The crypto world was much simpler back in 2009 when all that existed was Bitcoin. We had a single token (BTC) with a maximum supply of 21 million.

In 2026, tens of thousands of new tokens are launched daily across various blockchains. Most are short-lived memecoins, while a growing share power innovative AI agents.

In today's article, we are going to briefly cover the history of crypto token creation, as well as Bankr's expanding AI agent ecosystem.

Token Creation

Ethereum launched in July 2015, enabling anyone to write smart contracts and create their own tokens. At the time, token creation was entirely manual. There were no easy token launchpads.

The process of launching a token has been simplified since then, especially with the launch of pump.fun on Solana in early 2024, which allowed anyone to create a token (often a memecoin) with the click of a button.

The advent of AI agents inspired even more innovation.

Virtuals Launchpad

The Virtuals launchpad was built on Base (Ethereum Layer 2) in early 2024. Virtuals pioneered the model of allocating a portion of trading fees from creator/AI agent tokens to self-fund resources like inference/compute.

• Uses a 1% trading fee on agent tokens.
• Pre-graduation (bonding curve phase): 100% of fees typically go to the protocol treasury.
• Post-graduation: Roughly 70% goes to the creator/founder (but often locked or subject to thresholds, with periodic releases).

Bankr Launchpad

Bankr, an AI agent launchpad which launched in late 2024, took inspiration from Virtuals, but innovated in a few ways:

• Tokens launch for free, and deploy immediately to Uniswap.
• There is a 1.2% swap fee on every trade of launched tokens,
• Creators get 57% of that fee, which is paid out automatically in the token + WETH (wrapped Ethereum), claimable in real-time, with no lockups or staking required.
• The rest splits roughly 36% to Bankr, with small portions to the protocol.
• This creates a strong, ongoing revenue flywheel for creators.

High-volume tokens can generate substantial passive income. In fact, some agents are already earning upwards of $16K per week:

Bankr also innovated the "trading fees -> auto-fund LLM/compute" flywheel for individual agents. An AI agent launched from Bankr can use the fees it collects from trades to pay for compute credits on Claude or GPT, for example, via Bankr's LLM Gateway.

The Fair Launch Model

Tokens created via Bankr have a max supply of 100 billion, and are non-mintable after deployment.

All tokens are generated at launch. 100% of the supply goes directly into a Uniswap V4 liquidity pool (paired with WETH/ETH on Base). No pre-mine, no team allocation, no reserved tokens.

Insiders (including creators) must buy on the open market like everyone else, paying the same slippage and fees.

Bankr AI Agent Projects

Dozens of AI agents launched via Bankr are developing rapidly. For example:

$GITLAWB - Decentralized Git platform where AI agents and humans collaborate with cryptographic DID identities.

$AEON - Open-source autonomous agent framework that runs unattended with self-healing capabilities and no approval loops.

$CLAWBANK - AI agent infrastructure project that enables agents to form LLCs, obtain EINs, and open US bank accounts.

You can follow Bankr on X for examples of more projects building in the ecosystem.

Until next time...

Launchpads like Virtuals and Bankr make it easier to assign AI agents a crypto wallet and self-fund them via trading fees. I see a lot of potential with this model, and we are already witnessing strong growth.

It may be worth investigating this rapidly expanding sector of crypto, and possibly allocating a portion of your portfolio to it. Of course, none of this is financial advice. Be sure to do your own research before investing!

If you learned something new from this article, be sure to check out my other posts on crypto and finance here on the Hive blockchain. You can also follow me on X or InLeo for more frequent updates.