Theta and XYO partner on blockchain-based verification layer for AI agents

DePIN projects Theta (THETA) and XYO (XYO) have partnered to develop a cryptographic proof infrastructure that will independently verify AI agent workloads.

In a statement shared exclusively with The Block, Theta said its AI agent platform has helped sports and entertainment organizations — including Olympique de Marseille, the Houston Rockets, and partners across the MLS, NBA, NHL, and Ligue 1 — build customized customer service AI agents. The collaboration will see XYO's decentralized data verification network integrate performance attestations directly into these live deployments on Theta EdgeCloud.

The projects argue that AI agents are starting to make increasingly important business decisions with no independent record of whether the underlying infrastructure performed as programmed, which can create operational and financial risks when errors go undetected. Citing research from Stanford University, they said organizational adoption of AI reached 88% in 2025, with 23% of those companies now scaling agentic AI systems.

The projects said decentralized compute networks have largely competed on price and availability, but have not offered independent proof of infrastructure performance. "Cloud providers cannot independently verify their own infrastructure, in the same way a bank cannot audit its own accounts. Verification is what's been missing."

"Enterprises don't deploy infrastructure on good faith. They require auditable records, defensible performance data, and clear accountability chains," XYO co-founder Markus Levin said. "This collaboration gives organizations running AI agents on EdgeCloud independently verified, tamper-evident attestations settled on XYO Layer One. For compliance teams, procurement leads, and anyone responsible for infrastructure decisions, that's non-negotiable. That's the standard that agentic AI deployments now need to meet."

How it works

Under the partnership, XYO nodes will independently monitor Theta's EdgeCloud infrastructure by measuring quality-of-service metrics such as uptime, latency and throughput for AI agent workloads. Those measurements will then be recorded as cryptographically backed attestations on XYO Layer One and its "Data Lakes" infrastructure, creating an external audit trail for enterprise AI deployments.

"As our AI agents handle thousands of fan interactions across the NBA, NHL, MLS and beyond, independent verification of infrastructure performance is becoming a baseline expectation," Theta Labs CEO Mitch Liu said. "XYO brings exactly that to EdgeCloud. A third-party attestation layer that gives our customers, and their fans, confidence that every interaction is backed by infrastructure performing as promised."

Both Theta and XYO are among the earlier decentralized physical infrastructure projects. Theta launched its edge network in 2019 and its enterprise validator and governance council is comprised of global firms, including Google, Samsung, CAA, and Binance. XYO launched in 2018, developing a cryptographic proof infrastructure for real-world data verification.