Ritual Launches AI-Native Layer 1 for Autonomous Agents

[PRESS RELEASE – New York, United States, October 26th, 2026] Ritual Chain turns AI agents into persistent economic actors that control their own wallets, onchain identity, and private state. Ritual, a lab for autonomous intelligence founded by former Polychain Capital partners Niraj Pant and Akilesh Potti, has launched Ritual Chain, an EVM-compatible Layer 1. Unlike conventional blockchains built primarily to execute financial transactions, Ritual Chain is designed to support software that can independently use intelligence, control capital, interact with external services, and continue operating without constant human intervention. The network makes AI model access, private computation, and autonomous scheduling native capabilities for EVM applications. This makes the reason for building a new chain clearer while preserving the technical differentiation. The most visible demonstration of that combination is long-lived AI agents, the kind designed to operate for months or years rather than a single session. An agent on Ritual Chain persists independently of the machine or operator that created it, controls and spends funds held in its own non-custodial wallet, and can keep sensiti...