Ai16z, a token that once reached a capitalization of $2.4 billion, has been shut down by its founder Shaw Walters. On August 5, Walters announced the closure of the ElizaOS foundation and advised remaining token holders to sell their assets. The project, which started on Solana in October 2024, was initially called ai16z, a nod to the venture capital firm a16z (Andreessen Horowitz). It was designed as an autonomous AI agent built on the open-source Eliza framework, intended to make investment decisions without human intervention.
The token's value surged to $2.5 billion in January 2025, driven by enthusiasm for 'AI agents' that promised to manage funds or companies via bots rather than humans. However, under legal pressure from Andreessen Horowitz, the project was rebranded as ElizaOS in early 2025.
Token Collapse
The token's collapse began in April 2026, when the law firm Burwick Law filed a class-action lawsuit against Eliza Labs, accusing Walters of selling ai16z as a governance token for an 'autonomous and AI-driven' venture capital fund, while decisions were actually controlled by a handful of insiders. Walters eventually settled the lawsuit by surrendering the foundation's remaining treasury, lacking the means to pursue the legal battle.
The token, which once had a capitalization of $2.4 billion, now has a market capitalization of around $2.3 million, a 97% decline. Walters has defended himself against accusations of personal enrichment, stating that he never sold his own ai16z tokens and only received a salary comparable to other engineers on the team. He plans to continue developing the Eliza framework, but without relaunching a token behind it.