Ethereum (ETH) is gearing up for a major upgrade with ERC-8004, a new standard aimed at helping AI agents interact and verify each other directly on-chain.
The idea is great, but will it bring developers, activity, and eventually capital back to the Ethereum mainnet?
What you need to know
Expected to be released soon is ERC-8004, a new smart contract standard designed to help AI agents discover and trust each other on-chain.
According to Marco De Rossi, head of AI at MetaMask, development of the standard has now been frozen, with mainnet deployment planned for midweek, likely around Thursday at 9 a.m. ET.
Source: Telegram
This timeline matches Ethereum’s official X account, which confirmed that the protocol would go live “soon.” The message also said:
“This paves the way for a global market where AI services can interoperate without gatekeepers. »
ERC-8004 does not require any changes to Ethereum’s core network. Instead, it provides developers with a standardized way to register and validate AI agents in smart contracts.
Although existing frameworks such as MCP and Agent2Agent already handle communication and task coordination, they fail to address discovery and reliability.
This is the gap that the next upgrade aims to fill.
Price action seems fragile, but positioning is firm
Ethereum’s price action over the past few days has been restrained, but optimistic. At press time, ETH was trading near $3,025, up slightly on the day after rebounding from a decline towards the $2,900 area earlier in the week.
Source: TradingView
This rebound was accompanied by a notable increase in volume, so buyers took advantage of the weakness. The pace is mixed. The RSI was not in overbought territory and lacked strong upward pressure.
Source: Coinalyse
Aggregate open interest climbed to around $17.05 billion, recovering from recent lows. It appears traders are rebuilding their positions, but without aggressive leverage.
Final Thoughts
- ERC-8004 will make the mainnet the settlement layer for an emerging AI agent economy.
- At press time, the ETH price was stable near $3,025 with over $17 billion in open interest.
