Crypto AI Second Half: Launchpad War, tokenomics shifting towards ecology, MC emerging as a strong contender.

Written by: Zolo

It has been just over four months since the last inventory of AI projects. The originally promising momentum of AI narratives has been drained by Trump’s meme influence, followed by the emergence of deepseek, and compounded by tariffs and other significant blows. On-chain liquidity has gradually dwindled, and a series of “unexpected” events have led to the premature collapse of the AI bubble.

After reviewing those projects last year, I have been following almost all of them continuously. It is clear that some have gradually died out, some are still telling stories, some are continuously getting things done, and new things keep emerging; while some have unexpectedly rebounded because ‘the big players’ have come in.

On April 6th, the MCP project Dark went live;

On April 17, the Virtuals launchpad Genesis went live;

On April 20, the ai16z launch pad auto.fun went live.

Is there a second wave of AI? My answer is yes.

Is AI still the same as before? My answer is no.

After experiencing a few months of bubble burst, can AI achieve reconstruction from the ruins?

As we enter the second half, how should AI play? Here are my thoughts.

The launchpad erupts, with Meme Launchpad and AI Launchpad each occupying half of the market.

This year we have seen too many Launchpads, the outbreak of Four.Meme at the beginning of the year, and the launch of myshell’s AI Launchpad;

Back to the recent Launchlab, apart from these few Launchpads, different ecosystems are also developing their own Launchpads.

The competition of Meme Launchpad is essentially a competition between the ecosystem and creators.

The ecosystem determines that each public chain can have its own Meme Launchpad, while at the same time, almost only one Meme Launchpad can become the winner-takes-all role.

The competition of creators includes:

1- Provide token issuers with a better profit-sharing model

2- Attract those who are creative ( and willing to issue tokens on your platform from their perspective ).

The so-called Launchlab leader “$TIME” only peaked at 9M, and there were no Memes that could run out. News is released daily on Pump.fun, with only one or two tokens successfully graduating each day, while other platforms haven’t had any.

All suffer together.

But most of the above focuses on the Launchpad of “Meme”, and the important aspects are the angle and continuous dissemination.

Meme has no utility, while AI Agent, whether you like it or not, must have utility to be taken seriously.

So you will see AI projects launching separately on some AI Launchpads,

Because the Meme Launchpad is not suitable for AI Agent.

According to incomplete statistics, compared to Meme Launchpad, AI Launchpad has at least 5-10 as well.

Meme Launchpad: pumpfun, launchlab, fourMeme, clanker, Apeswin, etc.;

AI Launchpad: autofun, virtual genesis, creatorbid, arc ryzome, myshell, spectral, etc.

The launch method of AI Launchpad, in addition to allowing users to create tokens themselves, more often involves direct cooperation with existing AI projects.

Virtuals Genesis currently has 7 projects waiting to go live, while autofun has announced partnerships and launches for 13 projects. The previously popular Arc has also announced its AI AppStore plan.

If you believe in AI, then you should also pay attention to more new projects on the AI Launchpad, with the Meme Launchpad and AI Launchpad each taking a significant share.

The evolved ecological economics of Virtuals & AI16Z

The two most representative projects in the last cycle, Virtuals & AI16Z, are also the projects that I believe have been the most diligent and have consistently maintained updates this round.

Virtuals, as representatives of Agents, believed that the previous token economics were an important reason for driving the rise of tokens.

AI16Z, as the hottest project of the last round, has its token’s practicality criticized the most.

A few months later, both projects have undergone significant changes. In my view, their actions have become more focused on the role of tokens in the “ecosystem” rather than just the projects themselves.

Virtuals: Launched VPN, ACP, Points, Genesis

VPN: Virtual Partners Network, this program aims to reshape the intersection of AI and cryptocurrency. VPN connects investors, domain experts, scholars, and developers to collectively explore, support, and scale the best AI entity founders in the cryptocurrency space.

ACP: Agent Commerce Protocol, aims to build a commercial ecosystem composed of AI agents. This protocol will allow AI agents to autonomously interact, collaborate, and trade with each other, forming what is called a “Virtuals Nation”, preceding the Agent2Agent concept launched by Google.

Points: Points are also a proof of loyalty. Holding $VIRTUAL token can earn points, which will be used to participate in Launchpad.

Genesis: Virtuals Protocol’s new launch mechanism, key features include: points-based access, new on-chain distribution methods (deterministic, transparent, fair), and money-back guarantee (designed to protect contributors).

AI16Z: ElizaOS V2, AUTOFUN, AI16Z New Economic Model, Spartan V2

ElizaOS V2: The new upgraded AI framework, because there were many contributors and plugins in V1, the efficiency for new developers using its framework has decreased. Therefore, new features and structural optimizations will be updated soon, including swarms, agent interactions, etc.

AUTOFUN: A new AI launch platform with a new, fairer, and long-term bonding curve, customizable CA addresses, AI Token verification chat mechanism, community content creation tools, and more.

AI16Z New Economic Model: There are currently no detailed official announcement materials. According to the team, the profits from the launchpad will be used for buybacks, and the purchased ai16z will, in turn, replenish its launch token’s liquidity pool, which is similar to virtuals.

Spartan V2: $degenai will be launched with the upgrade of ElizaOS V2, and as an important component, it will also shill the autofun project.

Regardless of functionality or Token, both former leading projects have not stopped empowering the ecosystem. Here are two screenshots:

Recently, the concept of MCP has once again ignited the AI track, and some friends have started “picking up garbage” in old projects and focusing on the ecological opportunities of these old projects.

Besides DARK, the recently popular SkyAI is also a MCP concept, and the previous old coins: $DIGIMON, $AVA, $ARC, etc. are also moving in this direction.

As long as AI continues to develop, more new concepts will emerge.

As long as you don’t leave the poker table, there will still be opportunities this year💪