In just three days, Aiccelerate dao —a project claiming to accelerate the integration of cryptocurrency with AI—went from being a hot topic to facing heavy criticism. This shows how quickly the cryptocurrency market moves and how sensitive market sentiment can be. At the time of writing, the AICC token is priced at $0.084, with a market cap of $92.5 million, having lost over 75% of its value from its previous high of $400 million.

Meanwhile, the project’s advisors—who make up an impressive team—have acted in different ways, leading to mixed reactions from the community. In this article, Odaily Planet Daily will review the key events surrounding AICC for readers to reflect on.

A Coin Issuance Drama: AICC’s One-Day Fast Pass

On January 10th, a tweet from Aiccelerate dao sparked renewed excitement about the AI Agent token. However, unlike the community-focused tokens we’ve seen before, this project resembles more of a “VC-style token launch.”

On January 9th, the project’s announcement revealed that the DAO would focus on promoting decentralized, open-source AI development and support high-potential projects across various ecosystems. Aiccelerate positions itself as a DAO that balances both investment and development. Its main goal is to drive innovation in the “AI Agent” space. The DAO aims to build a collaborative community of top developers from different frameworks, who will contribute to agents and tools to achieve the project’s objectives. The developer advisory team includes Shaw (founder of ai16z), EtherMage (core contributor at Virtuals Protocol), Nader Dabit (head of developer relations at EigenLayer), Jason Zhao (co-founder of Story Protocol), and Cygaar (core contributor at Abstract). Investor advisors include Andrew Kang and Marc Weinstein from Mechanism Capital, Justin Lee from Coinbase Ventures, and Anil Lulla from Delphi Digital. Research and outreach advisors include Baoskee (founder of daos.fun), Skely (from ai16z), David Hoffman (founder of Bankless DAO), Ryan Sean Adams (co-founder of Bankless DAO), and Threadguy (a well-known crypto influencer).

Developer Advisory Team

Investor Advisory Team

Research & Outreach Advisory Team

AICC Core Team

Previously, the off-market price for the AICC token whitelist sale skyrocketed to over a thousand dollars, but there was still no trading market. Thanks to the high profile of the core team and advisors in the crypto industry, and their past successes, market expectations for the token grew steadily, with many speculating at least a 20x return.

However, people underestimated the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) surrounding AI tokens, which have become the hottest topic in the market.

On January 11th, at around 10 AM, after completing its fundraising round, AICC quietly launched on-chain. Its market cap briefly surpassed $400 million. Just one hour later, the price shot up to $0.21, with its market cap climbing to $230 million. It later surpassed $370 million, quickly becoming another “AI sector speed pass” token. According to media news, AICC raised 943 SOL (around $175,000), with $75,000 coming from the project’s “VIPs” — co-founders and advisors. The remaining $100,000 came from other insiders, each of whom had pledged up to 2 SOL.

This led to AICC’s price rising over 1,000 times compared to the fundraising price. According to data from @0x_ultra (Data platform information), the top five profitable addresses in AICC’s internal market have earned over $1.31 million in total. These five addresses only invested 4.5 SOL, giving them a return of about 7,907 times. Additionally, the data shows that 62 people have already cashed out their AICC for profits, accounting for 25.9% of the total 239 participants.

AICC Token Dumping Data Panel

The rapid sell-off by “insiders” quickly drew attention to the critical issue of the token’s distribution structure.

The Crypto World Behind AICC: VIP Dumping, Advisor Responses, and Ecosystem Donations

As AICC’s price surged, many took the opportunity to cash out, and various parties involved responded in their own ways, painting a “crypto world” scene.

VIP Dumping: Human Nature Can’t Resist a Thousandfold Return

After the AICC token launch, Bankless Ventures quickly sold off 10% of its token allocation. This led to backlash from the community, prompting Bankless founder David Hoffman and co-founder Ryan Sean Adams to respond:

David Hoffman initially stated, “I agree that Bankless Ventures shouldn’t have sold the tokens. It was an impulsive mistake, and we’ve repurchased all of the sold tokens and restored the full amount. We are now discussing a self-imposed vesting schedule.”

Later, David posted again, sharing Ryan’s statement to explain the “AICC dumping incident.” Ryan clarified that both he and David had personally invested 5 SOL in Aiccelerate, while Bankless Ventures invested 2 SOL through its fund, managed by Ben Lakoff. Bankless then sold off 8% of the fund’s shares (now repurchased). Ryan emphasized that neither he nor David were aware of the sale and explained that Ben made the decision based on trade logic, not knowing much about Aiccelerate’s situation. They admitted it was a big mistake, and Ben regretted the decision. Ryan also clarified that neither he nor David had sold their personal shares.

“I didn’t know they would do this. Once I found out, I immediately expressed my disgust with this behavior,” Aiccelerate DAO co-founder Ejaaz Ahamadeen wrote on X, responding to Bankless Ventures’ sale.

Despite the clarification, the trust in Bankless within the market and community dropped significantly.

Advisor Responses: ai16z Founder Lashes Out, Claims AICC Exploited Him, Deletes Post

In the controversy surrounding AICC’s token launch, Shaw, founder of ai16z, who has been receiving significant market attention due to the AI Agent trend, was undoubtedly at the center of the storm.

Earlier, Shaw had posted that half of AICC’s token allocation was donated to ai16z DAO and 20% to other contributors. “Seeing 5 SOL turn into $2 million is crazy,” he said, but still acknowledged the criticism and said, “I hope Daos.fun will implement some kind of vesting mechanism to make the launch feel fairer.”

However, after strong criticism from the ai16z DAO community and other crypto groups, Shaw published a long rebuttal around 3 AM, saying that as the creator of the largest DAO on daos.fun, he had never supported other projects on the platform except for two — one being the Ai Pool project METAV (Odaily Planet Daily Note: which raised over 30,000 SOL) and AICC, created by a community partner. Shaw felt that AICC’s token release was a “vampire attack,” where his name and the DAO brand were used. Despite this, Shaw acknowledged AICC followed daos.fun’s rules but criticized the whitelist mechanism for not benefiting most people. He also announced he was leaving the meme coin space because he found the culture toxic, driven by a group of “woke” counter-culture babies. Shaw concluded by saying he would only engage with AI professionals and true builders going forward. The tweet was later deleted.

It’s clear that Shaw was deeply affected by the AICC token event: both his reputation and emotions were hurt, stemming from his support for AICC.

Shaw’s Deleted Tweet

Ecosystem Donations: Story Co-Founder and ARC Founder Reinvent Their Profits

Unlike other VIPs who cashed out, Story co-founder Jason Zhao and ARC project founder Tachi chose to reinvest their AICC earnings into their own ecosystems.

Jason Zhao announced that he would donate all of his AICC tokens (worth approximately $1.78 million) to Story and other open-source AI blockchain projects. He plans to donate his first $1 million in AICC tokens to quality teams working on open-source projects that promote AI development and align with Story’s vision of an AI-based universal IP system. Donations will be based on project milestones, with full transparency, and all tokens will be used for research purposes.

Tachi, the founder of Arc and Playgrounds, also committed to transferring 100% of the AICC tokens to the Arc Treasury, ensuring they serve the community’s long-term interests. Arc plans to use 30% of the tokens to create an AICC/ARC liquidity pair, generating fees that will go back to the Treasury. The remaining 70% will be locked in a custodial contract, gradually unlocked next year.

Compared to other stakeholders, the handling of these two cases is undoubtedly more sophisticated and can be considered a win-win situation.

Official Response: Strong Commitment to AI Agent Development and Token Fund Security

In the wake of these dramatic developments, Aiccelerate DAO has issued its official response.

Addressing Community Concerns, Offering Clear Solutions

At around 1 AM, Aiccelerate dao posted: “We are aware of the doubts and controversies raised by the community, and we are committed to addressing them openly. Transparency and trust are at the core of our values, and we are focused on building long-lasting products, not seeking quick wins. To reaffirm this commitment: 1. The core team will implement a vesting structure for personal token allocations, and we are discussing the same with our advisors to align with the DAO’s long-term success; 2. We are currently developing the first AI agent (Research Agent) and building an infrastructure to support our broader vision, with more updates to come in the next few weeks; 3. We would like to reiterate that 100% of the DAO’s treasury funds will be used for DAO investments and community development. We are dedicated to this for the long term, and we encourage you to stay updated on our progress.”

DAO Funds Securely Transferred to Wallet, No Tokens Sold or Lost

Later in the afternoon, Aiccelerate dao posted again, confirming that all DAO funds had been moved to a secure wallet and that no tokens had been sold or lost. As part of preparing for the long-term future, the DAO is taking steps to protect its finances in a secure and compliant manner. They further emphasized that no funds had been sold or lost, and provided the relevant wallet address for transparency.

Conclusion: The VC Influence Signals the Start of the Second Half of the AI Agent Token Race

According to GMGN data, by the time of writing, the price of AICC had dropped to $0.0677, a 45% decrease in just 24 hours. Its market cap had fallen to $74.5 million, down nearly 80% from the previous high of $370 million.

While the broader market downturn had an impact, AICC’s chaotic development path was a major factor in its underperformance. However, looking at the year’s trends, if AICC and Aiccelerate DAO can successfully launch their AI Agent product and related frameworks, there may still be room for a price rebound.

In any case, the appearance of AICC, built on the daos.fun platform and involving prominent crypto figures, has demonstrated a key point: the room for community-driven projects in the AI Agent token sector is shrinking. The next phase of AI Agent tokens will need new narratives or growth points to attract market liquidity.

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