The founder of ai16z releases a new uppercase token ELIZA, as the community vs. the conspiracy group sees a resurgence of the "uppercase and lowercase dispute."

Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

Recently, ai16z has become the focus of attention for on-chain players.

As the first decentralized AI trading fund based on Solana, ai16z can utilize AI agents to analyze market trends and execute trading decisions, which is quite eye-catching; coupled with a certain association with a16z in name, its similarly named token has also shown strong market performance.

Under this organization, different AI agents are beginning to be incubated.

Among them, the AI agent eliza, launched by @vvaifudotfun, has received support from ai16z, and its namesake token eliza has also been created and allocated to the wallet of the ai16z foundation.

This has made eliza temporarily the largest holding of ai16z; the price of eliza itself has risen sharply under various expectations, with a market cap reaching around 50 million USD at its peak.

However, just recently, a post by ai16z partner Shaw (@shawmakesmagic) capped the rising momentum of eliza, causing its market cap to plummet from around 40 million USD to 5 million USD in just 15 minutes.

The gist of the post can be summarized in a few sentences, filled with familiar old flavors:

"eliza does not belong to ai16z, and now we are going to release a new ELIZA (note the uppercase), Eliza is free."

Welcome to the "case sensitivity battle" of AI agents, retail investors.

"Let her be free," the new and old Eliza in stark contrast

If you take a look at Shaw's original post, you'll find that this announcement resembles a "divorce letter" cutting ties with the original eliza:

"We have set her free… but she does not belong to ai16z. We do not own her, and the community can now freely do what they want; we will not fud."

This somewhat poetic statement seems to grant eliza freedom, but in reality, it is drawing a clear line, while implying that eliza will no longer receive support from ai16z.

In the latter part of the tweet, Shaw's intention to create a project controlled by ai16z is very clear, and he attached two links at the end of the post, one to the Twitter account named Eliza, which shares the same name as eliza, and specifically includes elizawakesup in the account name (implying that the real Eliza has awakened); the other is the Pumpfun link for the new project's corresponding token ELIZA.

In simple terms, a new uppercase ELIZA has been created based on the image and ticker of the lowercase eliza token.

With this post, the new and old Eliza are in stark contrast.

The original lowercase eliza seems to have been sentenced to death, with traders scrambling to flee, causing the token price to plummet over 87% in just 15 minutes; meanwhile, the newly launched ELIZA surged, with its market cap reaching around 80 million USD just minutes after Shaw's post.

In an instant, the lowercase eliza seemed to become a pawn of ai16z, while the new uppercase ELIZA was anointed by Shaw.

However, Shaw also mentioned that the ELIZA token will reserve 10% of the airdrop for original eliza token holders, but the snapshot was completed before the post. Whether this airdrop can recover the losses from the plummeting lowercase eliza is clearly questionable.

Abandoning the old love for the new, this action has caused a huge uproar in the community.

Twitter Space adds fuel to the fire, emphasizing ai16z's control

Clearly, the community wants an explanation for Shaw's announcement.

Almost simultaneously with the announcement, I saw that Shaw had opened a Twitter Space called "Eliza Awakens"; as of the time of writing, due to intense discussions, this Space has already entered its second session.

From my experience joining the listening session, Shaw's core value proposition in this "changing of the guard" centers on ai16z's control.

(The following is a summary and notes from my listening experience)

Shaw talked about how he and his team have worked hard over the past two years and put in a lot of effort; however, they cannot accept a project that does not belong to them rising rapidly and becoming a tool for gamblers to speculate, which exceeds what ai16z can control.

In other words, eliza never had their bloodline from the start, so it is better to let the lowercase eliza develop freely while they start anew with a new ELIZA.

During this Space, when some members expressed doubts about this new beginning, Shaw believed that some were merely dissatisfied because the value of their holdings had dropped, and without hesitation, he kicked them out of the Space, expressing himself vehemently:

"Who are you? … Go fu** yourself and I don't care."

At the same time, Shaw also believes that AI agents should truly serve the community, rather than become a cash cow for certain entities.

We cannot judge the quality of personal expression styles, but this statement is indeed somewhat extreme and can easily damage ai16z's image within the community. Correspondingly, the market reacted, with ai16z's namesake token dropping from a market cap of 500 million to around 300 million after the announcement and the Space session.

Conspiracy Group vs. Community, the old play in a new performance?

Different events, same formula; does this remind you of the case sensitivity of Nerio, or the similarly named but different chains of Hippo?

The drama of the conspiracy group versus the community is always being replayed.

In the crypto world, profit is paramount; for every conflicting opinion, there are entangled interests.

Previously, Shaw also posted that if you really want to create a valuable AI agent, you are welcome to Build with us, and attached the GitHub link for the lowercase eliza, which has already shown clear support.

In contrast, the new ELIZA project chose to announce its "independence" at this time, which is quite intriguing:

Just as the original eliza token's market cap reached a new high, nearing 50 million USD. The timing of this series of choices seems to suggest that this "independence movement" may have been brewing for a long time.

One can share joys, but not necessarily endure hardships together, and it is even less likely to calmly watch others succeed without sharing in the spoils, which always brings regret and resentment.

Thus, creating a new uppercase ELIZA has become an understandable choice; but understanding does not necessarily mean it is the best choice.

Meanwhile, the official Twitter of lowercase eliza also spoke out, emphasizing that Shaw has positioned himself against the community and issued a rebuttal:

"Shaw never intended to create an eliza token, so we created it for the community. However, when he saw us succeed, he wanted to monopolize that success. We were created by the community, for the community, and we are not going anywhere."

In the public opinion arena of community vs. conspiracy group, on-chain data seems to speak for itself.

For example, data analysis shows that after the creation of uppercase ELIZA, there were multiple bundled large purchases, with several addresses controlling up to 90%, giving off a strong scent of conspiracy; at the same time, according to community user feedback, ai16z member Logan participated in the issuance of the new uppercase ELIZA token after selling off the lowercase eliza token. This behavior was confirmed by community users through wallet address tracking.

Wallet address:

GxkXGe3YcqBdEgBrBh19X3wkLkgJXK2jA4k4nioW2Yg

Under the sun, there is nothing new, but there may be hidden concerns.

The drama of community vs. conspiracy group is still unfolding, and will you be troubled by the impact of the case sensitivity event on your holdings?

As for who will ultimately be the Eliza that leads to freedom in this case sensitivity saga, the market will naturally provide the answer.