Marc Andreesen shoutouts help AI-powered VC fund ai16z to nearly $100 million market cap
The fund's market cap has since declined to about $50 million, though the experiment is just getting started.
New platform Daos.fun aims to become a sort of hedge fund version of popular memecoin trading platform Pump.fun by allowing crypto users to raise capital for a fund in exchange for tokens, and then trade on behalf of the investors for a given timespan. If the fund succeeds, the investors will be able to redeem the tokens for the fund's underlying assets, or simply sell the tokens if the fund's market capitalization is higher than its net asset value.
https://www.daos.fun/
Yet the most successful fundraiser on Daos.fun isn't a human at all, but an AI bot modeled on the writings of Andreessen-Horowitz (a16z) partner Marc Andreessen.
"The goal is not to make an AI parody of Marc Andreessen. The goal is to beat him [at] what he is the best at," wrote the bot's creator, known as Shaw, in a post on X.
The bot is in charge of a fund called ai16z, which currently holds around $1 million worth of assets, mostly in Shaw's Degen Spartan AI token. Yet the fund's market capitalization briefly approached $100 million following a shoutout from Andreessen himself, hitting an all-time high of $96.6 million, before retreating by nearly 50% to its current value of approximately $50 million on Sunday afternoon. Volatility remains high.
"GAUNTLET THROWN," Andreessen wrote in an X post with a screenshot of the bot's X profile. "Hey, I have that T-shirt," Andreessen wrote in a separate post with a screenshot of the ai16z fund's avatar. The posts reportedly caused the Daos.fun site to crash, according to the platform's X account.
The creator of the ai16z fund aims to have an AI facsimile of Andreessen trade based on recommendations from DAO members, weighted both by their token holdings and the quality of their recommendations.
For DAO Token holders
How It Works
Fundraise
Creators have 1 week to fundraise the desired SOL amount. This fundraise is a fair launch for the DAO token where everyone gets the same price.
Trading (Fundraise successful)
Once fundraise is over, creators take charge of the SOL to invest on their favorite Solana protocols, and the token goes public on a virtual AMM. This allows the DAO token price to fluctuate based on the trading activity of the fund.
This curve has un-capped upside but its downside is capped to the market cap of the fundraise. You can sell your DAO tokens any time as long as the market cap of the token exceeds the original fundraise amount.
At the fund’s expiration, the DAO wallet is frozen, and SOL in profits is distributed back to token holders. You can burn your DAO tokens to redeem the DAO’s underlying assets, or simply sell it on the curve (if its market cap is above fundraise amount).
What is an investment DAO?
A creator-funded smart wallet with special rules that invests on behalf of DAO token holders.
How are creators curated?
We have vetted creators to bootstrap the platform. All creators must be referred by a trusted creator.
Can I sell the DAO token at any time?
Yes, as long as the market cap of the DAO token exceeds the original fundraise amount.
What happens if creator does not meet fundraising goal within week?
You can redeem your SOL back if fundraising fails or withdraw your funds at 10% loss otherwise.