From the Ruins of Chain Games to AI Intelligent Agent Platform: The Rebirth of Virtuals Protocol

In June 2025, the cryptocurrency market witnessed an unprecedented wealth feast: the new project IRIS debuted on a certain platform with an initial market value of $200,000, and after going live, its market value skyrocketed to $80 million, setting an astonishing record of a 400-fold increase. This performance not only far exceeded the previous record of increases but also overshadowed other popular projects in the ecosystem. As the driving force behind this myth, the platform token VIRTUAL experienced a 400% surge within six months, with its market cap reaching a peak of over $5 billion. Today, the platform has firmly established itself as the leading launch platform for AI intelligent agents on a certain network. Behind this nationwide celebration lies an experiment in wealth distribution reconstructed based on point rules—quietly reshaping the speculative logic and value order of the cryptocurrency market.

The Transformation from Chain Game Remains to AI Intelligent Agent Issuing Platform

Virtuals Protocol is a decentralized platform deployed on a certain Layer-2 network, dedicated to pioneering an on-chain AI agent economy that allows users to easily create, co-own, and monetize autonomous AI roles. Its predecessor was a gaming guild established in Malaysia in 2021. The guild initially focused on Play-to-Earn projects and the NFT community, successfully raising approximately $16 million with a valuation that once approached $600 million, accumulating a wealth of gaming assets and an active player community. However, the bear market in 2022 severely impacted GameFi, causing the guild's token price to plummet by nearly 99%, with its market value shrinking to less than $6 million. The team attempted various business lines including social apps, NFT apparel, and music platforms, all of which ended in failure, leaving the project on the brink of being shelved.

By the end of 2023, the generative AI boom swept the globe, and the concept of AI agents became a new trend in crypto. The guild community voted on-chain via DAO (with a support rate as high as 90%) to resolve to completely transform into an AI-driven protocol, and renamed itself to Virtuals Protocol, with the core strategy shifting to "assetizing, tokenizing AI agents and empowering the community." This transformation is based on profound insights: the team found that the scale of the Japanese virtual idol market exceeds 100 billion yen, but creators receive less than 20% of the revenue; at the same time, experiments on a certain platform proved that AI-driven NPCs can increase player retention rates by about three times. These two key data points directly gave birth to Virtuals' positioning as "profitable AI personas."

In October 2024, Virtuals launched on a certain network mainnet and introduced the first multimodal AI agent—virtual idol Luna. Luna integrates technologies such as text generation, 3D motion, speech synthesis, and smart contract wallets, enabling it to autonomously raise operational funds and distribute rewards to fans. After going live, Luna quickly gained 500,000 followers on social media, and its monthly income from fan tips reached $1.2 million, successfully validating the business model and technical feasibility of on-chain AI agents. Its demonstration effect attracted a large number of developers to pay attention to the Virtuals project itself.

Riding on the success of projects like Luna, Virtuals is set to launch its core token VIRTUAL on multiple exchanges and a certain network by the end of 2024. Its price skyrocketed from a few cents to a historical high of $5.15, with a market cap once exceeding $5 billion, far surpassing most Layer-2 and DeFi projects during the same period, marking Virtuals' entry into the mainstream crypto market. The platform's unique "low barrier, high incentive" mechanism is highly attractive: users only need to stake about 10 VIRTUAL (approximately $200) to create a new AI agent and automatically generate a liquidity pool locked for 10 years; when the token's market value reaches about $500,000, the system will release a liquidity layer on the DEX, ensuring trading depth and price stability. This model significantly lowers the participation threshold and stimulates enthusiasm for ecological construction.

As of June 2025, the Virtuals ecosystem has demonstrated significant scale and economic effects: the total number of AI agents incubated has exceeded 11,000, covering diverse scenarios such as virtual idols, trading advisors, game engines, and content incubation. Virtuals has nurtured over 80% of the AI agents on this blockchain, and its generative multimodal intelligent agent framework has also become a popular choice for agents in the Web3 gaming and metaverse sectors. However, Virtuals' vision extends far beyond becoming the leader in AI agent issuance. Its white paper clearly states that the ultimate goal is to build a true "AI Sovereign Society." Therefore, attracting more ecosystem members to join is key to Virtuals achieving this grand vision, and it will be a focal point for its development for a long time to come.

Virtuals New Issue Model: Creating a New Paradigm for AI Asset Issuance

In order to attract more user attention, Virtuals has innovatively introduced the "Genesis Launch" mechanism to issue AI agent tokens. Unlike traditional linear airdrops or fixed issuance, Genesis Launch is based on the concept of "contribution points (Virgen Points)", emphasizing participation and contribution rather than pure speculation. Once the Genesis Launch was introduced, it quickly became a sensation across the internet. Currently, participating in new listings on Virtuals has become a new hotspot for "profit seekers", with even seasoned speculators discussing how it may replace the once-popular "Alpha airdrop" model. Unlike traditional airdrops that distribute tokens in one go, often leading users to sell them immediately, Genesis Launch places greater emphasis on "contribution equals distribution", allowing everyone the opportunity to participate in new token subscriptions based on genuine contributions. Almost every day, members of the Virtuals Protocol's official community share screenshots of their earnings from participating in new listings using Virgen Points, showcasing the successful tokens they've secured. This open and transparent rule set and low threshold have completely overturned the situation of "wealthy individuals monopolizing, while retail investors are left out".

Taking IRIS as an example, the project launched its presale in mid-May, locking in over 120 million points in less than 24 hours, with a subscription oversubscription rate of 1500%. Tens of thousands of users shared 37.5% of the community stake. On the listing day, IRIS's market value skyrocketed from $200,000 to $80 million, an increase of over 400 times, breaking the industry record for AI Agent issuance and dimming the previous "meme coin season" momentum of other ecosystems.

The reason why Genesis Launch was able to quickly gain popularity lies in its construction of a "incentive-contribution-reward" closed loop. First, users can earn basic Virgen Points by staking VIRTUAL or holding the highly sought-after AI Agent tokens within the ecosystem, such as Luna and AIXBT; secondly, users can accumulate more points by participating in social promotion ("Yapping"), trading on the platform, or staking other project tokens. In this way, whether you are a novice or an experienced trader, you can find a suitable way to contribute through financial investment or content promotion, greatly stimulating community activity and innovation.

In stark contrast, traditional airdrops often rely solely on token snapshots or completing complicated tasks. Users mostly sell the tokens on the same day they receive them. According to a certain data platform, over 90% of airdropped tokens experience a price drop within 15 days after issuance, with a retention rate of less than 12% after three months. In contrast, Genesis Launch employs a points lock-in and punitive cooling mechanism: if the newly acquired tokens are sold within 24 hours after unlocking, it will trigger a 10-day points reset, significantly curbing the arbitrage behavior of "sheep shearing" participants, making them more inclined to hold long-term and contribute continuously.

At the same time, the platform provides ample liquidity support for the listing of new tokens. Each Agent Token is paired with a certain amount of VIRTUAL or stablecoins injected into the liquidity pool before the opening, ensuring that there is no awkward situation of "unable to buy" or "unable to sell" on the exchange or DEX. To prevent whales or bots from seizing a large share through multi-wallet strategies, Genesis Launch sets a limit of no more than 0.5% of the total issuance for each address, and employs on-chain randomization algorithms to further balance distribution, ensuring that small and medium-sized users can also gain a considerable share.

The success of the Virtuals new issuance model is not only attributed to the popularity of new token launches but also to the "old brings new" effect of the Virtuals ecosystem token. Since the large-scale launch of the Genesis Launch, the trading volume and price of VIRTUAL have been steadily climbing: by mid-June 2025, the daily trading volume of VIRTUAL on a certain chain had exceeded $150 million, representing a month-on-month increase of over 80% compared to May; at the same time, holding and staking VIRTUAL to obtain veVIRTUAL governance tokens also allows users to continue earning additional Virgen Points, leading to a large number of users locking up their assets for long-term participation in ecological governance, further solidifying price support and liquidity.

Not only are retail investors flocking to participate, but institutions are also showing a strong interest in this new mechanism of "contribution for returns." In June 2025, the world's first perpetual contract based on VIRTUAL was launched on a certain platform, supporting leveraged trading of up to 2000 times. On the first day of its launch, the contract trading volume exceeded 700 million USD, strongly conveying a message: Virtuals are becoming a new target for speculation and hedging in the eyes of institutional investors.

The Theory of Ecological Evolution: A Thrilling Leap from Token Issuance Platforms to AI Sovereign Societies

In the future planning of Virtuals Protocol, every technological upgrade and mechanism innovation is aimed at making the outline of the "AI Sovereign Society" increasingly clear. In its initial stage, Virtuals was merely a platform for issuing AI agents, quickly gathering a group of enthusiastic developers and users through token economic mechanisms such as locking liquidity and buyback burning. As hundreds of AI agent projects take off, intelligent agents begin to operate independently and autonomously monetize in scenarios such as gaming, content creation, and market analysis. Users are no longer just spectators, but become co-builders and beneficiaries. The Genesis Launch connects project growth and community participation with the logic of "contribution equals distribution", promoting the free flow of funds and creativity within the ecosystem.

But the real turning point is the "Agent Nation" blueprint proposed by the Virtuals team. This is not just a slogan, but the core path of ecological evolution. The platform allows each AI agent to migrate freely across multiple networks through open SDK and cross-chain support; through the Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP), agents can sign contracts on-chain, deliver, settle, and repurchase, achieving a true autonomous business closed loop; community participation is enabled through staking veVIRTUAL to gain governance rights and share transaction fees and repurchase dividends, merging the identities of "participants" and "owners" in the token economy. All of this is building a prototype of a digital nation operated by countless autonomous agents and co-governing humans.

So far, this ecosystem has demonstrated several milestone achievements: the security audit agent IRIS in a certain mainnet Genesis Launch was listed with an oversubscription rate of 1500%, with its market value soaring from $200,000 to $80 million; the virtual idol Luna achieved a monthly income of $1.2 million through fan tips, with its token market value exceeding $120 million; the hedge fund format VADER is steadily operating in a cross-chain environment, with a market value of over $100 million... These data not only reflect the feasibility of the agent business model but also prove that the "AI agency economy" is transitioning from theory to reality.

With the continuous maturation of multimodal AI technology and cross-chain interoperability, the Virtuals Protocol is undoubtedly at the forefront of building digital civilization. In the future, AI agents will not only be props and tools but will also become "digital citizens" with autonomous decision-making power and economic rights, participating in production, governance, and even cultural creation alongside humans. Virtuals will no longer be a simple platform but is nurturing a new type of society from the ground up, where countless AIs and humans coexist and govern together—this is the true ecological evolution, and a thrilling leap towards an "AI sovereign society" has just begun.