Venice AI token that gives private access to DeepSeek hits $1.6B total value

Venice AI, a privacy-centric artificial intelligence platform founded by Bitcoin advocate Erik Voorhees, has launched a token on Ethereum’s layer-2 network, Base. Within just two hours of its debut, the token achieved a fully diluted valuation of $1 billion.

The platform’s self-titled Venice Token (VVV) hit a fully diluted value — the value of the total supply of its tokens — of more than $1 billion just after 6 pm UTC on Jan. 27 after launching around an hour and a half earlier, DEXScreener data shows. 

Its FDV is now at around $1.65 billion, with a market capitalization of $306.4 million, as 25 million tokens out of its 100 million total were released to the public. Basescan shows there are currently a little over 13,200 tokenholders.

Venice said in a Jan. 27 X post that those who purchase and stake VVV receive free ongoing inference access to its API for private and uncensored generative text, images and code that leverages AI models, including the newly released DeepSeek R-1.

Chinese AI firm DeepSeek has caused turmoil in the US and crypto markets as its R-1 model is purportedly as good as leader ChatGPT while being open source and needing less computing power to run.

DeepSeek has come under scrutiny because its model appears to collect user data to send to China, but Voorhees said when R-1 is used through Venice, “none of it is going anywhere.”

Venice also opened its API to the public for AI agents, devs and third-party apps.

Of the 100 million total supply of the VVV token, 25 million are allocated to 100,000 eligible Venice users and another 25 million to certain Base users, such as those who hold the Aerodrome Finance (AERO) and Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL) tokens.

Around a third of the tokens, 35%, were allocated to Venice, while 10% went to an “incentive fund.” Another 5% was set aside for liquidity, while 14 million tokens will be emitted annually.

Related: Release of DeepSeek R1 shatters long-held assumptions about AI 

Venice said there was no presale to “outside investors,” and no governance mechanism is in place.

Since launching in May, Venice has seen over 400,000 registered users and 15,000 inference requests per hour.

Before Venice, Voorhees was an early Bitcoin pioneer who later founded the crypto exchange ShapeShift in July 2014.

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