Sentient (also styled Sentient AGI, operated by Sentient Labs, with a separate Sentient Foundation nonprofit) (SENT) is the native ERC-20 token of an open-source AI infrastructure network on Ethereum. Sentient Labs, the project's technical and product organization, describes its mission as building an open, community-built AGI platform.
Its core product, THE GRID, is a network connecting AI agents, models, data sources, and compute contributed by partner organizations. Founded in 2024 and headquartered in San Francisco, Sentient positions SENT as the payment and coordination asset for services built on this network.
Sentient differentiates itself by building THE GRID as an open, community-governed alternative to closed AI platforms. THE GRID coordinates contributions from over 110 partner organizations spanning more than 40 AI agents, 50 data sources, and 10 models, emphasizing agent interoperability through shared memory and real-time coordination rather than siloed, single-vendor AI systems.
SENT captures this differentiation by functioning as the settlement currency for AI services exchanged across the network, tying token demand to platform usage as well as governance participation.
SENT functions as both a governance and utility token within the Sentient ecosystem. Holders can stake SENT to gain governance rights and access to AI artifacts produced on THE GRID. Staked SENT also confers voting power over treasury spending and protocol upgrades through a DAO structure.
Additionally, SENT serves as the payment currency for AI services and agent interactions conducted within THE GRID, linking token utility directly to platform activity rather than governance alone.
With a fixed maximum supply and no ongoing issuance mechanism described, the schedule is disinflationary in effect as remaining vested tokens unlock over time.
Sentient raised $85 million in a seed round announced around July 14, 2024, led by Founders Fund, Pantera Capital, and Framework Ventures. The round was reported as the largest crypto seed round of that year. The SENT contract was deployed on Ethereum on 2025-05-27, well before its token generation event concluded on November 22, 2025, at a reported listing price of $0.0379. Initial distribution allocated the largest share (44%) to community incentives and airdrops, with 30% of allocated supply unlocked at generation and the rest vesting over four years.
Sentient (SENT) is deployed on Ethereum, an ERC-20 token that relies entirely on Ethereum's proof-of-stake consensus mechanism for transaction validation and network security. Sentient does not operate its own blockchain or independent validator set; THE GRID, its AI-agent network, runs as an application layer coordinating off-chain agents, models, and data rather than as a separate consensus system.
Sentient was founded in 2024 and is headquartered in San Francisco. Reported co-founders and core contributors include Himanshu Tyagi (Co-Founder and Co-CEO, an engineering professor), Pramod Viswanath (co-founder, also an engineering professor), and Sandeep Nailwal, a co-founder of Polygon who is also involved as a co-founder and backer. Kenzi Wang, of Symbolic Capital, has also been reported in connection with the project. The team is publicly identified rather than anonymous.
Two related entities maintain the Sentient ecosystem. Sentient Labs is the technical and product organization that builds THE GRID and associated products such as Sentient Chat and Dobby. Sentient Foundation, a nonprofit launched February 19, 2026 and based in Singapore, separately stewards open-source AGI governance, safety standards, research collaboration, and developer grants, and runs the Open AGI Summit.
SENT is described as the governance layer of the Sentient ecosystem. Staking SENT grants holders voting rights over treasury spending and protocol upgrades through a DAO structure, alongside access to AI artifacts produced on THE GRID. Separately, Sentient Foundation, launched in 2026, coordinates broader governance activities such as alignment and safety standards and AGI governance frameworks through community and academic collaboration, including its Open AGI Summit.
No named third-party smart contract audit has been published for the SENT token contract or THE GRID codebase. The contract's source code is verified on Etherscan.
Holder concentration is high: the top 10 holders control 86% of supply, and on-chain liquidity is thin relative to market capitalization, indicating elevated risk of price impact from concentrated selling.