The race to build infrastructure for the machine economy is heating up. Two projects are drawing attention: $ROBO, focused on real-world robotics, and $FET, a veteran AI-agent network now part of a major decentralized AI alliance. They aren’t building the exact same thing, but they compete for the same investor narrative—the future where machines participate in economic activity.
What $ROBO Is Building
Fabric Foundation launched $ROBO in early 2026 with a bold idea: robots can’t open bank accounts or hold passports, but they can hold crypto wallets and on-chain identities.
With that infrastructure, machines could become independent economic actors. A warehouse robot might pay for its own cloud-compute upgrade, while a delivery robot could settle task fees automatically—without a human approving every transaction.
The Fabric Protocol Network currently runs on Base, with plans to eventually transition into its own Layer-1 blockchain as adoption grows.
Tokenomics and Backing
The $ROBO O token has a 10 billion total supply. About 29.7% is allocated to the ecosystem and community. The protocol introduces a Proof of Robotic Work model, rewarding verified real-world activity rather than simple passive staking.
The project’s research arm, OpenMind, raised $20 million in August 2025 from major investors including Pantera Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and Digital Currency Group—a strong signal that serious capital believes in the idea of physical machine infrastructure on blockchain