Insights: Airdrop from the Venice AI platform (VVV) on Base
January 28, 2025
In this analysis, we explore the latest airdrop on Base of a new AI platform, Venice, launched by Erik Voorhees. Coinciding with the launch of DeepSeek, which has disrupted the entire financial markets, let’s take a closer look at the features of this protocol.
Key Information
- The decentralized artificial intelligence (AI) platform Venice recently launched its native token, VVV, on the Base network.
- 50% of the 100 million tokens created were airdropped to Venice users and AI token holders on Base.
- The Fully Diluted Value (FDV) of VVV exceeded $2.2 billion following its Coinbase listing.
What is Venice (VVV)?
Venice is an artificial intelligence platform founded in May 2024 by Erik Voorhees, a prominent figure in the crypto space and former CEO of ShapeShift. Its primary goal is to enable users to interact with generative AI models — whether for text, images, or code — in a decentralized manner, without traditional intermediaries and while respecting user privacy.
In contrast to centralized platforms like OpenAI, Venice offers an open-source, neutral, uncensored, and decentralized solution. Its core feature is its privacy-focused design. Unlike conventional AI platforms, Venice does not store any user data on its servers. Interactions are encrypted and remain localized in the user’s browser, preventing any exploitation or data leaks.
This approach is complemented by an infrastructure powered by decentralized GPUs (notably Akash Network), which ensures efficient and secure inference processing.
Since its launch, Venice has experienced rapid adoption, with over 450,000 registered users and 50,000 daily active users. The platform processes approximately 15,000 inference requests per hour, highlighting the appeal of its model.
Venice (VVV) Airdrop
On January 27, 2025, Venice announced the launch of its token, VVV, accompanied by a massive airdrop aimed at rewarding the existing Venice community and AI projects on the Base network. This airdrop accounts for 50% of the initial supply of 100 million tokens, roughly $200 million at the current price.
Of these 50 million tokens distributed:
- 25 million were allocated to over 100,000 active Venice users, identified from a snapshot taken on December 31, 2024.
- The remaining 25 million were distributed to AI protocols and projects operating on the Base network, such as Virtuals, Luna, and VaderAI, as well as to approximately 200 developers who used Coinbase’s AgentKit.
These distributions underscore Venice’s intent to deeply integrate into the Base ecosystem — a strategy that has proven successful for numerous other projects on Solana. The Base and Coinbase teams quickly supported the launch, including an immediate listing on the exchange.
Eligible users have until March 13, 2025, to claim their tokens via Venice’s official website. Once claimed, VVV tokens can be used to access advanced features like staking or traded on decentralized platforms such as Aerodrome.
Note: If you held AI Agent tokens on Base during the snapshot, there’s a good chance you’re eligible. Check your eligibility using the Venice token checker.
VVV Tokenomics
At the launch of VVV, the total supply was set at 100 million tokens. Beyond the 50% allocated for the airdrop:
- 35% of the tokens were reserved for Venice.
- 5% were allocated for providing liquidity on DEXs operating on Base.
- 10% were designated for an incentive fund.
The annual emission of new tokens is capped at 14 million, resulting in an initial inflation rate of 14%, which will gradually decrease depending on demand for Venice’s services.
Staking is central to VVV’s model. Token holders can stake their tokens to access free inference capacity proportional to their staking share. For instance, a user holding 1% of the staked tokens can utilize 1% of Venice’s total API capacity. This unique model not only eliminates per-query costs for AI agents and developers but also generates returns for stakers through token emissions.
Notes, Opinions, and Perspectives
The launch of Venice’s VVV token has reinforced Base as a preferred network for developing decentralized AI projects. While most activity and projects currently reside on Solana, Base needed to catch up. The support from the network’s team and Coinbase, including an immediate listing—an unprecedented move—demonstrates this intent.
Despite the excitement surrounding the project, Venice has faced some criticism. Venice promises to be a decentralized, privacy-focused platform. On Monday, founder Erik Voorhees responded to the success of DeepSeek, stating:
“When you use the DeepSeek app, all your conversations, IP, prompts, etc., are transmitted to the Chinese government. When you use DeepSeek via the Venice app, none of this goes anywhere.”
However, influential figures in the crypto space have expressed doubts about certain technical aspects. According to critics, inference requests pass through proxy servers managed by Venice before being processed by decentralized GPUs. Although Venice claims not to store user data, this intermediary step poses a potential risk of data collection or leaks, whether intentional or accidental.
Others argue that decentralized GPUs could store user data at their end. While Venice’s proxies may not retain any information, there is no guarantee that the same holds true for the decentralized GPUs powering the algorithms. Although this risk is lower than with centralized models like ChatGPT or DeepSeek, some are calling on Venice to rely on a fully internal infrastructure to ensure absolute privacy.
Erik Voorhees has responded to these accusations, reiterating that all communications are encrypted and no data is stored by Venice. However, he acknowledged that transparency regarding these infrastructures could be improved to meet user expectations.
Update 01/28/2025 18:27 : The main DEX of the Base blockchain, Aerodrome, has suspended two contributors suspected of insider trading on the VVV token at the time of its listing. The official announcement from the DEX on their Twitter:
