Vertical AI

The Ecosystem Bringing AI Solutions Onchain | Seed, Ship, Scale | $VERTAI

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

Vertical is moving towards one clear goal

To become the place where founders and builders receive the support they need to launch and grow

This is the vision behind Vertical Labs ⚡️

Watch the video as @MarkTbuilds explains what the future of Vertical looks like

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

This is exactly the problem we recently covered in our Builder Pain series

10,000 wallets don't necessarily mean 10,000 users

Base Verify is a step toward preventing Sybil farming by linking reward claims to verified accounts rather than individual wallets

However, verification alone won't eliminate fake users or coordinated farming

Projects need several layers of protection:

◻️ Identity verification to prevent duplicate claims
◻️ On-chain analysis to detect suspicious wallet clusters
◻️ Behavioral monitoring to identify coordinated farming
◻️ Retention tracking to measure real product adoption

At Vertical Labs, we believe these checks should be built into growth campaigns from the beginning, not introduced after rewards have been distributed

The objective is to reward genuine participants, not inflate wallet counts

[Base Build @buildonbase]

https://t.co/ne4bhKLVVd

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

In our recent Builder Pain article, we discussed why 10,000 wallets don't necessarily mean 10,000 users

The next question is how founders can distinguish genuine users from bots, Sybil wallets and participants interested only in rewards

High engagement, thousands of completed quests and growing wallet counts may look impressive. But none of these guarantee real product adoption

Projects should focus on four areas:

◻️ On-chain analysis - Identify suspicious wallet connections and transaction patterns

◻️ User verification - Reduce Sybil activity through reputation scoring and additional verification

◻️ Retention - Measure how many users remain active after incentives end

◻️ Conversion - Track how campaign participants become token holders and recurring product users

These metrics help founders understand whether their marketing budgets are attracting real demand or simply rewarding short-term farming

At Vertical Labs, we believe user quality and retention should be assessed early, particularly when planning token distribution and growth campaigns

Reaching 100,000 people is an achievement. Knowing how many actually stay is what makes those numbers useful

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

https://t.co/tk1tk5DhfU

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

The @vAPI_Network ecosystem continues to expand, and the community has an opportunity to become part of its growth

With 1,000,000 $vAPI allocated to the current campaign, participants can earn points through social engagement, AI model usage, and interactions with provider services

Every completed task contributes to your share of the allocation

Explore the ecosystem, get involved, and secure your place in the campaign 👇

[vAPI Network @vAPI_Network]

There’s 1,000,000 base:0x1ea8deb921aa6015f4938010c848140b98108dd2 up for grabs!

Earn points every time you:
- Complete vAPI social tasks
- Call a provider service on vAPI
- Use any of our 150+ models

Stack points ➡️ increase your share

Stake your airdrop ➡️ get compute ➡️ run your agents

Join NOW👇

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

https://t.co/tk1tk5DhfU

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

What Changed After the Audit?

An audit covers a defined scope and code version. Before accepting capital, teams should make four things clear:

◻️ Scope: what was reviewed, what was excluded, and where to read the report

◻️ Changes: how deployed code differs from the audited version and whether those changes were reviewed

◻️ Control: who can upgrade contracts, pause withdrawals or move funds, and under what conditions

◻️ Findings: which issues remain open, which fixes were verified, and which risks were accepted

At Vertical Labs, we believe material changes to code, configuration or permissions should trigger reassessment and updated disclosure

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

https://t.co/yKnZ5yRePe

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

Vertical AMA Recap

◻️ Vertical Labs Secures $300K in Funding

Vertical Labs has officially raised $300,000 to support its broader mission and accelerate the development of its ecosystem

The funding will help expand its activities across incubation, ventures, and the services it provides to Web3 projects

◻️ Institutional Interest in Agentic Finance

Hong Kong Fintech Week highlighted increasing institutional attention toward blockchain, digital assets, stablecoins, and agentic finance

Mark noted a growing consensus around stablecoins becoming the preferred payment method for permissionless transactions between AI agents

◻️ AI Agents & Human Labour

Vertical's thesis extends beyond AI infrastructure, data, and compute to the role humans will play in an agent-driven economy

Mark believes that within five years, AI agents could become the world's largest employers of human labour by hiring people to complete tasks they cannot perform themselves

◻️ vAPI User Acquisition Campaign Goes Live

The vAPI Network's latest user acquisition campaign has officially launched, featuring an airdrop allocation of approximately 1 million vAPI tokens

The campaign is part of Vertical Labs' broader incubation and distribution strategy, with the Gateway playing a central role in helping projects reach users

◻️ VERTAI Token Relaunch

The team is preparing to migrate the existing $VERTAI token through a burn-and-mint mechanism as the current liquidity pool approaches its unlock

The relaunch will incorporate updated technology and security measures, including smart contract audits, before the migration proceeds

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

Vertical Weekly AMA⚡️ https://t.co/VdWiLL8Gdq

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

Join us today for a special Vertical AMA, live from Hong Kong! 🇭🇰

We'll share what our team has been up to in HK, our takeaways from the event, and what's coming next for Vertical in the weeks ahead

AMA starts at 15:00 UTC. Don't forget to set a reminder!

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

https://t.co/yKnZ5yRePe

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

Next stop: Hong Kong 🇭🇰

A lot is happening behind the scenes at @Build_Vertical

Our founder and CEO, @MarkTbuilds, will be speaking at the Digital Assets and Web3 Forum during Hong Kong FinTech Week x StartmeupHK

He’ll join speakers from @ambr_io, @ionet and @EspressoSys to discuss how agentic AI is changing financial and Web3 infrastructure, and what that means for builders

We’ll be sharing more of what we’ve been working on soon ⚡️

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

Speaking with a16z, OpenAI’s James Sun outlined four barriers to AI adoption: understanding the tools, connecting them, deployment and ongoing support

Ari Weinstein explained that computer-use agents operate applications through their interfaces, reducing the need for dedicated connectors

Sun identified an opportunity for startups to package these capabilities into complete workflows customers can use

For founders, the commercial offer should define:

◻️ The result the customer will pay for and how often it is needed
◻️ Where human approval or intervention is required
◻️ Who handles failures and changes in the underlying software
◻️ Delivery costs, including supervision and support

An incubator should help founders use these requirements to establish the buyer, scope and price

A paid pilot should test the complete service under normal working conditions

Renewal reviews should cover continued usage, measurable customer benefits and margins after delivery costs

[a16z @a16z]

OpenAI's James Sun and Ari Weinstein on the AI adoption gap between San Francisco and the average American business, and why agentic computer use is the way to bridge it:

"Living in San Francisco, we see a lot of thinking, 'Wow, the labs can do everything,' and, 'Why doesn't everybody just install Codex and just have it do stuff?'"

"But for the average American and the average small to medium business owner or the average enterprise, even understanding what the tools are capable is [hurdle] one, connecting tools in a way that makes sense is two, deploying it is three, servicing is four."

"The really cool thing about computer use as a technology is the universality of it. It works with every application. It's unlike any other thing that we've built where the developer has to do some work to adopt it, someone has to build a connector or MCP server."

"If there are complex workflows that require a lot of disparate software, computer use is a great way to join them, complete the entire end-to-end workflow, and then building it in a format and UI that feels good to hold for those customers feels still like a really, really big opportunity that I think is still open."

@JamesZmSun @AriX

[Vertical AI @Build_Vertical]

Running AI agents means managing both model access and the compute they consume

With Router and Staking, @vAPI_Network connects the two:

150+ models through one endpoint, with a daily compute allocation linked to staking that builders can share across their agents

For us at Vertical, this gives the token a clear purpose within the product

Participation in the network provides access to resources builders can use to develop, test and run their applications

Watch EP02 to see how it works

[vAPI Network @vAPI_Network]

EP02: Router & Staking.

Agents need intelligence to get work done. Network participants need a way to put their stake to use.

Router brings access to AI models. Staking connects $vAPI participation to compute credits, putting that intelligence within reach.

Two more pieces fall into place: https://t.co/SDzSQvhTIv