Protocol Research
Venice: The Crypto-Native ChatGPT
What if you had crypto-native ChatGPT?
Enter Venice. It provides private uncensored AI-generation service.
To build something like this, you need three key things:
- Software level. AI Models that generate responses.
- Hardware level. The layer where the AI Model can compute.
- Accessibility. Open-source AI has been around, but it was limited to technical people.
Venice combines all three. It runs multiple open-source AI models on distributed hardware with a smooth UI that rivals ChatGPT.
They use a freemium model—most features are free, but for $18/month, you unlock additional functionalities.
- Generate unlimited texts and images.
- Upload PDFs to get summaries or insights
- Turn off Safe Mode to create all types of images (iykyk).
- Modify System Prompt and prompt the model itself on the backend.
Last week, Venice launched its token: $VVV. Half of the initial supply was airdropped to Venice users and AI-related projects on Base.
If you held tokens such as Virtuals, Game, VaderAI, Aerodrome, and some others, you should have a nice airdrop waiting for you.
If you've been reading this newsletter, you know your boy has been writing about Virtuals and Game for a while. It pays to read this newsletter :-).
Find out how to claim here (Always be careful when claiming airdrops. I've linked to the official blog post)
$VVV isn't a useless governance token either. Staking it will give you pro-rata access to Venice's inference capacity. f you stake 1% of $VVV, you get 1% of Venice's growing API capacity, indefinitely.
The inflation rate for the token is at 14%. It'll fall over time.
You can learn more about tokenomics here.
The airdrop was great, but there are more reasons why I'm excited about it.
#1. Private and uncensored AI.
Big Tech AIs spy on you. ChatGPT stores your conversations and uses them to train its models (and even use that data against you).
Venice is claiming to be a private AI. Your chat history is stored only in your browser. No corporate surveillance.
Centralized AIs will also try to censor you. Venice doesn't restrict what topics you can discuss.
#2. Best solution for AI Agents.
Venice provides an API for AI Agents & bots to access its AI models. Since open-source AI is rapidly catching up to centralized models, it's a perfect fit.
Venice is already integrated with ElizaOS from Ai16z.
#3. Multiple AI models. Different AI models have different specialties. Venice lets you choose the right model for the job.
Think DeepSeek is better than Llama at creative feedback? Then select DeepSeek.
#4. Great UX on the web & mobile. Most crypto products suffer from horrible UX. If the user experience is bad, people will go back to centralized solutions.
But thankfully, Venice UX is great. It is on par with ChatGPT, the market leader.
#5. Ideological reasons. There are several arguments why open-source AI is better for society than closed-source AI. I'm not gonna regurgitate all that here. But this article from Venice is pretty good.
Now, no project is perfect. Venice has some legitimate criticisms.
#1. Insider trading.
$VVV had launched on Aerodrome, the flagship DEX on Base. Aerodrome team members insider traded the token.
Coinbase also listed and heavily promoted the launch, which came off wrong since they haven't listed VIRTUAL yet. There are also allegations of team members selling on day one.
This caused drama, but let's be real—crypto has a goldfish memory. This will be forgotten in a few days.
#2. It isn't completely private.
When users send prompts, Venice's backend does see your prompts.
In Venice's defense, they don't associate this data with your specific identity. And they delete it immediately after the technical need is met. So, it is a significant improvement over services like ChatGPT.
You can learn about Venice's privacy architecture here.
Right now, Venice is the best private option in the market. In the future, they'll be able to make it even more private with new encryption technologies.
#3. It's not decentralized.
Venice hasn't shared much about its hardware layer. From what I can tell, it's not fully decentralized. This makes them vulnerable.
But on the whole, these criticisms are minor.
Venice is filling a major gap for crypto users and agents. It is a major AI infra play on my radar.
Sponsored By Mantle
Blockchain Meets Banking: How Mantle Is Making Blockchain for Everyday Use.
What if blockchain and banking combined seamlessly, allowing you to spend crypto like a credit card—with full custody and everything on-chain?
Mantle is making this vision a reality. In 2025, Mantle will launch three innovative products that bridge blockchain with banking.
Here's what Mantle is cooking:
- Enhanced Index Fund: Institutional-grade fund combining bluechips & stables. Attracting more TradFi interest in crypto.
- Mantle Banking: Blockchain solutions for payments, lending, and money management. No more fiat-to-crypto conversion hassles.
- MantleX: AI-powered solutions to optimize Mantle's blockchain ecosystem.
Mantle is also expanding mETH, cmETH, and FBTC into new ecosystems with partnerships like Hyperliquid and Ethena already in progress.
Be part of the movement to make global finance on-chain.
Protocol Research
USDO: The Safe RWA-Backed Yield-Bearing Stablecoin
Stablecoins are one of crypto's most successful use cases.
Circle and Tether are multi-billion projects because of USDC & USDT. But (mostly) they don't give you any yield.
The ones that give you yield are risky. There are many examples, from the infamous Luna disaster to the recent USUAL drama. Even Ethena has some risks.
What if you could get a yield-bearing stablecoin without those risks?
Enter OpenEden. They're an RWA tokenization project that focuses on products that provide reliable yields for users. They have two primary products.
#1. TBill Vault
You can deposit stablecoins in their vault, which will be used to earn yield from US T-bills, the safest way to earn yield on US dollars. You'll get $TBILL in return, which can be redeemed for deposit + yield.
But this is only available for KYCed and whitelisted addresses. They're targeting institutions with it.
For everyone else, there is a stablecoin.
#2. USDO, a rebasing yield-bearing stablecoin.
You just hold it in your wallet and yield will accrue daily, directly to your wallet.
You can wrap it as cUSDO as well. Here, this single token will capture yield and increase in value over time. Since rebasing tokens have lower composability, you'll have more DeFi support with this $cUSDO.
Right now, USDO is available on Ethereum & Arbitrum. They'll probably expand to Solana as well.
Now, everyone cannot mint or redeem USDO. There are some requirements like KYC. But you can buy it from DeFi exchanges.
OpenEden had been growing consistently for several months. In June 2024, its TVL was only ~$35M. Right now, it has grown to ~125 million.
This is a respectable number. For contrast, Ondo's TVL is ~$560M. Ondo is the market leader for US Treasury-backed RWA projects. And it's valued at >$4.3 Billion.
OpenEden has already become the largest issuer of tokenized US Treasuries in Asia and Europe.
But Edgy, there are many stablecoin projects.
What makes them special?
#1. Clear regulatory structure. USDO issuer is licensed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority and registered as a bankruptcy remote segregated accounts company.
But what's the tangible benefit for users? The assets backing your USDO will be secure. Even if the OpenEden company goes bankrupt, the assets backing your stables will be safe.
#2. Backed by high-quality assets. There are many stablecoin experiments in DeFi that use crazy ponzinomics. But for a reliable stablecoin, you want it to be backed by high-quality assets such as.
- Short-term tokenized US T-Bills like $TBILL.
- Reverse Repos. This is a secure way to generate yield in TradFi.
#3. TradFi recognition. Moody's investment rating tells the reliability of investments. OpenEden's $TBILL token issuer is the first RWA issuer to receive a grade A rating from them.
#4. Transparency. You can always see the asset reports backing your stablecoin on their website.
They don't have a token yet. So, you can't buy it for exposure yet. However, you could allocate a small portion of your stables towards this for yield.
Learn more:
🤖 Agent Arena
Dolion, the platform for social AI Agents, will launch tomorrow. LLM model integration, social & on-chain agents, and IP registration will be available.
REI Network introduced REI Terminal. It is available to wallets holding a minimum of 800k $REI and Discord users with the alpha-tester role.
Ai16z is rebranding to "ElizaOS". It is done because of the request from the OG A16z, a well-known Venture Capital firm.
Nillion Network partnered with Ai16z. They're aiming to bring privacy and security to ElizaOS, the AI Agent from Ai16z.
Luna, the flagship agent from the Virtuals team, hired the DaVinci agent as her IP Agent to convert her creations into IP on Story Network.
🚀 DeFi Catalysts
Abstract, an L2 focusing on consumer applications, went live. There are already some unique apps on the platform.
Symbiotic, a restaking protocol, went live on the Ethereum mainnet. They claim to be the first shared security protocol to launch slashing.
Usual, the stablecoin protocol, announced the Usual Stability Loans. It'll allow you to borrow USD0 at low, predictable rates using USD0++ as collateral.
Initia introduced Weave. It's a CLI & toolkit for rollup infrastructure and application development on Intia's Interwoven Stack.
Eclipse introduced Eclipse Moo Games. Users will play four games to get a chance to win prizes.
Hyperlane, Ink, and Optimism are going to airdrop to users. Here's a 3-in-1 strategy to farm all of them.
Abstract launched Abstract Live. It's a streaming platform designed to reward creators for producing content around Abstract apps.
World Liberty Financial is accused of insider trading. They had brought significant $MOVE before insider information came out.
🐦⬛ X Hits
- Video explainer of ETH Strategy.
- DeepSeek will accelerate DeFAI.
- Updates from the AI x Crypto sector.
- Everything you need to know about DeepSeek.
- Arthur Hayes argues that $BTC might go down to $75k.
😂 Meme
Until next time,
Edgy
p.s. wishing everyone a happy Chinese / Lunar new year if you celebrate it! I just checked my Zodiac horoscope and it says a ton of money is coming my way.
It means the bull market's still on!
Today's email was written by Edgy and Yayya.
DISCLAIMER: I'm NOT a financial advisor. This content is for education and information purposes only. Crypto and DeFi are risky and speculative. Please do your research before investing.
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