summary
- Origins Network has raised $8 million in strategic funding to build a modular blockchain tailored for AI agents with verifiable computation.
- The round includes participation from Animoca Brands and other Web3 investors, and the project touts a “Proof of Computation” design that separates heavy AI workloads from on-chain verification.
- Origins already works with AWS, Tencent Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud, positioning itself at the intersection of crypto infrastructure and burgeoning agent AI stacks.
Origins Network has secured $8 million in strategic funding to build a modular blockchain specifically for AI agents, betting that verifiable computing will be the missing layer of trust in the next wave of autonomous systems. Announced on March 23, 2026, this round features: Animoka brand Alongside TBV, Candaq, Castrum Istanbul, and Coinvestor Ventures, the team describes the cap table as a combination of Web3, AI, and cloud-native backers.
Origins said in a statement that it wants AI to be “auditable, not mysterious,” arguing that users should be able to see how an AI agent arrived at a result rather than accepting the output of a black box. To achieve this, networks are introducing Proof of Computation (PoC). This is a design where advanced AI inference is performed off-chain on GPU-rich infrastructure, and concise proofs of that work are verified and solved on-chain. “We are not trying to turn blockchain into a data center,” the team said. “We are turning blockchain into a verifier of AI behavior.”
In the PoC model, the AI agent sends the workload to an off-chain execution layer (infrastructure is available from partners such as AWS, Tencent Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud) and posts cryptographic proof of the computation to the Origins chain. This allows applications to prove that the model actually executed a particular prompt or data pipeline without forcing all full nodes to rerun the underlying workload. The project frames this as an intermediate path between a fully centralized AI API and heavyweight “AI on L1” experiments that risk clogging up the general-purpose chain.
The broader picture is a wave of funding for modular AI blockchains. In 2024, 0G Labs will $35 million At Pre-Seed, we are building a modular AI data availability layer, arguing that before today’s centralized AI stacks can be connected to Web3, “the core infrastructure needs to be built.” Recently, networks such as Hemi It has raised an eight-figure round to connect Bitcoin and Ethereum as a modular execution and payments layer, showing that investors are comfortable backing deeper technical infrastructure efforts than just consumer apps. Origins effectively aims to do the same at the AI layer, but with a focus on verifiable agent workloads.
Our primary backer, Animoca Brands, has spent years building one of the most extensive Web3 portfolios. 600 Investments across gaming, NFTs, and infrastructure. Its chairman is Yat Siuhas often argued that what truly unlocks Web3 is “internet-scale digital ownership,” and Origins fits right into that thesis by seeking to make the output produced by AI more than ephemeral, ownable and auditable. In a recent interview, Siu described Animoca as “Web3’s gateway to utility tokens” as opposed to pure meme coins, and said the company is currently backing the infrastructure to bring institutional-level transparency and accountability to cryptocurrencies.
For the cryptocurrency market, this bet is simple but ambitious. When AI agents manage portfolios, underwrite loans, or trade on decentralized exchanges, they need a chain that can inspect their decisions and challenge them if necessary. Origins Network wants to be that chain.
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