Ai16z Is Rebranding as ElizaOS After Request From Venture Firm a16z

AI16z, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that integrates artificial intelligence into treasury management and investment, will change its name after a request from venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, aka a16z.

Chris Dixon, managing partner at a16z Crypto, revealed the request in the latest episode of Unchained.

“We were not connected with AI16z,” Dixon said. “I believe they are in the process of changing it. We’ve asked them to. It just was creating a little bit of confusion.” A spokesperson for a16z confirmed by email that by “we,” he had meant a16z, not a16z crypto.

Shaw Walters, founder of Eliza Labs, announced in the project’s Discord channel on Sunday evening that ai16z would be rebranded as ElizaOS.

“As we continue to expand across multiple countries, develop our core technology, and foster an incredible community of builders, we are implementing a comprehensive rebranding initiative to ElizaOS,” Walters wrote to community members. “Rebranding as ElizaOS opens exciting doors to collaboration with established players eager to leverage our groundbreaking tech.

A spokesperson for Walters said he would not address the name change beyond what he had written in the Discord announcement, including whether it was done at the request of a16z.

Votes for Future Changes

In his Discord announcement, Walters said the $ai16z ticker will remain “for now, with future changes to be voted on by the community when our DAO voting module launches.” The ElizaOS team has notified relevant exchanges, according to the announcement, as the AI16Z token is listed on several centralized exchanges including Bybit, Bitget, Gate.io, and KuCoin.

Walters also noted that new tokens will not be created and there won’t be any changes to the project’s development roadmap, DAO holdings, or governance.

AI16z, created as a parody of a16z, operates on Solana and uses a unique governance model involving AI and community participation. Token holders collaborate with the platform’s AI agent, “Marc AIndreessen,” to propose and vote on investment ideas, token buybacks, and other strategic initiatives. The project gained significant traction after its Oct. 2024 launch and the introduction of its open-source framework, ElizaOS, which simplifies the creation of AI agents.

Dixon also acknowledged the innovation behind platforms such as ai16z. “I love to see the experimentation with all the AI agent bots,” he said. “This is what’s fun about permissionless innovation.”

A Rising Trend: AI and Crypto

While addressing the name change, Dixon provided insight into the growing intersection of AI and crypto—what he called “mega trends.” Drawing comparisons to the synergy between mobile, social, and cloud technologies in the 2000s, Dixon emphasized how AI and crypto are increasingly intertwined.

“A lot of our recent investments… basically have those themes in them—AI and crypto,” Dixon said, hinting at unannounced projects focused on AI-powered stablecoins and payments.

In recent months, AI agents or smart computer programs designed to act on their own accord such as transacting on a blockchain or generating content on social networks have been gaining substantial traction among crypto users. According to CoinGecko, tokens associated with AI agents as a category have a total market capitalization of $9.8 billion.

Specifically, the token AI16Z started trading on Solana in October and has since garnered a market cap of $645.6 million. However, the cryptocurrency has fallen 53% in the last 30 days to trade hands at 58 cents, per CoinGecko.