AI agent token ELIZAOS: Founder declares it "completely dead."

ElizaLabs founder, Shaw Walters, has officially declared the demise of the AI agent token, ELIZAOS. He wrote on X (formerly Twitter), "The token is completely dead," making it clear that there will be no further support from the foundation, such as buybacks or supply adjustments. At the same time, he stated that the development of the open-source ElizaOS agent framework will continue without a new token. ELIZAOS was the successor token to AI16Z, which once had a market capitalization of $2.4 billion. AI16Z reached its peak market capitalization of $2.39 billion and a daily trading volume of $291 million on January 2, 2025. However, the current price of ELIZAOS is approximately $0.00031, a 97% drop from its peak, and its market capitalization is now around $2.3 million. CoinGecko separately tracks the abandoned AI16Z contract, which also has a market capitalization of only about $375,000. The primary reason for the token's termination is a lawsuit. In April of this year, the law firm Burwick Law filed a class-action lawsuit in the Southern District of New York. The complaint alleges false advertising, deceptive practices, and unjust enrichment, claiming that the project promoted itself as an "autonomous AI operating venture fund" while being controlled by insiders like Walters. It also claims that the equity of token holders was diluted during the migration from AI16Z to ELIZAOS. Walters stated that the foundation used all of its remaining funds to pay the settlement. He lamented, "The claims in the lawsuit were absurd, but we didn't have the funds to fight it legally," and said that he had once held about $25 million worth of tokens in his wallet, only to see them virtually lose all value. The rebranding to ELIZAOS itself was a result of external pressure. The original token name, AI16Z, was causing confusion with the brand of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), forcing a name change. AI16Z was launched in October 2024 on the Solana network with the concept of an AI agent operating a venture-style fund, with token holders participating as partners. As of the end of December 2024, the daos.fun platform held over $22 million worth of user-provided tokens, with an expiration date of October 2025. The AI agent sector experienced rapid growth, sparked by the Truth Terminal account operated by New Zealand researcher Andy Airo, with the GOAT token surpassing a market capitalization of $1.2 billion in just a few days in October 2024. In early 2025, the entire sector's market capitalization reached billions of dollars, with AI16Z and Virtuals Protocol accounting for more than half. The demise of ELIZAOS is considered a symbolic end to the AI agent-themed cryptocurrency sector, which rose and fell so rapidly.