Venice becomes 3rd largest crypto AI platform by market cap

Venice AI, the privacy-first generative AI platform built by ShapeShift founder Erik Voorhees, has ascended to become the third-largest project in the crypto AI sector by market capitalization. The VVV token is trading near its all-time high around $34, putting the platform’s market cap between $1.61 billion and $1.66 billion.

The numbers behind the rise

Venice AI has accumulated over 4 million users and reports an annualized run-rate revenue exceeding $100 million. The platform processes roughly 250 billion tokens per day.

The VVV token launched on January 27, 2025, on the Base blockchain. Its primary function is staking: holders lock up VVV to gain proportional access to API inference capacity without paying per-request fees.

Of the 81 million total VVV tokens, approximately 48.4 million are currently in circulation. The token’s price near $34 represents territory close to its all-time high of roughly $34.39. Messari’s AI sector rankings place VVV at the number two spot.

From zero to unicorn in two years

Erik Voorhees founded ShapeShift in 2014 and launched Venice AI in May 2024. The platform offers over 200 models spanning text generation, image creation, video production, and character building. Venice encrypts user interactions and stores no prompts.

In July 2026, Venice AI closed a $65 million Series A round that valued the company at $1 billion. Dragonfly and Coinbase Ventures led the backing. The funding round was Venice’s first equity raise.

A second token called DIEM launched in August 2025, representing tokenized perpetual compute credits. Users can obtain DIEM by locking their staked VVV.

The Circle integration

On September 18, 2026, Venice announced a strategic integration with the Circle Agent Marketplace. The partnership enables USDC-settled AI services, bridging Venice’s privacy-focused inference capabilities with Circle’s stablecoin infrastructure. When an AI agent needs to process a query through Venice’s models, it can now settle that transaction in USDC without human intervention.

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