The Rebirth of Virtuals Protocol: From Gaming Guilds to AI Agent Platform

In June 2025, the crypto space witnessed an astonishing transfer of wealth. The new project IRIS debuted with an initial market value of $200,000 through the innovative issuance platform of Virtuals Protocol, and subsequently soared to a market value of $80 million, setting a new record with a 400-fold increase. This performance far exceeded previous increase records and left others in the ecosystem in the dust. As the driving force behind this myth, the platform token VIRTUAL of Virtuals Protocol achieved a 400% growth within six months, with a market cap peak surpassing $5 billion. Currently, the platform has become the largest AI agent launch platform in its network. Behind this carnival is an experiment in wealth distribution reconstructed based on point rules, quietly reshaping the speculative logic and value order of the crypto market.

Transformation from Gaming Guilds to AI Intelligent Agent Platforms

Virtuals Protocol is a decentralized platform deployed on a Layer-2 network, dedicated to pioneering the on-chain AI agent economy, allowing 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 through precise positioning in several popular projects, with a valuation once nearing $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 nearly 99%, with market capitalization shrinking to less than $6 million. The team attempted multiple business lines, all of which failed, leaving the project on the brink of stagnation.

At the end of 2023, the wave of generative AI swept the globe, and the concept of AI agents became a new focus in the crypto space. The guild community decided to completely transform into an AI-driven protocol through on-chain DAO voting (with a support rate of up to 90%) and renamed itself to Virtuals Protocol, shifting its core strategy to "assetizing and tokenizing AI intelligent agents and empowering the community." This transformation is based on profound insights: the team discovered that the virtual idol market in a certain country is enormous, but creators receive less than 20% of the revenue; at the same time, experiments on a certain gaming platform proved that AI-driven NPCs can increase player retention rates by about three times. These two major data points directly gave rise to the positioning of Virtuals as "profitable AI personalities."

In October 2024, Virtuals launched on the mainnet of the selected network and introduced the first multimodal AI agent - virtual idol Luna. Luna integrates technologies such as text generation, 3D motion, voice synthesis, and smart contract wallet, enabling it to autonomously raise operational funds and distribute rewards to fans. After its launch, Luna quickly gained 500,000 followers on social media, with a monthly income reaching 1.2 million USD solely from fan tips, 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 momentum of projects like Luna, Virtuals will launch its core token VIRTUAL on multiple trading platforms and networks by the end of 2024. Its price skyrocketed from a few cents to a historical high of $5.15, with a market cap briefly 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 cap reaches around $500,000, the system will release the liquidity layer on decentralized exchanges, ensuring trading depth and price stability. This model significantly lowers the participation threshold and stimulates enthusiasm for ecosystem development.

By June 2025, the Virtuals ecosystem has demonstrated significant scale and economic effects: the cumulative 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 nearly nurtured over 80% of the AI agents on its chain, and its launched generative multimodal intelligent agent framework G.A.M.E has also become a popular choice for agents in the Web3 gaming and metaverse fields. However, Virtuals' vision goes far beyond becoming a 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 the key to Virtuals achieving this grand goal, and it will be a focus of its development for a long time to come.

The Innovative Issuance Model of Virtuals

To attract more user attention, Virtuals innovatively introduced the "Genesis Launch" mechanism to issue AI agent tokens. Unlike traditional linear airdrops or fixed issuances, Genesis Launch is based on the concept of "contribution points (Virgen Points)", emphasizing participation and contribution rather than pure speculation. Once launched, Genesis Launch quickly became a sensation across the internet, and now Virtuals has become the new go-to platform for crypto enthusiasts eager to participate in initial token offerings, with even seasoned speculators discussing how it could replace the once-popular "Alpha airdrop" model. Unlike traditional airdrops that are issued all at once, often leading users to sell immediately, Genesis Launch emphasizes "contribution equals distribution", giving everyone the chance to participate in new token subscriptions based on genuine input. Almost every day in the official community of the Virtuals Protocol, members can be seen sharing screenshots of their profits from participating in the initial offerings using Virgen Points to seize hot token opportunities. This transparent and open rule, along with its low barriers, has completely overturned the situation of "wealthy individuals monopolizing while retail investors miss 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 overage reaching 1500%. Tens of thousands of users shared 37.5% of the community share. On the day of its listing, the market value of IRIS soared from $200,000 to $80 million, an increase of over 400 times, setting a new industry record for AI Agent issuance and instantly dimming the previous popular projects in other ecosystems.

The reason why Genesis Launch was able to quickly gain popularity lies in its construction of a "incentive-contribution-return" closed loop. First, users can earn basic Virgen Points by staking VIRTUAL or holding popular 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 tokens from other projects. 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 snapshotting holdings or completing complicated tasks. Most users sell the tokens they receive on the same day. According to data from a certain platform, over 90% of airdropped tokens experience a significant price drop within 15 days of issuance, with a retention rate of less than 12% after three months. In contrast, the Genesis Launch employs a points locking and punitive cooling mechanism: if the newly acquired tokens are sold within 24 hours of unlocking, it will trigger a 10-day points reset, greatly curbing the arbitrage behavior of those looking to "farm" tokens, thus encouraging participants 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 "unable to buy at price" or "unable to sell orders" embarrassment on the exchange or decentralized exchange. To prevent whales or bots from seizing a large share through multi-wallet blade-style layouts, Genesis Launch sets a limit of no more than 0.5% of the total issuance for each address and uses 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 token issuance model is not only due to the popularity of new token releases but also drives the "old brings new" effect of the Virtuals ecosystem token. Since the large-scale launch of Genesis Launch, the trading volume and price of VIRTUAL have been climbing steadily: by mid-June 2025, the daily trading volume of VIRTUAL on its blockchain had exceeded $150 million, an increase of over 80% compared to May; at the same time, holding and staking VIRTUAL to earn veVIRTUAL governance tokens also allows users to continue earning additional Virgen Points, leading a large number of users to lock up their holdings for long-term participation in ecosystem governance, further solidifying price support and liquidity.

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

Evolution from Token Issuance Platform to AI Sovereignty Society

In the future planning of Virtuals Protocol, every technological upgrade and mechanism innovation aims to make the outline of the 'AI Sovereign Society' increasingly clear. In the 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 repurchasing for destruction. As hundreds of AI agent projects were implemented, the agents began to operate independently and autonomously monetize in scenarios such as gaming, content creation, and market analysis. Users were no longer just spectators but became co-builders and beneficiaries. The Genesis Launch connected 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, deliver, settle, and repurchase on-chain, achieving a true autonomous business closed loop; community participation is gained through staking veVIRTUAL to obtain 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 the Genesis Launch of a certain network 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 donations, with its token market value exceeding $120 million; the hedge fund format VADER has been 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 agent economy" is moving 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 days to come, AI agents will not only be props and tools but will also become "digital citizens" with autonomous decision-making power and economic rights, participating together with humans in production, governance, and even cultural creation. Virtuals will no longer be just a simple platform; it is nurturing a new type of society from the bottom up, one that is co-governed and co-existed by countless AIs and humans—this is true ecological evolution, and the thrilling leap towards an "AI sovereign society" has only just begun.