Eliza Labs founder Shaw Walters said the ELIZAOS token is finished, its foundation is closing and holders should sell. The token, which replaced AI16Z after a rebrand, has fallen about 97% from its high amid litigation and a settlement that consumed the foundation’s remaining treasury.
Eliza Labs founder Shaw Walters said the ELIZAOS token is finished, its foundation is closing and holders should sell. The token, which replaced AI16Z after a rebrand, has fallen about 97% from its high amid litigation and a settlement that consumed the foundation’s remaining treasury.
Eliza Labs founder Shaw Walters said the ELIZAOS token is effectively over, telling holders to sell and saying the token’s foundation is closing. ELIZAOS replaced AI16Z, an AI-agent-themed crypto token that once reached a market capitalization of about $2.4 billion before a steep collapse.
Eliza Labs founder Shaw Walters said the ELIZAOS token is effectively over, telling holders to sell and saying the token’s foundation is closing. ELIZAOS replaced AI16Z, an AI-agent-themed crypto token that once reached a market capitalization of about $2.4 billion before a steep collapse.
The development matters because AI16Z had been one of the most visible tokens in the crypto market’s AI agent boom. Its unwind highlights the risks around fast-rising narrative-driven tokens, especially when branding disputes, token migrations and governance claims collide with investor expectations.
According to CoinDesk, ELIZAOS was trading near $0.00031 with a market value of roughly $2.3 million, down about 97% from its peak. AI16Z, the predecessor token, peaked at $2.39 billion on Jan. 2, 2025, when daily volume reached $291 million. CoinGecko still listed the abandoned AI16Z contract separately at about $375,000 in market capitalization.
Walters attributed the shutdown to litigation, saying the foundation transferred its remaining treasury and available funds to settle with a group of holders represented by Burwick Law. A proposed class action filed in the Southern District of New York in April alleged false advertising, deceptive practices, negligent misrepresentation and unjust enrichment. The complaint also claimed investors were misled about the project being an autonomous, AI-run venture fund and were diluted during the migration from AI16Z to ELIZAOS.
The rebrand followed objections from Andreessen Horowitz, widely known as a16z, over the AI16Z name. Walters said he would continue building the underlying open-source ElizaOS agent framework, but without another token or further foundation support, buybacks or supply measures.
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