VVV is an ERC-20 utility token that gives holders access to the AI inference services of Venice.ai, a privacy-focused AI platform. It runs on Base, the Coinbase Layer 2 network, and it carries no voting rights. Staking VVV yields a pro-rata share of Venice's API capacity, and the staked position also underpins DIEM, a daily API credit token.
Core technology and blockchain architecture
VVV is deployed as an ERC-20 token on Base, so transfers and balances settle on that network. Base is an Ethereum Layer 2 that inherits Ethereum's rollup security model.
The token's mechanics run in three layers. Stakers lock VVV and receive sVVV, a receipt token. Holders then lock sVVV at the current Mint Rate to mint DIEM, an ERC-20 on Base in which 1 DIEM equals $1 of Venice API credit per day. The allowance resets at 00:00 UTC, and unused credit does not carry over.
Venice states that it never logs prompts, and chats are stored on the user's device. Closed third-party models such as Claude and GPT still receive the text of each prompt.
Primary use cases and real-world applications
- Venice Pro: Staking 100 VVV grants access to Venice Pro.
- API access: Staked DIEM funds Venice API inference without per-request payments.
- AI agents: Coinbase's Wallet MCP documentation describes Venice API access funded through a Base-wallet x402 payment flow.
- Scale: TechCrunch reported in July 2026 that Venice serves more than 3 million active users and averages 1.7 million API calls per day.
Who is behind Venice Token and where is it based?
The team is publicly identified and is not anonymous. Erik Voorhees is Founder and CEO. He is a crypto entrepreneur who previously founded the exchange ShapeShift. Jesse Proudman is President and CTO. Other named leaders include Jonathan Shapiro (Head of Strategy), Tim Shakarian (Head of Engineering), Austin Virts (VP of Marketing) and Johanna Tseng (VP of Business Operations).
Venice was founded in 2024, and its July 2024 launch post names Voorhees and COO Teana Baker-Taylor as the initial team. The VVV token launched on 27 January 2025.
Sources diverge on location. Dealroom and Gaebler list Sheridan, Wyoming, and one profile names the legal entity "Venice.ai, Inc." with a Sheridan address, describing the team as remote with no current office. GeekWire ties the company to Seattle. The research did not confirm the jurisdiction of incorporation from a primary filing.
Venice raised a $65 million Series A led by Dragonfly at a $1 billion valuation on 1 July 2026. It was the company's first outside capital, and Coinbase Ventures participated.
Tokenomics
At the time of the CoinStats snapshot on 1 November 2026 at 01:42 UTC, VVV was priced at $23.89, up 24h by +5.94%, with a market cap of $1.17B (rank #88) and 24h volume of $23.38M. The all-time high is $34.53, and the current price is 30.80% below it.
Supply stands at 48,759,888 VVV circulating and 81,207,638 VVV total. Venice's genesis allocation was 50% to an airdrop for users and crypto-AI community projects, 35% to Venice.ai for development and growth, 10% to an incentive fund, and 5% to liquidity. Circulating supply remains subject to a 24-month vesting schedule ending 27 January 2027.
Emissions to stakers are the main source of new supply. They fell from 14 million VVV per year in January 2025 to 2 million VVV per year from 1 October 2026, and Venice routes 100% of new emissions to stakers.
Deflationary pressure comes from buybacks. Venice has used part of its revenue to buy and burn VVV since late 2025. From 17 July 2026, $5 of every $100 of API credit purchases goes to buy and burn VVV. Cumulative burns exceeded 33.7 million VVV by October 2026. Alea Research calculated in April 2026 that buybacks would need to grow roughly twentyfold to match emissions at that time. The current staking APY was not found in the sources.
Consensus mechanism and network security model
VVV has no consensus mechanism of its own because it is a token rather than a standalone blockchain. Its security depends on Base.
Security for the inference layer works differently. Venice partners with trusted execution environment (TEE) providers, including NEAR AI Cloud and Phala Network. According to Venice's partner materials, neither the GPU providers nor Venice can access plaintext data, and each response includes a verifiable remote attestation. NEAR AI has supplied part of Venice's capacity since March 2026.
Key partnerships and ecosystem integrations
- Coinbase: Coinbase Ventures invested in the Series A. Approximately 200 Coinbase AgentKit developers were among the airdrop recipients.
- AI agent projects: Virtuals Protocol, Luna, aixbt and VaderAI received airdrop allocations.
- NEAR: NEAR's Q2 2026 report says Venice routes private inference through NEAR AI, and VVV is tradable through NEAR Intents.
- Exchanges: Kraken began trading VVV on 27 February 2025, and Binance and MEXC listed perpetual futures in late January 2025.
- 21Shares: The physically backed Venice Token ETP (VENC) launched on SIX Swiss Exchange on 20 October 2026, with a 2.50% annual fee.
Competitive advantages and unique value proposition
According to Venice, the platform offers more than 200 AI models across text, image, video and audio, with no prompt logging. Its design differs from pay-per-request AI services. Staked VVV converts into a daily, fixed-value compute allowance through DIEM. 21Shares reports the token holder base grew to about 137,000. Independent analysts note that the DIEM mint curve concentrates benefits toward early minters.
Current development activity and roadmap highlights
Recent milestones include:
- 10 February 2026: Emissions cut to 6 million VVV per year.
- April 2026: Programmatic burns on new subscriptions introduced at $2 for Pro, $5 for Pro+ and $10 for Max.
- July 2026: Series A closed, the API-credit burn was added, and the DIEM supply target was raised from 38,000 to 40,000.
- July–August 2026: Burn read APIs were added to the changelog.
Venice has not published a detailed public roadmap. CoinMarketCal lists a "Data Center Online" event for November 2026, but no details have been confirmed.