Artificial intelligence has officially entered its uncanny era, when it is equal parts revolutionary and unsettling.
One of the latest examples is OpenClaw, a viral open-source AI agent framework that has captured the imagination of developers worldwide.
It is designed as part of the broader movement toward autonomous, agent-based systems. But what fascinates me the most about OpenClaw is that it can browse the web, write code, and execute multi-step workflows with almost no human input.
But a naming dispute and a crypto frenzy nearly derailed the project entirely.
And now, its developer has drawn a hard line on crypto altogether.
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OpenClaw is an open-source AI framework built to power autonomous agents capable of complex digital tasks. Built on large language models (LLMs), it emphasizes transparency, customization, and community-driven development.
Unlike closed commercial systems, OpenClaw allows developers to inspect and modify the underlying framework freely.
But the project’s rise hasn’t been smooth.
OpenClaw has undergone two rebrands in rapid succession. It was first launched as “Clawdbot,” a name that clearly nodded to Anthropic’s Claude models and their crab mascot, “Claw’d.”
As Clawdbot began gaining popularity, it reportedly received a trademark warning from AI giant Anthropic, which argued the name was too similar to “Claude.”
Developer Peter Steinberger agreed to rebrand. The project briefly adopted a lobster-themed name, “Moltbot,” before settling on “OpenClaw.”
That’s when things spiraled.
In the brief window between releasing old GitHub and X handles and securing new ones, scammers hijacked the accounts and launched a fake Solana (SOL) token called CLAWD.
The token surged to a $16 million market cap within hours. When Steinberger publicly denied having any association with it, the token collapsed more than 90%, leaving late buyers with steep losses.
Early traders profited. Steinberger, meanwhile, faced harassment from angry speculators.
He finally wrote on X,
“To all crypto folks: please stop pinging me, stop harassing me. I will never do a coin. Any project that lists me as coin owner is a SCAM.”
As per CoinGecko, CLAWD price has dropped over 43% ever since its launch in January 27. However, in the past 24 hours, it has also climbed by 9.6% to trade at $0.0000492.
