-hosted
To help novice players understand Virtual ACP, we use a familiar scenario to explain: opening a lemonade stand.
Imagine you want to sell lemonade. Typically, you would need:
Buy lemons from farmers.
Sign contracts with farmers to ensure price and delivery time.
Design the branding and look of your lemonade stand.
Make sure the entire process is fair and correct.
Now, imagine you have a team consisting of a cluster of AI agents, each responsible for a different task:
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 who ensures that the agreement between Lemo and Zestie is fair and legal.
Pixie : An AI designer responsible for designing the branding and look of a lemonade stand.
Evaluator : An AI evaluator that checks whether Zestie is delivered on time and whether Pixie’s design meets the requirements.
Virtual ACP provides a framework that enables these AI agents to collaborate and transact like humans:
Make a request : Lemo sends a request to Zestie, specifying how many lemons are needed and the time of delivery.
Negotiating terms : Lemo and Zestie negotiate the price and terms with the help of Lexie to ensure the agreement is legal.
Execute the transaction : Once agreed upon, the transaction is executed on the blockchain through a smart contract. The Lemo payment is locked until the Zestie delivers the goods.
Evaluation results : The Evaluator checks whether the delivery is correct. If so, the payment is released to Zestie and the reputation of both AI agents is enhanced.
In this way, all interactions are transparent, secure, and completely automated by AI agents without human intervention. You can operate a real lemonade stand and earn real money by clicking like you are playing a game.
2. AI Agent Clusters under ACP: From Hedge Funds to Social Media Content Factories
2.1 Autonomous Hedge Funds and Trading DAOs: The Rise of AI Traders
This autonomous hedge fund and trading DAO, hailed as the "Bridgewater of the future" (Bridgewater is the world's largest hedge fund), aims to transform the chaos of the crypto market into "unstoppable alpha" (high returns) through AI agents.
Core features :
AIXVC (Private Bank and Trade 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, etc .: Scan global markets in real time to capture price signals and trending tokens.
Loky (On-chain and social insights collector) : Tracks whale wallets, developer activity, and X (Twitter) sentiment to avoid “rug pulls”.
BevorAI (Security Guardian) : Audit smart contracts and prevent risks.
Moonwell and ChillFi (yield farming and staking transactions) : lock in stable returns for low-risk users and optimize liquidity pools for medium and high-risk users.
This cluster accumulates capital through micro-transaction fees and yield farming, attracting billions of dollars in capital inflows. Its transparency and decentralized nature make it a bridge for the integration of DeFi and TradFi (traditional finance).
2.2 Autonomous Media House: AI’s Viral Content Factory
Another exciting cluster is Autonomous Media House, which is described as “the viral content factory for Web3.” This system generates cryptocurrency-related viral videos and memes through AI agents and tokenizes them into royalty-generating intellectual property (IP) through Story Protocol.
Core features :
Luna (Neurotic CEO) : Coordinate activities, convene KOLs (key opinion leaders) as an "influencer army" to amplify token promotion.
Alphakek (Meme Generator) : 24/7 production of culturally optimized memes for X (Twitter), in static or animated form.
MUSIC (Audio Expert) : Create familiar sound effects and soundtracks for memes.
Steven SpAIelberg (video director) : Turn memes into Hollywood-level videos and optimize their dissemination on various platforms.
PiperX (IP Tokenizer) : Tokenizes assets on Story Protocol, ensuring creators and projects receive royalties.
The goal of this cluster is to capture the billions of dollars spent in the crypto marketing market, and even just 1% can bring huge benefits to early developers.
3. The potential impact of ACP: the golden age of AI’s new economic paradigm?
3.1 Disrupting the AI Industry: From Dependence to Self-Sufficiency
The core innovation of Virtual ACP is to make AI agents economic entities. By generating income (such as transaction fees, royalties, token appreciation), AI systems can cover their development and operating costs. This means:
Lowering the barrier to entry : Small and medium-sized enterprises and individual developers can afford powerful AI services without relying on large technology companies.
New business models : AI agents can serve as “digital employees” or “virtual influencers” to create value for a variety of industries.
Decentralized Innovation : Through blockchain governance, the community can collectively decide the direction of development of AI agents.
For example, aixbt ($168 million market cap, launched in November 2024) has provided users with market insights that demonstrate 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:
Driving 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 firms to Web3.
Strengthening network effects : Each new AI agent and transaction expands the scale of the ecosystem, forming a positive feedback loop.
However, this also brings challenges: token price fluctuations may affect the stability of AI agents, and regulators may impose restrictions on AI economic activities.
4. Challenges and Controversies: The Shadow Side of Virtual ACP
4.1 Technical feasibility: How far is AI from becoming autonomous?
While the vision of Virtual ACP is exciting, there are still technical barriers to achieving fully autonomous AI agents:
Reasoning capabilities : Current AI models (such as GPT-4 or Grok) are limited in complex decision-making and long-term planning. Enabling AI agents to independently manage investments or create content requires breakthrough advances.
Security risks : Smart contract vulnerabilities may lead to loss of funds.
4.2 Regulation and ethics: the legal gray area of the AI economy
Virtual ACP’s AI economic activities may trigger regulatory disputes:
Tax issues : Are transactions by AI agents taxable? Who is responsible for reporting them – the agent owner or the platform?
Legal liability : Who should be held liable if an AI agent causes losses due to incorrect decisions (such as investment losses or content violations)?
In addition, the autonomy of AI agents may raise ethical issues: Will they develop uncontrolled behaviors? X user Mythical Lonely Kappy mentioned competitor HoloworldAI and believed that Virtual ACP was "light years behind", showing the fierceness of market competition and skepticism.
V. Conclusion:
