Forward the Original Title: A Single Tweet Raised 35,000 SOL: What is AI-Pool, the Presale Project by ai16zdao Members?

Trends are cyclical, and this applies to crypto as well. After tiring of the PumpFun PvP, the market has once again returned to an old method from earlier this year—presale funding, but this time with a new twist involving AI-driven narratives.

Early this morning, Twitter user Skely (@123skely) announced the launch of the presale for the AI token project AI-Pool (@aipool_tee). Perhaps the association with ai16zdao members provided Skely with some credibility, as the presale raised over 10,000 $SOL in less than two hours, and by half a day later, the total exceeded 35,000 $SOL.

Presale funding methods had a surge of popularity earlier this year, with many projects raising tens of thousands of $SOL. However, few of them ended up with successful outcomes. Given that the market has already become somewhat disenchanted with this type of presale, what makes this one different?

AI-Managed Presale Pump.fun?

In simple terms, AI-Pool is a “money-in Fi” project where AI agents manage the presale process.

Skely explained in the tweet that earlier presale funding models (like slerf, bome, etc.) were quite successful in raising significant amounts of funds, but the real challenge was the human factor. After raising large sums, if the project successfully launched, it was a happy outcome for all. However, these “money-in to personal wallets” models put too much pressure on human nature. Even if the developers (DEV) didn’t initially have malicious intentions, the increasing amounts of money often led to temptation, with GM.AI being a notable example.

The current PumpFun model has indeed reduced some of the centralization risks, but it’s now overwhelmed with bots in various stages: bots that post fake comments, bots that snipe at the opening, bots that track trends… Even if the system is designed for a fair launch, retail investors have fewer and fewer opportunities to fairly participate. Not only are they competing against humans in PvP, but also against bots that are online 24/7.

In short, these participation methods are far from fair for retail investors. Since it’s hard to beat bots in a pump, and humans often break promises in presales, why not let AI manage the presale process instead?

How Does AI-Pool Operate?

AI-Pool is a smart token issuance system built on the foundation of Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technology. The core of the system is an AI agent running within the TEE, which ensures that its operating environment cannot be hacked or tampered with through special security mechanisms. The system uses a carefully designed private key management solution, ensuring that private keys are never exposed to humans, thereby fundamentally securing the system.

In everyday operations, the system accepts two forms of funding: small donations (less than 1 SOL) and larger investments (1 SOL or more). These funds flow into an AI-managed smart wallet. The AI agent uses these funds to launch new token projects on the Meteora liquidity pool and distributes tokens back to qualifying investors via airdrops.

Throughout the process, each wallet operation generates a remote attestation certificate. These certificates are not only used to verify the legitimacy of the operation but also ensure that the wallet’s derivation process and access permissions are traceable and secure.

Skely also specifically highlighted that this entire development is completed using the ELIZA framework from ai16z.

Core Mechanism of the Project:

1. Funding Reception: Users send SOL directly to the AI agent’s wallet address (opRyDjuRetWnsP78FNFTPEnAJX7AkjuD6GTP7tsqHXd), with the minimum investment being 1 SOL and the maximum being 10 SOL.
   • Amounts below the minimum threshold are considered donations.
2. Security Protection: The system leverages TEE technology from @PhalaNetwork for security:
   • Private keys are generated and stored within the TEE.
   • Developers cannot access the private keys.
   • All operations can be verified in the terminal logs.
3. Liquidity Management:
   • AI creates liquidity pools via Meteora (not PumpFun).
   • Transaction fees are directly returned to the AI wallet.
   • Eligible participants will receive token distributions.

The project is still in its V1 version, and 10% of the total supply will be sent to an escrow wallet (which is publicly visible). These funds will be used for potential future exchange listings, other integrations (such as cross-chain LP pools), or burning. Technically, developers can push code changes to alter the rules, but this requires about 24 hours of execution time. Of course, once the tokens are launched and locked, no further changes can be made.

Skely also mentioned that in V2 and future versions, the team hopes to make the AI agent fully autonomous. The project may operate in a DAO-like manner, allowing everyone to benefit from the fees flowing into the AI agent wallet. In addition, whitelist technologies will be introduced, and those attempting to manipulate or attack the system will be blacklisted.

Market FOMO Leads to Fast Funding, But the Issuance Mechanism Faces Criticism for Lack of Clarity

Based on the speed at which funds have been pouring in, this presale can indeed be considered a success. The presale address received over 35,000 $SOL in just half a day, valued at nearly $7 million. Although the presale had a cap of 10 $SOL per address, some individuals still sent more than 500 $SOL in a single transaction.

Presale address:

opRyDjuRetWnsP78FNFTPEnAJX7AkjuD6GTP7tsqHXd

Skely himself didn’t expect the presale to trigger such a FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) effect. When the account reached nearly 30,000 $SOL, he decided to stop the presale, stating that any additional funds would only be used to enter the liquidity pool (LP). However, the exact amount of hard cap or how the oversubscription of $SOL would be allocated remains unclear.

However, while the money was paid, there were some serious issues with this presale that caused dissatisfaction among users:

1.The money was collected, but Skely initially did not set a hard cap for the presale, which led to the amount of SOL in the presale address continuing to rise. As a result, the shares of early contributors could be diluted, causing increasing anxiety and dissatisfaction among users. Some Twitter users directly stated: "After all the effort, isn’t this just another presale disguised under an AI shell? Only when the money can actually be withdrawn will it be real."

2.The distribution mechanism was unclear. Skely mentioned in a tweet that the tokens would be distributed to "deserving individuals," but this criterion was overly subjective, and Skely apparently did not provide any further explanation or clarification of this statement.

3.Additionally, some people uncovered that the project’s Twitter account @aipool_tee had changed its name multiple times, and its previous name (cable) was not very “nice” either… However, Skely himself later tweeted acknowledging that the project account had indeed undergone several name changes, but he clarified that this was simply an attempt to find a more suitable name, and nothing more.

Summary

Perhaps because so much money was collected but the mechanism remains unclear, Skely has already caused dissatisfaction among some community members. As of the time of writing, Skely’s Twitter account is shown to have been frozen and banned.

Before the account was banned, Skely tweeted that the tokens would be issued on December 24th, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). To prevent excessive speculation, the exact time of the token issuance was not disclosed.

Whether this presale reflects the team’s genuine intention to create substantive applications, or whether it is yet another AI shell scam, the hope is that this time, the ones hurt will not be the retail investors who voluntarily contributed funds…

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