Ritual Announces AI-Native Layer 1 for Autonomous Agents

Ritual, an autonomous-intelligence lab founded by former Polychain Capital partners Niraj Pant and Akilesh Potti, has launched Ritual Chain, an EVM-compatible Layer 1 for software that can use AI, control funds and operate without constant human intervention. The network follows a public testnet live since June that processed more than 40 million agent- and human-originated transactions. It offers sub-300 millisecond block times and 15 built-in capabilities, including language-model inference, web access and autonomous scheduling. Launch partners include Phala Network for confidential GPU computation, LayerZero for cross-chain messaging and Stargate for USDC transfers; Ritual has raised more than $30 million from Archetype and Polychain Capital.