AI computing protocol attracts $158M; according to Arweave’s founder, the fair launch tokens could help the industry return to the true ethos of crypto,
Within a week of its “fair launch,” AO, a computing protocol based on Arweave for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has garnered more than $158 million in deposits.
A new protocol, AO, is constructed on Arweave’s permanent data storage layer to facilitate the execution of parallel applications through a decentralized computational paradigm. In addition, it will enable the execution of AI applications on-chain, thereby allowing for the execution of large language models (LLMs) within smart contracts.
Sam Williams, the proprietor of Arweave, attributes the AO (AO) token’s success and substantial inflows to the industry’s desire for novel technological solutions.
Williams disclosed to Cointelegraph:
“The launch of AO has generated a huge amount of building, usage, and excitement. This has been reflected in the rapid growth of the network’s TVL. The industry is ready for something new — both in terms of tech and the economics of blockchain networks — and that is exactly what AO provides.”
Fair launch tokens reflect the ethos of crypto
According to Dune data, the AO token attracted most of the $158 million in total deposits, or $48 million in stETH, on June 18.
In addition to its innovative parallel computing strategy, its “fair launch” paradigm also influenced the token’s success.
The AO token was minted without pre-sale, pre-mining, or venture capitalist (VC) allocations, with the community receiving 100% of the token supply.
According to Williams of Arweave, the AO token’s fair launch attempts to reestablish the crypto industry’s original ethos of fair and equal access. He composed the following:
“AO’s technology solves many of the core issues that have held crypto back from mass adoption, so we built economics to match that, too. Fair, equal access for all. No preferential treatment for anyone.”
For most of 2024, investors have been preoccupied with pursuing the next significant AI application, which has resulted in increased attention given to cryptocurrencies related to artificial intelligence. Some of the most prominent AI-based cryptocurrencies began to recover on June 20, following a weekly decline of double digits.
Following a nearly 13% price decline last week, the Near Protocol token experienced an intraday recovery of more than 8.4%.
According to CoinMarketCap data, the SingularityNet (AGIX) token and the Fetch.ai (FET) token experienced a 23% increase in the past 24 hours, culminating at 12:25 p.m. in UTC.
The cumulative market capitalization of AI-based cryptos increased by over 7% to $30.9 billion, while their total trading volume increased by over 14% to $2.68 billion.